SCENE I-A grand Saloon.

Enter SIFFREDI.

Sif. So far 'tis well-The late king's will proceeds

Upon the plan I counselled; that prince Tancred

Shall make Constantia partner of his throne.
Oh, great, oh, wished event! whence the dire
seeds

Of dark intestine broils, of civil war,
And all its dreadful miseries and crimes,
Shall be for ever rooted from the land.
May these dim eyes, long blasted by the rage
Of cruel faction, and my country's woes,
Tired with the toils and vanities of life,
Behold this period, then be closed in peace!
But how this mighty obstacle surmount,
Which love has thrown betwixt? Love, that dis-

turbs

The schemes of wisdom still; that, winged with passion,

Blind and impetuous in its fond pursuits,
Leaves the grey-headed reason far behind.
Alas, how frail the state of human bliss!
When even our honest passions oft destroy it.
I was to blame, in solitude and shades,
Infectious scenes! to trust their youthful hearts.
Would I had marked the rising flame, that now
Burns out with dangerous force! My daughter

owns

Her passion for the king; she, trembling, owned it,

With prayers, and tears, and tender supplications,
That almost shook my firmness--and this blank,
Which his rash fondness gave her, shews how
much,

To what a wild extravagance he loves.-
I see no means-it foils my deepest thought-
How to controul this madness of the king,
That wears the face of virtue, and will thence
Disdain restraint, will, from his generous heart,
Borrow new rage, even speciously oppose
To reason, reason- -But it must be done.
My own advice, of which I more and more
Approve, the strict conditions of the will,
Highly demand his marriage with Constantia ;
Or else her party has a fair pretence,
And all at once is horror and confusion.
How issue from this maze?—The crowding ba-

rons,

Here summoned to the palace, meet already,
To pay their homage, and confirm the will.'
On a few moments hangs the public fate,
On a few hasty moments- -Ha! there shone
A gleam of hope-Yes, with this very paper
I yet will save him-Necessary means,
For good and noble ends, can ne'er be wrong.
In that resistless, that peculiar case,

Deceit is truth and virtue- -But how hold;
This lion in the toil?-Oh, I will form it
Of such a fatal thread, twist it so strong
With all the ties of honour and of duty,
That his most desperate fury shall not break
The honest snare. Here is the royal hand-
I will beneath it write a perfect, full,
And absolute agreement to the will;
Which read before the nobles of the realm
Assembled, in the sacred face of Sicily,
Constantia present, every heart and eye
Fixed on their monarch, every tongue applaud-

ing,

He must submit, his dream of love must vanish.
It shall be done- -To me, I know, 'tis ruin;
But safety to the public, to the king.

I will not reason inore, I will not listen
Even to the voice of honour. No-'tis fixed,
I here devote me for my prince and country;
Let them be safe, and let me nobly perish!'
Behold, Earl Osmond comes, without whose aid
My schemes are all in vain.

Enter OSMOND.

Osm. My lord Siffredi,

I from the council hastened to Constantia,
And have accomplished what we there proposed.
The princess to the will submits her claims.
She with her presence means to grace the se-
nate,
1

And of your royal charge, young Tancred's hand,
Accept. At first, indeed, it shocked her hopes
Of reigning sole, this new, surprising scene
Of Manfred's son, appointed by the king,
With her joint heir- -But I so fully shewed
The justice of the case, the public good,
And sure established peace which thence would
rise,

Joined to the strong necessity that urged her,
If on Sicilia's throne she meant to sit,
As to the wise disposal of the will

Her high ambition tamed. Methought, besides,
I could discern, that not from prudence merely
She to this choice submitted.

Sif. Noble Osmond,

You have in this done to the public great
And signal service, Yes, I must avow it;
This frank and ready instance of your zeal,
In such a trying crisis of the state,
When interest and ambition might have warped
Your views, I own this truly generous virtue
Upbraids the rashness of my former judgment.

