_Almanz._ A sister's love! that is so palled a thing, What pleasure can it to a lover bring? 'Tis like thin food to men in fevers spent; Just keeps alive, but gives no nourishment. What hopes, what fears, what transports can it move? 'Tis but the ghost of a departed love. _Almah._ You, like some greedy cormorant, devour All my whole life can give you in an hour. What more I can do for you is to die, And that must follow, if you this deny. Since I gave up my love, that you might live, You, in refusing life, my sentence give. _Almanz._ Far from my breast be such an impious thought! Your death would lose the quiet mine had sought. I'll live for you, in spite of misery; But you shall grant that I had rather die. I'll be so wretched, filled with such despair, That you shall see, to live was more to dare. _Almah._ Adieu, then, O my soul's far better part! Your image sticks so close, That the blood follows from my rending heart. A last farewell! For, since a last must come, the rest are vain, Like gasps in death, which but prolong our pain. But, since the king is now a part of me, Cease from henceforth to be his enemy. Go now, for pity go! for, if you stay, I fear I shall have something still to say. Thus--I for ever shut you from my sight. [_Veils._ _Almanz._ Like one thrust out in a cold winters night, Yet shivering underneath your gate I stay; One look--I cannot go before 'tis day.-- [_She beckons him to be gone._ Not one--Farewell: Whate'er my sufferings be Within, I'll speak farewell as loud as she: I will not be out-done in constancy.-- [_She turns her back._ Then like a dying conqueror I go; At least I have looked last upon my foe. I go--but, if too heavily I move, I walk encumbered with a weight of love. Fain I would leave the thought of you behind, But still, the more I cast you from my mind, You dash, like water, back, when thrown against the wind. [_Exit._ _As he goes off, the_ KING _meets him with_ ABENAMAR; _they stare at each other without saluting._ _Boab._ With him go all my fears: A guard there wait, And see him safe without the city gate. _To them_ ABDELMELECH. Now, Abdelmelech, is my brother dead? _Abdelm._ Th' usurper to the Christian camp is fled; Whom as Granada's lawful king they own, And vow, by force, to seat him on the throne. Mean time the rebels in the Albayzyn rest; Which is in Lyndaraxa's name possest. _Boab._ Haste and reduce it instantly by force. _Abdelm._ First give me leave to prove a milder course. She will, perhaps, on summons yield the place. _Boab._ We cannot to your suit refuse her grace. [_One enters hastily, and whispers_ ABENAMAR. _Aben._ How fortune persecutes this hoary head! My Ozmyn is with Selin's daughter fled. But he's no more my son: My hate shall like a Zegry him pursue, 'Till I take back what blood from me he drew.