DRAMATIS PERSONA.

MARQUIS VALDEZ, Father to the two brothers, and Donna

Teresa's Guardian.

DON ALVAR, the eldest son.

DON ORDONIO, the youngest son.

MONVIEDRO, a Dominican and Inquisitor.

ZULIMEZ, the faithful attendant on Alvar.

ISIDORE, a Moresco Chieftain, ostensibly a Christian.

FAMILIARS OF THE INQUISITION.

NAOMI.

MOORS, SERVANTS, &c.

DONNA TERESA, an Orphan Heiress.

ALHADRA, Wife to Isidore.

Time. The reign of Philip II., just at the close of the civil wars against the Moors, and during the heat of the persecution which raged against them, shortly after the edict which forbad the wearing of Moresco apparel under pain of death.

REMORSE.

ACT I-SCENE I.

The Sea Shore on the Coast of Granada. DON ALVAR, wrapt in a Boat cloak, and ZULIMEZ (a Moresco) both as just landed.

ZULIMEZ.

No sound, no face of joy to welcome us!

ALVAR.

My faithful Zulimez, for one brief moment
Let me forget my anguish and their crimes.
If aught on earth demand an unmix'd feeling,
"Tis surely this after long years of exile,
To step forth on firm land, and gazing round us,
To hail at once our country, and our birth place.
Hail, Spain! Granada, hail! once more I press
Thy sands with filial
awe, land of my fathers!
ZULIMEZ.

Then claim your rights in it! O, revered Don Alvar,
Yet, yet give up your all too gentle purpose.

It is too hazardous! reveal yourself,

And let the guilty meet the doom of guilt!

VOL. II.

L

ALVAR.

Remember, Zulimez! I am his brother,
Injured indeed! O deeply injured! yet

Ordonio's brother.

ZULIMEZ.

Nobly minded Alvar!

This sure but gives his guilt a blacker dye.

ALVAR.

The more behoves it, I should rouse within him
REMORSE! that I should save him from himself.
ZULIMEZ.

REMORSE is as the heart in which it grows:
If that be gentle, it drops balmy dews
Of true repentance; but if proud and gloomy,
It is a poison-tree, that pierced to the inmost
Weeps only tears of poison

ALVAR.

And of a brother,

Dare I hold this, unproved? nor make one effort
To save him?-Hear me, friend! I have yet to tell

thee,

That this same life, which he conspired to take,
Himself once rescued from the angry flood,

And at the imminent hazard of his own.

ZULIMEZ.

You have thrice told already

The years of absence and of secrecy,

To which a forced oath bound you: if in truth
A suborned murderer have the power to dictate
A binding oath-

ALVAR.

My long captivity

Left me no choice: the very Wish too languished
With the fond Hope that nursed it; the sick babe
Drooped at the bosom of its famished mother.
But (more than all) Teresa's perfidy;

The assassin's strong assurance, when no interest,
No motive could have tempted him to falsehood:
In the first pangs of his awaken'd conscience,
When with abhorrence of his own black purpose
The murderous weapon, pointed at my breast,
Fell from his palsied hand-

ZULIMEZ.

Heavy presumption!

ALVAR.

-Hark! I will tell thee all;

It weighed not with me—

As we passed by, I bade thee mark the base

Of yonder cliff

ZULIMEZ.

That rocky seat you mean,

Shaped by the billows?—

ALVAR.

There Teresa met me

The morning of the day of my departure.
We were alone: the purple hue of dawn,
Fell from the kindling east aslant upon us,
And blending with the blushes on her cheek
Suffused the tear-drops there with rosy light.
There seemed a glory round us, and Teresa

The angel of the vision!

[then with agitation.

Had'st thou seen

How in each motion her most innocent soul

Beamed forth and brightened, thou thyself would'st

tell me,

Guilt is a thing impossible in her!

She must be innocent!

ZULIMEZ (with a sigh).

Proceed, my lord!

ALVAR.

A portrait which she had procured by stealth, (For even then it seems her heart foreboded Or knew Ordonio's moody rivalry)

A portrait of herself with thrilling hand

She tied around my neck, conjuring me
With earnest prayers, that I would keep it sacred
To my own knowledge: nor did she desist,
Till she had won a solemn promise from me,
That (save my own) no eye should e'er behold it