He raised his country’s standards on its walls,—
It cannot be!—It cannot be![646]
On this resolute decision, for which the old chronicle gives no authority, the remainder of the drama rests; its deep enthusiasm being set forth in a single word of the Infante, in reply to the renewed question of the Moorish king, “And why not give up Ceuta?” to which Ferdinand firmly and simply answers,—
Because it is not mine to give.
A Christian city,—it belongs to God.
In consequence of this final determination, he is reduced to the condition of a common slave; and it is not one of the least moving incidents of the drama, that he finds the other Portuguese captives among whom he is sent to work, and who do not recognize him, promising freedom to themselves from the effort they know his noble nature will make on their behalf, when the exchange which they consider so reasonable shall have restored him to his country.
At this point, however, comes in the operation of the Moorish general’s gratitude. He offers Don Ferdinand the means of escape; but the king, detecting the connection between them, binds his general to an honorable fidelity by making him the prince’s only keeper. This leads Don Ferdinand to a new sacrifice of himself. He not only advises his generous friend to preserve his loyalty, but assures him, that, even if foreign means of escape are offered him, he will not take advantage of them, if, by doing so, his friend’s honor would be endangered. In the mean time, the sufferings of the unhappy prince are increased by cruel treatment and unreasonable labor, till his strength is broken down. Still he does not yield. Ceuta remains in his eyes a consecrated place, over which religion prevents him from exercising the control by which his freedom might be restored. The Moorish general and the king’s daughter, on the other side, intercede for mercy in vain. The king is inflexible, and Don Ferdinand dies, at length, of mortification, misery, and want; but with a mind unshaken, and with an heroic constancy that sustains our interest in his fate to the last extremity. Just after his death, a Portuguese army, destined to rescue him, arrives. In a night scene of great dramatic effect, he appears at their head, clad in the habiliments of the religious and military order in which he had desired to be buried, and, with a torch in his hand, beckons them on to victory. They obey the supernatural summons, entire success follows, and the marvellous conclusion of the whole, by which his consecrated remains are saved from Moorish contamination, is in full keeping with the romantic pathos and high-wrought enthusiasm of the scenes that lead to it.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Calderon, continued. — Comedias de Capa y Espada. — First of all my Lady. — Fairy Lady. — The Scarf and the Flower, and others. — His Disregard of History. — Origin of the Extravagant Ideas of Honor and Domestic Rights in the Spanish Drama. — Attacks on Calderon. — His Allusions to Passing Events. — His Brilliant Style. — His long Authority on the Stage. — And the Character of his Poetical and Idealized Drama.