Almah. I here make void that promise which you made,
For now I have no farther need of aid.
That vow, which to my plighted lord was given,
I must not break, but may transfer to heaven:
I will with vestals live:
There needs no guard at a religious door;
Few will disturb the praying and the poor.
Almanz. Let me but near that happy temple stay,
And through the grates peep on you once a day;
To famished hope I would no banquet give:
I cannot starve, and wish but just to live.
Thus, as a drowning man
Sinks often, and does still more faintly rise,
With his last hold catching whate'er he spies;
So, fallen from those proud hopes I had before,
Your aid I for a dying wretch implore.
Almah. I cannot your hard destiny withstand,
Boabdelin, and Guards above.
But slip, like bending rushes, from your hand.
Sink all at once, since you must sink at last.
Almanz. Can you that last relief of sight remove,
And thrust me out the utmost line of love!
Then, since my hopes of happiness are gone,
Denied all favours, I will seize this one. [Catches her hand, and kisses it.
Boab. My just revenge no longer I'll forbear:
I've seen too much; I need not stay to hear. [Descends.
Almanz. As a small shower
To the parched earth does some refreshment give,
So, in the strength of this, one day I'll live:
A day,—a year,—an age,—for ever, now; [Betwixt each word he kisses her hand by force; she struggling.
I feel from every touch a new soul flow. [She snatches her hand away.
My hoped eternity of joy is past!
'Twas insupportable, and could not last.
Were heaven not made of less, or duller joy,
'Twould break each minute, and itself destroy.
Enter King and Guards, below.
Boab. This, this, is he, for whom thou didst deny
To share my bed:—Let them together die.