Zulimez. Be assured
That it remains uninjured.
Alvar. Thus disguised
I will first seek to meet Ordonio's—wife! [95]
If possible, alone too. This was her wonted walk,
And this the hour; her words, her very looks
Will acquit her or convict.
Zulimez. Will they not know you?
Alvar. With your aid, friend, I shall unfearingly 100
Trust the disguise; and as to my complexion,
My long imprisonment, the scanty food,
This scar—and toil beneath a burning sun,
Have done already half the business for us.
Add too my youth, since last we saw each other. [105]
Manhood has swoln my chest, and taught my voice
A hoarser note—Besides, they think me dead:
And what the mind believes impossible,
The bodily sense is slow to recognize.
Zulimez. 'Tis yours, sir, to command, mine to obey. [110]
Now to the cave beneath the vaulted rock,
Where having shaped you to a Moorish chieftain,
I'll seek our mariners; and in the dusk
Transport whate'er we need to the small dell
In the Alpujarras—there where Zagri lived. [115]
Alvar. I know it well: it is the obscurest haunt
Of all the mountains—[823:1] [Both stand listening.
Voices at a distance!
Let us away! [Exeunt.
FOOTNOTES:
[821:1] May not a man, without breach of the 8th Commandment, take out of his left pocket and put into his right? MS. H. (Vide ante, p. 406, To William Wordsworth, l. 43.)