OLLANTAY.
Gallant friends! Ye hear those words,
Ye listen to the mountain chief.
Filled with compassion for my men,
I thus, with sore and heavy heart,
Have spoken to the cruel king:
‘The Anti-suyu must have rest;
All her best men shan’t die for thee,
By battle, fire, and disease—
They die in numbers terrible.
How many men have ne’er returned,
How many chiefs have met their death
For enterprises far away?’
For this I left the Inca’s court,[37]
Saying that we must rest in peace;
Lot none of us forsake our hearths,
And if the Inca still persists,
Proclaim with him a mortal feud.
(Enter HANCO HUAYLLU, several chiefs, and a great crowd of soldiers and people.)
PEOPLE.
Long live our king, Ollantay
Bring forth the standard and the fringe,
Invest him with the crimson fringe
In Tampu now the Inca reigns,
He rises like the star of day.
(The chiefs, soldiers, and people range them selves round. Ollantay is seated on the tiana by Hanco Huayllu, an aged Auqui or Prince.)
HANCO HUAYLLU.
Receive from me the royal fringe,
’Tis given by the people’s will.
Uilcanota[38] is a distant land,
Yet, even now, her people come
To range themselves beneath thy law.
(Ollantay is invested with the fringe. He rises.)
OLLANTAY.
Urco Huaranca, thee I name
Of Anti-suyu Chief and Lord;
Receive the arrows and the plume,
(Gives them.)
Henceforth thou art our general.
PEOPLE.
Long life to the Mountain Chief.