when it had passed away; and James, the
inflexible oak, which the first tempest rooted up for ever.

* * * * *

DON SEBASTIAN.

A

TRAGEDY.

_--Nec tarda senectus
Debilitat vires animi, mutatque vigorem._
VIRG.

DON SEBASTIAN.

The following tragedy is founded upon the adventures supposed to have
befallen Sebastian, king of Portugal, after the fatal battle of
Alcazar. The reader may be briefly reminded of the memorable
expedition of that gallant monarch to Africa, to signalize, against
the Moors, his chivalry as a warrior, and his faith as a Christian.
The ostensible pretext of invasion was the cause of Muly Mahomet, son
of Abdalla, emperor of Morocco; upon whose death, his brother, Muly
Moluch, had seized the crown, and driven his nephew into exile. The
armies joined battle near Alcazar. The Portuguese, far inferior in
number to the Moors, displayed the most desperate valour, and had
nearly won the day, when Muly Moluch, who, though almost dying, was
present on the field in a litter, fired with shame and indignation,
threw himself on horseback, rallied his troops, renewed the combat,
and, being carried back to his litter, immediately expired, with his
finger placed on his lips, to impress on the chiefs, who surrounded
him, the necessity of concealing his death. The Moors, rallied by
their sovereign's dying exertion, surrounded, and totally routed, the
army of Sebastian. Mahomet, the competitor for the throne of Morocco,
was drowned in passing a river in his flight, and Sebastian, as his
body was never found, probably perished in the same manner. But where
the region of historical certainty ends, that of romantic tradition
commences. The Portuguese, to whom the memory of their warlike
sovereign was deservedly dear, grasped at the feeble hope which the
uncertainty of his fate afforded, and long, with vain fondness,
expected the return of Sebastian, to free them from the yoke of Spain.
This mysterious termination of a hero's career, as it gave rise to
various political intrigues, (for several persons assumed the name and
character of Sebastian,) early afforded a subject for exercising the
fancy of the dramatist and romance writer. "The Battle of Alcazar[1]"
is known to