Sis. I will not implore
Of him or thee what I have lost for ever,
These were not, when we parted, thy alarms;
Far other, and far worthier of thy heart
Were they! which Sisabert could banish then!
Fear me not, now, Covilla! thou hast changed,
I am changed too—I lived but where thou livedst,
My very life was portioned off from thine.
Upon the surface of thy happiness
Day after day, I gazed, I doated—there
Was all I had, was all I coveted,
So pure, serene, and boundless, it appear’d:
Yet, for we told each other every thought,
Thou knowest well, if thou rememberest,
At times I fear’d; as tho’ some demon sent
Suspicion without form into the world,
To whisper unimaginable things;
Then thy fond arguing banished all but hope,
Each wish, and every feeling, was with thine,
Till I partook thy nature, and became
Credulous, and incredulous, like thee.
We, who have met so alter’d, meet no more.
[Takes her hand.
Mountains and seas! ye are not separation—
Death! thou dividest, but unitest too,
In everlasting peace and faith sincere.
Confiding love! where is thy resting-place!
Where is thy truth, Covilla! where? [32]—go, go,
I should adore thee and believe thee still.
[Sisabert goes.
Cov. O Heaven! support me, or desert me quite,
And leave me lifeless this too trying hour!
He thinks me faithless.
Jul. He must think thee so.
Cov. O tell him, tell him all, when I am dead—
He will die, too, and we shall meet again.
He will know all when these sad eyes are closed.
Ah cannot he before! must I appear
The vilest!—O just Heaven! can it be thus?
I am—all earth resounds it—lost, despised,
Anguish and shame unutterable seize me.
’Tis palpable—no phantom, no delusion,
No dream that wakens with overwhelming horror;
Spaniard and Moor fight on this ground alone,
And tear the arrow from my bleeding breast
To pierce my father’s, for alike they fear.
Jul. Invulnerable now, and unassail’d
Are we, alone perhaps of human kind,
Nor life allures us more, nor death alarms.
Cov. Fallen, unpitied, unbelieved, unheard!
I should have died long earlier: gracious God!
Desert me to my sufferings, but sustain
My faith in, thee! O hide me from the world,
And from thyself, my father, from thy fondness,
That opened in this wilderness of woe
A source of tears that else had burst my heart,
Setting me free for ever—then perhaps
A cruel war had not divided Spain,
Had not o’erturned her cities and her altars,
Had not endanger’d thee! O haste afar
Ere the last dreadful conflict that decides
Whether we live beneath a foreign sway—
Jul. Or under him whose tyranny brought down
The curse upon his people. O child! child!
Urge me no further, talk not of the war,
Remember not our country.