thy fate [_or_, your share] in this drives me to despair! If any other misfortune had taken from me my father, my soul would have found in the happiness of seeing thee the only relief which it could have received, and in opposition to my grief I should have felt a fond delight [_lit._ charm or a magic soothing] when a hand so dear would have wiped away my tears. But I must lose thee after having lost him. This struggle over my pa.s.sion is due to my honor, and this terrible duty, whose [imperious]

command is slaying me, compels me to exert myself [_lit._ labor or work]

for thy destruction. For, in fine, do not expect from my affection any morbid [_lit._ cowardly] feelings as to thy punishment. However strongly my love may plead in thy favor, my steadfast courage must respond to thine. Even in offending me, thou hast proved thyself worthy of me; I must, by thy death, prove myself worthy of thee.

_Don Rodrigo._ Defer, then, no longer that which honor commands. It demands my head [_or_, life], and I yield it to thee; make a sacrifice of it to this n.o.ble duty; the [death] stroke will be welcome [_lit._ sweet], as well as the doom. To await, after my crime, a tardy justice, is to defer thine honor as well as my punishment. I should die too happy in dying by so delightful a [death] blow!

_Chimene._ Go [i.e. no]; I am thy prosecutor, and not thy executioner.

If thou offerest me thine head, is it for me to take it; I ought to attack it, but thou oughtest to defend it. It is from another than thee that I must obtain it, and it is my duty [_lit._ I ought] to pursue thee, but not to punish thee.

_Don Rodrigo._ However in my favor our love may plead, thy steadfast courage ought to correspond to mine; and to borrow other arms to avenge a father is, believe me, my Chimene, not the [method of] responding to it. My hand alone was fit [_lit._ has understood how] to avenge the insult offered to _my_ father; thy hand alone ought to take vengeance for thine.

_Chimene._ O cruel! for what reason shouldst thou persevere on this point? Thou hast avenged thyself without aid, and dost thou wish to give me thine [aid]? I shall follow thy example; and I have too much courage to endure that my glory shall be divided with thee. My father and mine honor shall owe nothing to the dictates of thy love and of thy despair.

_Don Rodrigo._ O cruel resolution [_lit._ point of honor]! Alas!

whatever I may do, can I by no means obtain this concession [_or_, favor]? In the name of a slain [_lit._ dead] father, or of our friendship, punish me through revenge, or at least through compa.s.sion.

Thy unhappy lover will have far less pain in dying by thy hand than in living with thy hatred.

_Chimene._ Go; I do not hate thee.

_Don Rodrigo._ Thou oughtest to do so.

_Chimene._ I cannot.

_Don Rodrigo._ Dost thou so little fear calumny, and so little [fear]

false reports? When people shall know my crime, and that thy pa.s.sion [for me] still continues, what will not envy and deception spread abroad? Compel them to silence, and, without debating more, save thy fair fame by causing me to die.

_Chimene._ That [fair fame] shines far more gloriously [_lit._ better]

by leaving thee life; and I wish that the voice of the blackest slander should raise to heaven my honor, and lament my griefs, knowing that I worship thee, and that [still] I pursue thee [as a criminal]. Go, then; present no more to my unbounded grief that which I [must] lose, although I love it [him]! In the shades of night carefully conceal thy departure; if they see thee going forth, my honor runs a risk. The only opportunity which slander can have is to know that I have tolerated thy presence here. Give it no opportunity to a.s.sail my honor.

_Don Rodrigo._ Let me die.

_Chimene._ Nay, leave me.

_Don Rodrigo._ On what art thou resolved?

_Chimene._ In spite of the glorious love-fires which impede [_lit._ trouble] my wrath, I will do my utmost to avenge my father; but, in spite of the sternness of such a cruel duty, my sole desire is to be able to accomplish nothing [against thee].

_Don Rodrigo._ O wondrous love [_lit._ miracle of love]!

_Chimene._ O acc.u.mulation of sorrows!

_Don Rodrigo._ What misfortunes and tears will our fathers cost us!

_Chimene._ Rodrigo, who would have believed----?

_Don Rodrigo._ Chimene, who would have said----?

_Chimene._ That our happiness was so near, and would so soon be ruined?

_Don Rodrigo._ And that so near the haven, contrary to all appearances [_or_, expectation], a storm so sudden should shatter our hopes?

_Chimene._ O deadly griefs!

_Don Rodrigo._ O vain regrets!

_Chimene._ Go, then, again [I beseech thee]; I can listen to thee no more.

_Don Rodrigo._ Adieu! I go to drag along a lingering life, until it be torn from me by thy pursuit.

_Chimene._ If I obtain my purpose, I pledge to thee my faith to exist not a moment after thee. Adieu! Go hence, and, above all, take good care that you are not observed. [_Exit Don Rodrigo._]

_Elvira._ Dear lady, whatever sorrows heaven sends us----

_Chimene._ Trouble me no more; let me sigh. I seek for silence and the night in order to weep.

Scene V.--DON DIEGO.