Osm. Siffredi, no. To you belongs the praise;
The glorious work is yours. Had I not seized,
Improved the wished occasion to root out
Division from the land, and save my country,
I had been base and infamous for ever.
'Tis you, my lord, to whom the many thousands,
That by the barbarous sword of civil war
Had fallen inglorious, owe their lives; to yoų

The sons of this fair isle, from her first peers
Down to the swain who tills her golden plains,
Owe their safe homes, their soft domestic hours,
And through late time posterity shall bless you,
You who advised this will. I blush to think
I have so long opposed the best good man
In Sicily-With what impartial care
Ought we to watch o'er prejudice and passion,
Nor trust too much the jaundiced eye of party!
Henceforth its vain delusions I renounce,
Its hot determinations, that confine
All merit and all virtue to itself.

To yours I join my hand; with you will own
No interest, and no party but my country.
Nor is your friendship only my ambition:
There is a dearer name, the name of father,
By which I should rejoice to call Siffredi.
Your daughter's hand would to the public weal
Unite my private happiness.

Sif. My lord,

You have my glad consent. To be allied
To your distinguished family and merit,

I shall esteem an honour. From my soul
I here embrace earl Osmond as my friend
And son.

Osm. You make him happy! This assent,
So frank and warm, to what I long have wished,
Engages all my gratitude; at once,

In the first blossom, it matures our friendship.
I from this moment vow myself the friend
And zealous servant of Siffredi's house.

Enter an Officer belonging to the Court. Offi. [To SIF.] The king, my lord, demands your speedy presence.

Sif. I will attend him strait.-Farewell, my lord;

The senate meets: there, a few moments hence, I will rejoin you.

Osm. There, my noble lord, We will complete this salutary work; Will there begin a new auspicious era. [Exeunt SIF. and Offi. Siffredi gives his daughter to my wishesBut does she give herself? Gay, young, and flattered,

Perhaps engaged, will she her youthful heart
Yield to my harsher, uncomplying years?
I am not formed, by flattery and praise,
By sighs and tears, and all the whining trade
Of love, to feed a fair one's vanity;

To charm at once and spoil her. These soft arts
Suit not my years nor temper; these be left
To boys and doting age. A prudent father,
By nature charged to guide and rule her choice,
Resigns his daughter to a husband's power,
Who, with superior dignity, with reason,
And manly tenderness, will ever love her;
Not first a kneeling slave, and then a tyrant.—

Enter Barons.

My lords, I greet you well. This wondrous day
Unites us all in amity and friendship.
We meet to-day with open hearts and looks,
Not gloomed by party, scowling on each other,

But all the children of one happy isle,
The social sons of liberty. No pride,
No passion now, no thwarting views divide us :
Prince Manfred's line, at last to William's joined,
Combine us in one family of brothers.
This to the late good king's well-ordered will,
And wise Siffredi's generous care, we owe.
I truly give you joy. First of you all,
I here renounce those errors and divisions,
That have so long disturbed our peace, and
seemed,

Fermenting still, to threaten new commotions-
By time instructed, let us not disdain
To quit mistakes. We all, my lords, have erred.
Men may, I find, be honest, though they differ.
1 Baron. Who follows not, my lord, the fair
example

You set us all, whate'er be his pretence,
Loves not, with single and unbiassed heart,
His country as he ought.

2 Baron. Oh, beauteous peace!

Sweet union of a state! what else but thou
Gives safety, strength, and glory to a people?
I bow, lord constable, beneath the snow
Of many years; yet in my breast revives
A youthful flame. Methinks, I see again
Those gentle days renewed, that blessed our isle,
Ere by this wasteful fury of division,
Worse than our Ætna's most destructive fires,
It desolated sunk. I see our plains
Unbounded waving with the gifts of harvest;
Our seas with commerce thronged; our busy ports
With cheerful toil. Our Enna blooms afresh;
Afresh the sweets of thymy Hybla flow.

Our nymphs and shepherds, sporting in each vale,
Inspire new song, and wake the pastoral reed—
The tongue of age is fond-Come, come, my

sons;

1 Off. I do not marvel at their rage of joy;
He is a brave and amiable prince..
When in my lord Siffredi's house I lived,
Ere, by his favour, I obtained this office,

I there remember well the young count Tancred.
To see him and to love him were the same;.
He was so noble in his ways, yet still

So affable and mild-Well, well, old Sicily,
Yet happy days await thee!

