You look around, O queen, as though you feared
Their entrance--Julian I pursue no more;
You conquer him--return we; I bequeath
Ruin, extermination, not reproach.
How we may best attain your peace and will
We must consider in some other place,
Not, lady, in the midst of snares and wiles
How to supplant your charms and seize your crown.
I rescue it, fear not: yes, we retire.
Whatever is your wish becomes my own,
Nor is there in this land but who obeys.
[He leads her away.
THIRD ACT: FIRST SCENE.
Palace in XERES.
RODERIGO and OPAS.
ROD. Impossible! she could not thus resign
Me, for a miscreant of Barbary,
A mere adventurer: but that citron face
Shall bleach and shrivel the whole winter long
There, on you cork-tree by the sallyport.
She shall return.
OPAS. To fondness and to faith?
Dost thou retain them, if she could return?
ROD. Retain them? she has forfeited by this
All right to fondness, all to royalty.
OPAS. Consider, and speak calmly: she deserves
Some pity, some reproof.
ROD. To speak then calmly,
Since thine eyes open and can see her guilt -
Infamous and atrocious! let her go--
Chains
OPAS. What! in Muza's camp?
ROD. My scorn supreme!
OPAS. Say pity.
ROD. Ay, ay, pity--that suits best.
I loved her, but HAD loved her; three whole years
Of pleasure, and of varied pleasure too,
Had worn the soft impression half away.
What I once felt, I would recall; the faint
Responsive voice grew fainter each reply:
Imagination sank amid the scenes
It laboured to create; the vivid joy
Of fleeting youth I followed, and possessed.
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