Never do we experience [_lit._ taste] perfect joy. Our most fortunate successes are mingled with sadness; always some cares, [even] in the [successful] events, mar the serenity of our satisfaction. In the midst of happiness my soul feels their pang: I float in joy, and I tremble with fear. I have seen [lying] dead the enemy who had insulted me, yet I am unable to find [_lit._ see] the hand which has avenged me. I exert myself in vain, and with a useless anxiety. Feeble [_lit._ broken down; _or_, shattered] though I am, I traverse all the city; this slight degree of vigor, that my advanced years have left me, expends itself fruitlessly in seeking this conqueror. At every moment, at all places, in a night so dark, I think that I embrace him, and I embrace only a shadow; and my love, beguiled by this deceitful object, forms for itself suspicions which redouble my fear. I do not discover any traces of his flight. I fear the dead Count's friends and retinue; their number terrifies me, and confounds my reason. Rodrigo lives no more, or breathes in prison! Just heavens! do I still deceive myself with a shadow only [_lit._ an appearance], or do I see, at last, my only hope?

It is he; I doubt it no more. My prayers are heard, my fear is dispelled, and my trouble ended.

Scene VI.--DON DIEGO and DON RODRIGO.

_Don Diego._ Rodrigo at last heaven permits that I should behold thee!

_Don Rodrigo._ Alas!

_Don Diego._ Mingle not sighs with my joy; let me take breath in order to praise thee. My valor has no reason to disown thee; thou hast well imitated it, and thy brilliant prowess causes the heroes of my race to live again in thee! It is from them that thou descendest, it is from me that thou art sprung. Thy first combat [_lit._ sword-stroke] equals all of mine, and thy youth, fired with a splendid enthusiasm, by this great proof equals [_or_, reaches to] my renown. Prop of mine age, and sum of my happiness, touch these white hairs, to which thou restorest honor!

Come, kiss this cheek, and recognize the place on which was branded the insult which thy courage effaces!

_Don Rodrigo._ The honor of it belongs to you. I could not do less, being sprung from you, and trained under your careful instruction [_lit._ cares]. I consider myself too happy [at the result], and my soul is delighted that my first combat [_or_, maiden-stroke] pleases him to whom I owe existence. But, amidst your gladness, be not jealous if, in my turn, I dare to satisfy myself after you. Permit that in freedom my despair may burst forth; enough and for too long your discourse has soothed it. I do not repent having served you; but give me back the blessing which that [death] blow has deprived me of. My arms, in order to serve you, battling against my pa.s.sion, by this [otherwise] glorious deed have deprived me of my love. Say no more to me: for you I have lost all; what I owed you I have well repaid.

_Don Diego._ Carry, carry still higher the effect [_lit._ fruit] of thy victory. I have given thee life, and thou restorest to me my honor; and as much as honor is dearer to me than life, so much now I owe thee in return. But spurn this weakness from a n.o.ble heart; we have but one honor--there are many mistresses. Love is but a pleasure; honor is a duty.

_Don Rodrigo._ Ah! what do you say to me?

_Don Diego._ That which you ought to know.

_Don Rodrigo._ My outraged honor takes vengeance on myself, and you dare to urge me to the shame of inconstancy! Disgrace is the same, and follows equally the soldier without courage and the faithless lover. Do no wrong, then, to my fidelity; allow me [to be] brave without rendering myself perfidious [perjured]. My bonds are too strong to be thus broken--my faith still binds me, though I [may] hope no more; and, not being able to leave nor to win Chimene, the death which I seek is my most welcome [_lit._ sweeter] penalty.

_Don Diego._ It is not yet time to seek death; thy prince and thy country have need of thine arm. The fleet, as was feared, having entered this great river, hopes to surprise the city and to ravage the country.

The Moors are going to make a descent, and the tide and the night may, within an hour, bring them noiselessly to our walls. The court is in disorder, the people in dismay; we hear only cries, we see only tears.

In this public calamity, my good fortune has so willed it that I have found [thronging] to my house five hundred of my friends, who, knowing the insult offered to me, impelled by a similar zeal, came all to offer themselves to avenge my quarrel. Thou hast antic.i.p.ated them; but their valiant hands will be more n.o.bly steeped in the blood of Africans. Go, march at their head where honor calls thee; it is thou whom their n.o.ble band would have as a leader. Go, resist the advance of these ancient enemies; there, if thou wishest to die, find a glorious death. Seize the opportunity, since it is presented to thee; cause your King to owe his safety to your loss; but rather return from that battle-field [_lit._ from it] with the laurels on thy brow. Limit not thy glory to the avenging of an insult; advance that glory still further; urge by thy valor this monarch to pardon, and Chimene to peace. If thou lovest her, learn that to return as a conqueror is the sole means of regaining her heart. But time is too precious to waste in words; I stop thee in thine attempted answer, and desire that thou fly [to the rescue]. Come, follow me; go to the combat, and show the King that what he loses in the Count he regains in thee.