o'clock in the evening. He also looks closely after the wind, and is sometimes called a dog-vane. Ex. I wish to ask you one more question. Why is a ship like a woman? Can. Because she is one of the most beautiful objects of nature or art-looks best with a neat figure-head-is proud of her fine and well-fitted rigging-takes delight in ear-rings, jewels, and gingerbread work-makes use of stays to keep uprightmoves with a swimming gait-wears caps to which are fastened many strings, and occasionally claps on a sonnet; besides, it is desirable that she should be well mated and properly manned; for, if left to her own guidance, she would soon founder on the ocean, or be wrecked upon the rocks. Ex. Well done! You answer like a real sailor. There can be no doubt that you possess all the qualifications command an Indiaman. Clerk, make out this oate. necessary to man's certifi ANONYMOUS. 9. SCENE FROM PIZARRO. Pizarro and Gomez. Piz. How now, Gomez, what bringest thou? Gom. On yonder hill, among the palm-trees, we have surprised an old Peruvian. Escape by flight he could not, and we seized him unresisting. Piz. Drag him before us. What art thou, stranger? (Gomez leads in Orozembo.) Oro. First tell me who is the captain of this band of robbers? Piz. Audacious! This insolence has sealed thy doom. Die thou shalt, gray-headed ruffian. But first cr nfess what thou knowest. Oro. I know that which thou hast just assu ed me of, that I shall die. Piz. Less audacity might have preserved th life. Oro. My life is as a withered tree, not worth preserving. Piz. Hear me, old man. Even now we march against the Peruvian army. We know there is a secret path that leads to your stronghold among the rocks. Guide us to that, and name thy reward. If wealth be thy wishOro. Ha, ha, ha! Piz. Dost thou despise my offer? Oro. Yes, thee and thy offer! Wealth!-I have the wealth I have stored in heaven the riches which of two gallant sons. repay good actions here; and still my chiefest treasure do I wear about me. Oro. I will, for thou canst never tear it from me. sullied conscience. An un Piz. I believe there is no other Peruvian who dares speak as thou dost. Oro. Would I could believe there is no other Spaniard who dares act as thou dost. Gom. Obdurate pagan! how numerous is your army? Gom. Which is the weakest part of your camp? Oro. It is fortified on all sides by justice. Gom. Where have you concealed your wives and children? Oro. In the hearts of their husbands and fathers. Piz. Knowest thou Alonzo ? Oro. Know him! Alonzo ! Our nation's benefactor, the guardian angel of Peru! Piz. By what has he merited that title? Oro. By not resembling thee. Piz. Who is this Rolla, joined with Alonzo in command? Oro. I will answer that, for I love to speak the hero's name. Rolla, the kinsman of the king, is the idol of our army. In war a tiger, in peace a lamb. Čora was once betrothed to him, but finding she preferred Alonzo, he resigned his claim for Cora's happiness. Piz. Romantic savage! I shall meet this Rolla soon. Oro. Thou hadst better not; the terrors of his noble eye would strike thee dead. Gom. Silence, or tremble! Oro. Beardless robber! I never yet have learned to tremble before man-why before thee, thou less than man? Gom. Another word, audacious heathen, and I strike! Oro. Strike, Christian! then boast among thy fellows, "I toc have murdered a Peruvian." 20* KOTZEBUE. Rolla. Inform me, friend, is Alonzo, the Peruvian, confined in this dungeon? Sent. He is. Rolla. I must speak with him. Sent. You must not. Rolla. He is my friend. Sent. Not if he were your brother. Rolla. What is to be his fate? Sent. He dies at sunrise. Rolla. Ha! then I am come in time Sent. Just to witness his death. Rolla (advancing towards the door). Soldier, I must speak with him. Sent. (pushing him back with his gun). Back! back! it is impossible. Rolla. I do entreat you but for one moment. Sent. You entreat in vain my orders are most strict. Rolla. Look on this wedge of massy gold! look on these precious gems! In thy land they will be wealth for thee and thine, beyond thy hope or wish. Take them-they are thine; let me but pass one moment with Alonzo. Sent. Away! Wouldst thou corrupt me? Me, an old Castilian!