2 Offi. Grant it, Heaven!

We have seen sad and troublesome times enough. He is, they say, to wed the late king's sister, Constantia.

1 Offi. Friend, of that I greatly doubt. Or I mistake, or lord Siffredi's daughter, The gentle Sigismunda, has his heart. If one may judge by kindly cordial looks, And fond assiduous care to please each other, Most certainly they love-Oh, be they blest, As they deserve! It were great pity aught Should part a matchless pair; the glory he, And she the blooming grace of Sicily! 2 Offi. My lord Rodolpho comes.

Enter RODOLPHO from the Senate. Rod. My honest friends,

You may retire. [Officers go out.] A storm is in the wind.

This will perplexes all. No! Tancred never Can stoop to these conditions, which at once Attack his rights, his honour, and his love. Those wise old men, those plodding, grave state pedants,

Forget the course of youth; their crooked prudence,

To baseness verging still, forgets to take
Into their fine-spun schemes the generous heart,
That, through the cobweb system bursting, lays
Their labours waste-So will this business prove,
Or I mistake the king. Back from the pomp
He seemed at first to shrink, and round his brow
I marked a gathering cloud, when, by his side,
As if designed to share the public homage,
He saw the tyrant's daughter. But confessed,
At least to me, the doubling tempest frowned,
And shook his swelling bosom, when he heard,
The unjust, the base conditions of the will.
Uncertain, tost in cruel agitation,
He oft, methought, addressed himself to speak,
And interrupt Siffredi; who appeared,
With conscious haste, to dread that interruption,
And hurried on▬▬ -But hark! I hear a noise,
As if the assembly rose-Ha! Sigismunda,
Oppressed with grief, and wrapped in pensive

The son of that brave prince could ne'er betray Those rights so long usurped from his great father,

Which he, this day, by such amazing fortune,
Had just regained; he ne'er could sacrifice
All faith, all honour, gratitude, and love,
Even just resentment of his father's fate,
And pride itself; whate'er exalts a man
Above the grovelling sons of peasant mud,
All in a moment-And for what? why, truly,
For kind permission, gracious leave, to sit
On his own throne with tyrant William's daugh-
ter!

Rod. I stand amazed-You surely wrong him,
Laura.

There must be some mistake.

Laura. There can be none !

Siffredi read his full and free consent
Before the applauding senate. True, indeed,
A small remain of shame, a timorous weakness,
Even dastardly in falsehood, made him blush
To act this scene in Sigismunda's eye,
Who sunk beneath his perfidy and baseness.
Hence, till to-morrow he adjourned the senate;
To-morrow, fixed with infamy to crown him!
Then, leading off his gay, triumphant princess,
He left the poor unhappy Sigismunda

To bend her trembling steps to that sad home
His faithless vows will render hateful to her
He comes-Farewell--I cannot bear his pre-
sence!
[Exit LAURA.

Enter TANCRED and SIFFREDI, meeting. Tan. Avoid me, hoary traitor! Go, Rodolpho, Give orders that all passages this way Be shut-Defend me from a hateful world, The bane of peace and honour-then return[Exit ROD.

What! dost thou haunt me still? Oh, monstrous insult!

Unparalleled indignity! Just Heaven!
Was ever king, was ever man, so treated;
So trampled into baseness!

Sif. Here, my liege,

Here strike! I nor deserve, nor ask for mercy. Tan. Distraction !-Oh, my soul !-Hold, reason, hold

Thy giddy seat.-Oh, this inhuman outrage
Unhinges thought !

Sif. Exterminate thy servant.

Tan. All, all but this I could have borne-but this!

This daring insolence beyond example!
This murderous stroke, that stabs my peace for

ever!

That wounds me there-there! where the hu man heart

Most exquisitely feelsSif. Oh, bear it not,

My royal lord; appease on me your vengeance! Tan. Did ever tyrant image aught so cruel? The lowest slave that crawls upon the earth, Robbed of each comfort Heaven bestows on mor