Abd. None could beside: lo! things in such a mass
Falling together on observant minds,
Create suspicion and establish proof:
Wanted there fresh—why not employ our arms?
Why go alone?
Muza. To parley, to conspire,
To reunite the Spaniards, which we saw,
To give up treaties, close up enmities,
And ratify the deed with Moorish blood.
Jul. Gladly would Spain procure your safe return,
Gladly would pay large treasures, for the aid
You brought against oppression—
Muza. Pay she shall—
The treasures of her soil, her ports, her youth:
If she resist, if she tumultuously
Call forth her brigands and we lose a man,
Dreadful shall be our justice; war shall rage
Through every city, hamlet, house, and field,
And, universal o’er the gasping land,
Depopulation.
Jul. They shall rue the day
Who dare these things.
Muza. Let order then prevail.
In vain thou sendest far away thy child,
Thy counsellor the metropolitan,
And Sisabert—prudence is mine, no less.
Divide with us our conquests, but the king
Must be delivered up.
Jul. Never by me.
Muza. False then were thy reproaches, false thy grief.
Jul. O Egilona! were thine also feigned?
Abd. Say, lovely queen, neglectful of thy charms
Turned he his eyes toward the young Covilla?
Did he pursue her to the mad excess
Of breaking off her vows to Sisabert,
And marrying her, against the christian law?