Jul. Is there no gain to live in amity?
Muza. The gain of traffickers and idle men;
Courage and zeal expire upon such calms.
Further, what amity can Moors expect
When you have joined your forces?
Jul. From the hour
That he was vanquished, I have laid aside
All power, all arms.
Muza. How can we trust thee, once
Deceived, and oftener than this once despised?
Thou camest hither with no other aim
Than to deprive Roderigo of his crown
For thy own brow.
Egil. Julian, base man, ’tis true.
He comes a prince, no warrior, at this hour.
Muza. His sword, O queen, would not avail him now.
Abd. Julian, I feel less anger than regret.
No violence of speech, no obloquy,
No accusation shall escape my lips:
Need there is none, nor reason, to avoid
My questions: if thou value truth, reply.
Hath not Roderigo left the town and camp?
Hath not thy daughter?
Egil. —Past the little brook
Toward the Betis—from a tower I saw
The fugitives, far on their way; they went
Over one bridge, each with arm’d men—not half
A league of road between them—and had join’d,
But that the olive-groves along the path
Concealed them from each other; not from me:
Beneath me the whole level I surveyed,
And, when my eyes no longer could discern
Which track they took, I knew it from the storks
Rising in clouds above the reedy plain.
Muza. Deny it, if thou canst.