t, muffled up in mourning, downward holds
His drooping torch, extinguished with his tears.

_Seb._ The God of Love stands ready to revive it,
With his etherial breath.

_Alm._ 'Tis late to join, when we must part so soon.

_Seb._ Nay, rather let us haste it, ere we part;
Our souls, for want of that acquaintance here,
May wander in the starry walks above,
And, forced on worse companions, miss ourselves.

_Alm._ The tyrant will not long be absent hence;
And soon I shall be ravished from your arms.

_Seb._ Wilt thou thyself become the greater tyrant,
And give not love, while thou hast love to give?
In dangerous days, when riches are a crime,
The wise betimes make over their estates:
Make o'er thy honour, by a deed of trust,
And give me seizure of the mighty wealth.

_Alm._ What shall I do? O teach me to refuse!
I would,--and yet I tremble at the grant;
For dire presages fright my soul by day,
And boding visions haunt my nightly dreams;
Sometimes, methinks, I hear the groans of ghosts,
Thin, hollow sounds, and lamentable screams;
Then, like a dying echo, from afar,
My mother's voice, that cries,--Wed not, Almeyda!
Forewarned, Almeyda, marriage is thy crime.

_Seb._ Some envious demon to delude our joys;
Love is not sin, but where 'tis sinful love.

_Alm._ Mine is a flame so holy and so clear,
That the white taper leaves no soot behind;
No smoke of lust; but chaste as sisters' love,
When coldly they return a brother's kiss,
Without the zeal that meets at lovers' mouths[3].

_Seb._ Laugh then at fond presages. I had some;--
Famed Nostradamus, when he took my horoscope,
Foretold my father, I should wed with incest.
Ere this unhappy war my mother died,
And sisters I had none;--vain augury!
A long religious life, a holy age,
My stars assigned me too;--impossible!
For how can incest suit with holiness,
Or priestly orders with a princely state?

_Alm._ Old venerable Alvarez-- [_Sighing._

_Seb._ But why that sigh in naming that good man?

_Alm._ Your father's counsellor and confident--

_Seb._ He was; and, if he lives, my second father.

_Alm._ Marked our farewell, when, going to the fight,
You gave Almeyda for the word of battle.
'Twas in that fatal moment, he discovered
The love, that long we laboured to conceal.
I know it; though my eyes stood full of tears,
Yet through the mist I saw him stedfast gaze;
Then knocked his aged breast, and inward groaned,
Like some sad prop