_Fer._ Nay, ’tis not that: but if I have guessed the truth, O if thou hast now consented, and wilt sell Thyself for pity of these wretched men, Now I forbid the odious sacrifice. Perchance thou thinkest that these many souls Against thy single welfare, must make up The greater stake. Not so; they’re mites and scraps 'Gainst thy immeasurable worth: a thousand Would not complete the thousandth part of thee; And were I where their base ill-natured wills 1421 Obey me, thou shouldst tell them for thy slaves As hairs upon thy head. ’Twere heavy tidings That thou shouldst love Morocco, and being so far Won to the faith, shouldst willingly renounce Thy saintly liberty: but rather so, Than that by one thou lov’st not, against thy will, Thou shouldst be harnessed 'neath the common yoke. _Al._ My will is nothing, prince, and if Morocco Already hath three wives, I shall rank first. 1430 _Fer._ Monstrous! Wilt thou stoop to such servile change? _Al._ Unwittingly thou speak’st against thyself. _Fer._ Alas! what words have injured me with thee? _Al._ None: but thy fate is knit in one with theirs, Whose happiness thou bidst me now not weigh. _Fer._ On that day shall I too be given to thee? _Al._ Betray me not, I pray. _Fer._ O Mockery! What hast thou done? _Al._ The best for thee. _Fer._ For me! O nay. And for thyself? _Al._ Think not of me. 1439 _Fer._ Not think of thee! My very thoughts of heaven Are thoughts of thee. ’Tis now so short a time, Nor have I on my part any desert To challenge favour at thy gracious hands, That I should dare to speak: nor any words That man hath e’er invented, to combine In sentences that mock mortality, Are proud enough to tell thee; therefore— I say in plainest speech, Almeh, I love thee. For thy goodwill I thank thee: but my fate, If thou dost love me not, or art another’s,— 1450 Life or death, misery and imprisonment, Slavery or freedom, count as little with me, As when I shall be dead, where I may lie. Say, if thou canst, thou lov’st me: and if not, Thou shalt at least have heard, and I have told, My tale; how to prince Ferdinand of Portugal Thou didst appear the only being on earth Worth his devotion; that for thy possessing He would have given all else, to live with thee As Christians use, in state of man and wife, 1460 Which God hath blessed. _Al._ No more, I pray no more. The graveyard ghosts are not so waste and dead As is thy phantom picture. _Fer._ Dost thou love me? _Al._ Why ask me? Yet be this an hour of truth, Tho’all time lie. I love thee, Ferdinand, Even as thou lovest me; would be thy wife, To live alone with thee as Christians use. _Fer._ Almeh! Weep not. Fear nothing, if thou art mine.