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One Morisco to another. Did she say his murder ?
Naomi. Murder! Not murdered!

Alhad. Murdered by a Christian! [They all at once draw their sabres.

Alhad. [To NAOMI, who advances from the circle.] Brother of Zagri, fling away thy sword;

This is thy chieftain's! [He steps forward to take it.]

Dost thou dare receive it?

For I have sworn by Allah and the Prophet,

No tear shall dim these eyes—this woman's heart
Shall heave no groan-till I have seen that sword
Wet with the life-blood of the son of Valdez! [A pause.]
Ordonio was your chieftain's murderer!

Naomi. He dies, by Allah!

All. [Kneeling.] By Allah!

Alhad. This night your chieftain armed himself, And hurried from me. But I followed him

At distance, till I saw him enter-there!

Naomi. The cavern?

Alhad. Yes, the mouth of yonder cavern.
After a while I saw the son of Valdez

Rush by with flaring torch; he likewise entered.
There was another and a longer pause;

And once methought I heard the clash of swords!

And soon the son of Valdez reappeared:

He flung his torch towards the moon in sport,

And seemed as he were mirthful; I stood listening,

Impatient for the footsteps of my husband!

Naomi. Thou calledst him?

Alhad. I crept into the cavern—

"Twas dark and very silent. [Then wildly.] What

saidst thou?

No, no! I did not dare call Isidore,

Lest I should hear no answer. A brief while,
Belike, I lost all thought and memory

Of that for which I came. After that pause-
O Heaven! I heard a groan, and followed it;

And yet another groan, which guided me

Into a strange recess, and there was light,
A hideous light! his torch lay on the ground;

Its flame burned dimly o'er a chasm's brink.

I spake; and whilst I spake, a feeble groan

Came from that chasm! it was his last-his death-groan! Naomi. Comfort her, Allah!

Alhad. I stood in unimaginable trance,

And agony that cannot be remembered,
Listening with horrid hope to hear a groan!

But I had heard his last, my husband's death-groan!
Naomi. Haste! let us onward.

Alhad. I looked far down the pit

My sight was bounded by a jutting fragment;

And it was stained with blood. Then first I shrieked,
My eyeballs burned, my brain grew hot as fire!
And all the hanging drops of the wet roof
Turned into blood-I saw them turn to blood!
And I was leaping wildly down the chasm,
When on the farther brink I saw his sword,
And it said vengeance! Curses on my tongue!
The moon hath moved in heaven, and I am here,
And he hath not had vengeance! Isidore,

Spirit of Isidore, thy murderer lives!

Away, away!

All. Away, away!

[She rushes off, all following.

Lord Byron.

MANFRED.

The Coliseum.

THE stars are forth, the moon above the tops
Of the snow-shining mountains.-Beautiful!

I linger yet with Nature, for the Night
Hath been to me a more familiar face
Than that of man; and in her starry shade
Of dim and solitary loveliness,

I learned the language of another world.
I do remember me, that in my youth,
When I was wandering,-upon such a night
I stood within the Coliseum's wall,
Midst the chief relics of almighty Rome.

The trees which grew along the broken arches
Waved dark in the blue midnight, and the stars
Shone through the rents of ruin; from afar
The watch-dog bayed beyond the Tiber; and
More near, from out the Cæsars' palace, came
The owl's long cry, and, interruptedly,
Of distant sentinels the fitful song
Begun and died upon the gentle wind.
Some cypresses beyond the time-worn breach
Appeared to skirt the horizon, yet they stood
Within a bowshot.—Where the Cæsars dwelt,
And dwell the tuneless birds of night, amidst
A grove which springs through levelled battlements,
And twines its roots with the imperial hearths,
Ivy usurps the laurel's place of growth ;-
But the gladiators' bloody Circus stands,

A noble wreck in ruinous perfection!

While Cæsar's chambers and the Augustan halls
Grovel on earth in indistinct decay.—

And thou didst shine, thou rolling moon, upon

All this, and cast a wide and tender light,
Which softened down the hoar austerity
Of rugged desolation, and filled up,
As 'twere anew, the gaps of centuries;
Leaving that beautiful which still was so,
And making that which was not, till the place
Became religion, and the heart ran o'er
With silent worship of the great of old !—
The dead, but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule
Our spirits from their urns. . . .

MARINO FALIERO, DOGE OF VENICE.

The Execution of MARINO FALIERO.

The Court of the Ducal Palace.- The Doge enters in his ducal robes, in procession with the Council of Ten and other Patricians, attended by the Guards, till they arrive at the top of the "Giants' Staircase" (where the Doges took the oaths); the Executioner is stationed there with his sword.—On arriving, a Chief of the Ten takes off the ducal cap from the Doge's head.

Doge. So, now the Doge is nothing, and at last

I am again Marino Faliero :

'Tis well to be so, though but for a moment.

Here was I crowned, and here, bear witness, Heaven!
With how much more contentment I resign

That shining mockery, the ducal bawble,
Than I received the fatal ornament.

One of the Ten. Thou tremblest, Faliero!
Doge. "Tis with age, then.

Benintende. Faliero! hast thou aught further to commend, Compatible with justice, to the senate?

Doge. I would commend my nephew to their mercy,

My consort to their justice; for methinks

My death, and such a death, might settle all
Between the State and me.

Ben. They shall be cared for;

Even notwithstanding thine unheard-of crime.
Doge. Unheard of! ay, there's not a history
But shows a thousand crowned conspirators
Against the people; but to set them free,
One sovereign only died, and one is dying.

Ben. And who were they who fell in such a cause?
Doge. The King of Sparta, and the Doge of Venice-

Agis and Faliero!

Ben. Hast thou more

To utter or to do ?

Doge. May I speak?

Ben. Thou mayst;

But recollect the people are without,

Beyond the compass of the human voice.
Doge. I speak to Time and to Eternity,
Of which I grow a portion, not to man.
Ye elements! in which to be resolved
I hasten, let my voice be as a spirit
Upon you! Ye blue waves! which bore
Ye winds! which fluttered o'er as if you
And filled my swelling sails as they were wafted

my banner, loved it,

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