-I know my duty better. Rolla. Soldier! hast thou a wife? Sent. I have. Rolla. Hast thou children? Sent. Four-honest, lovely boys. Rolla. Where didst thou leave them? Sent. In my native village, in the very cot where I was born. Rolla. Dost thou love thy wife and children? Sent. Do I love them! God knows my heart;—I do. Rolla. Soldier! Imagine thou wert doomed to die a cruel death in a strange land :—what would be thy last request ? Sent. That some of my comrades should carry my dying blessing to my wife and children. Rolla. What if that comrade was at thy prison door, and should there be told, thy fellow-soldier dies at sunrise, yet thou shalt not for a moment see him, nor shalt thou bear his dying blessing to his poor children, or his wretched wife-what wouldst thou think of him who thus could drive thy comrade from the door? Sent. How? Rolla. Alonzo has a wife and child; and I am come but to receive for her, and for her poor babe, the last blessing of my friend. Sent. Go in. (Exit Sentinel.) Rolla (calls). Alonzo! Alonzo! (Enter Alonzo, speaking as he comes in.) Alon. How! is my hour elapsed? Well, I am ready. This Alon. Rolla! O Rolla! how didst thou pass the guard? Rolla. There is not a moment to be lost in words. disguise I tore from the dead body of a friar, as I passed our field of battle. It has gained me entrance to thy dungeon :now take it thou, and fly! me. Alon. And Rolla Rolla. Will remain here in thy place. Alon. And die for me! No! rather eternal tortures rack Rolla. I shall not die, Alonzo. It is thy life Pizarro seeks, not Rolla's; and thy arm may soon deliver me from prison. Or, should it be otherwise, I am as a blighted tree in the desert; nothing lives beneath my shelter. Thou art a husband and a father: the being of a lovely wife and helpless infant depend upon thy life. Go, go, Alonzo! not to save thyself, but Cora, and thy child. Alon. Urge me not thus, my friend. I am prepared to die in peace. Rolla. To die in peace! devoting her you have sworn to live for, to madness, misery, and death! Alon Merciful heavens ! Rolla. If thou art yet irresolute, Alonzo-now mark me well. Thou knowest that Rolla never pledged his word and shrunk from its fulfilment. Know then, if thou art proudly obstinate, thou shalt have the desperate triumph of seeing Rolla perish by thy side. Alon. O Rolla! you distract me! Wear you the robe, and though dreadful the necessity, we will strike down the guard, and force our passage. Rolla. What, the soldier on duty here? Alon. Yes, else seeing two, the alarm will be instant death. Rolla. For my nation's safety, I would not harm him! That soldier, mark me, is a man! All are not men that wear the human form. He refused my prayers, refused my gold, denying to admit, till his own feelings bribed him. I will not risk a hair of that man's head, to save my heart-strings from consuming fire. But haste! A moment's further pause, and all is lost. Alon. Rolla, I fear thy friendship drives me from honor and from right. Rolla. Did Rolla ever counsel dishonor to his friend? (Throwing the friar's garment over his shoulders.) There!conceal thy face. Now, God be with thee! KOTZEBUE. 11. PEDANTRY. DIGIT, a mathematician; TRILL, a musician; SESQUIPEDALIA, a linguist and philosopher; DRONE, a servant of Mr. Morrell, in whose house the scene is laid. (Digit alone.) Digit. If theologians are in want of a proof that mankind are daily degenerating, let them apply to me, Archimedes Digit. I can furnish them with one as clear as any demonstration in Euclid's third or fifth book; and it is this, the sublime and exalted science of Mathematics is falling into general disuse. Oh that the patriotic inhabitants of this extensive country should suffer so degrading a circumstance to exist! Why, yesterday, I asked a lad of fifteen which he preferred, Algebra or Geometry; and he told me-oh horrible! he told me he had never studied them! I was thunderstruck, I was astonished, I was petrified! Never studied Geometry! never studied Algebra! and fifteen years old! The dark ages are returning. Heathenish obscurity will soon overwhelm the world, unless I do something immediately to enlighten it; and for this purpose I have now applied to Mr. Morrell, who lives here, and is celebrated for his patronage of learning and learned men. (A knock at the door.) Who waits there? (Enter Drone.) Is Mr. Morrell at home? Drone (speaking very slow). Can't say; s'pose he is; indeed, I am sure he is, or was just now. Digit. Why, I could solve an equation while you are answer |