Alc. I'll meet thee there, and see whose voice is victor.

Come, Pharon, aid me to repulse this traitor;
To bear him with impunity amongst us
Is treason 'gainst ourselves--Ye sacred powers,
My country's gods, that, for three thousand years,
Have reigned protectors of the tribe of Ishmael,
Oh! support my spirit

In that firm purpose it has always held!
To combat violence, fraud, and usurpation,
To pluck the spoil from the oppressor's jaws,
And keep my country, as I found it, free!

[Exeunt

SCENE I-PALMIRA's Apartment.

Enter PALMIRA.

Pal. Cease, cease, ye streaming instruments of woe,

From your ignoble toil-Take warmth, my heart! Collect thy scattered powers, and brave misfor

tune.

In vain the storm-tossed mariner repines:
Were he within to raise as great a tempest
As beats him from without, it would not smooth
One boisterous surge: impatience only throws
Discredit on mischance, and adds a shame
To our affliction.

Enter ZAPHNA.

Ha! all-gracious Heaven!

Thou, Zaphna! is it thou? what pitying angel Guided thy steps to these abodes of bondage? Zuph. Thou sovereign of my soul, and all its

powers,

Object of every fear, and every wish,

Friend, sister, love, companion, all that's dear!
Do I once more behold thee, my Palmira?
Oh, I will set it down the whitest hour,
That Zaphna e'er was blessed with!
Pal. Say, my hero,

Are my ills ended then? They are, they are:
Now Zaphna's here, I ara no more a captive,
Except to him: oh, blest captivity!

Zaph. Those smiles are dearer to my raptured
breast,

Sweeter those accents to my listening heart,
Than all Arabia's spices to the sense.

Pal. No wonder, that my soul was so elate, No wonder, that the cloud of grief gave way,

When thou, my sun of comfort, wert so nigh. Zaph. Since that dire hour, when on Sabaria's strand

The barbarous foe deprived me of Palmira,
In what a gulph of horror and despair
Have thy imagined perils plunged my soul!
Stretched on expiring corses for a while
To the deaf stream I poured out my complaint,
And begged I might be numbered with the dead,
That strewed its banks-then starting from
despair,

With rage I flew to Mahomet for vengeance;
He, for some high mysterious purpose, known
To Heaven and him alone, at length dispatched
The valiant Mirvan to demand a truce:
Instant on wings of lightening I pursued him,
And entered as his hostage-fixed, Palmira,
Or to redeem, or die a captive with thee.
Pal. Heroic youth!

Zaph. But how have these barbarians
Treated my fair?

Pal. With high humanity.

I, in my victor, found a friend-Alcanor
Has made me feel captivity in nothing
But absence from my Zaphna and my friends.-
Zaph. I grieve a soul so generous is our foe:
But now, presented as an hostage to him,
His noble bearing and humanity

Made captive of my heart; I felt, methought,
A new affection lighted in my breast,
And wondered, whence the infant ardour sprang.
Pal. Yet generous as he is, not all my prayers,
Not all the tears I lavish at his feet,
Can move him to restore me-

We have cast about us-Prepossession, friend,
Reigns monarch of the million-Mecca's crowd
Gaze at my rapid victories, and think
Some awful power directs my arm to conquest;
But whilst our friends once more renew their ef-
forts

To win the wavering people to our interest,
What think'st thou, say, of Zaphna, and Palmira?
Mir. As of thy most resigned and faithful vas-
sals.

Mah. Oh Mirvan! they are the deadliest of my foes.

Mir. How!

Mah. Yes, they love each other--

Mir, Well-what crime?--

My life's a combat: keen austerity

Subjects my nature to abstemious bearings:

quor,

That either works to practices of outrage,

Or melts the manly breast to woman's weakness;
Or on the burning sands of desert rocks
With thee I bear the inclemency of climates,
Freeze at the pole, or scorch beneath the line.
For all these toils love only can retaliate,
The only consolation or reward,
Fruit of my labours, idol of my incense,
And sole divinity, that I adore.

Know then, that I prefer this young Palmira
To all the ripened beauties, that attend me ;
Dwell on her accents, dote upon her smiles,
And am not mine but her's. Now judge, my friend,
How vast the jealous transports of thy master,
When at his feet he daily hears this charmer
Avow a foreign love, and, insolent,
Give Mahomet a rival!

Mir. How! and Mahomet

Not instantly revenge

Mah. Ah! should he not?

But, better to detest him, know him better:
Learn, then, that both my rival and my love
Sprang from the loins of this audacious traitor.
Mir. Alcanor!

Mah. Is their father; old Hercides,
To whose sage institution I commit
My captive infants, late revealed it to me-
Perdition! I myself lit up their flame,
And fed it, till I set myself on fire.

Well, means must be employed; but see, the father;

He comes this way, and launches from his eye
Malignant sparks of enmity and rage.
Mirvan, see all ta'en care of; let Hercides,
With his escort, beset yon gate; bid Ali
Make proper disposition round the temple;
This done, return, and render me account
Of what success we meet with 'mongst the peo-
ple:

Then, Mirvan, we'll determine or to loose,
Or bridle in our vengeance, as it suits.
[Exit MIRVAN.

VOL. II.

And is it, insolent dissembler! thus

Thou com'st, to give the sons of Mecca peace, And me an unknown god?

Mah. Were I to answer any but Alcanor, That unknown god should speak in thunder for

me;

But here, with thee, I'd parley as a man.

Ale. What canst thou say? what urge in thy defence?

What right hast thou received to plant new faiths, Or lay a claim to royalty and priesthood?

Mah. The right, that a resolved and towering spirit

Has o'er the grovelling instinct of the vulgar. Alc. Patience, good Heavens! have I not known thee, Mahomet,

When, void of wealth, inheritance, or fame,
Ranked with the lowest of the low at Mecca ?
Mah. Dost thou not know, thou haughty fee-
ble man,

That the low insect, lurking in the grass,
And the imperial eagle, which aloft
Ploughs the etherial plain, are both alike
In the Eternal eye!-Mortals are equal:
It is not birth, magnificence, or power,
But virtue only, makes the difference 'twixt them.
Alc. What sacred truth from what polluted
lips!

Edside.

Mah. By virtue's ardent pinions borne on high, Heaven met my zeal, gave me, in solemn charge, Its sacred laws, then bade me on and publish.

Ale. And did Heaven bid thee on, and plunder too?

Mah. My law is active, and inflames the soul With thirst of glory. What can thy dumb gods? What laurels spring beneath their sooty altars? Thy slothful sect disgrace the human kind, Enervate lifeless images of men!

Mine bear the intrepid soul; my faith makes he

roes.

Alc. Go, preach these doctrines at Medina, where,

By prostrate wretches, thou art raised to homage,

N

Mah. Hear me thy Mecca trembles at my

name;

If, therefore, thou wouldst save thyself or city, Embrace my proffered friendship.-What to-day I thus solicit, I'll command to-morrow.

Alc. Contract with thee a friendship! frontless man!

Know'st thou a god can work that miracle?
Mah. I do─Necessity-thy interest.
Alc. Interest is thy god, Equity is mine.
Propose the tie of this unnatural union;
Say, is it the loss of thy ill-fated son,
Who, in the field, fell victim to my rage,

Or the dear blood of my poor captive children,
Shed by thy butchering hands?

Mah. Ay, 'tis thy children.

Mark me, then, well, and learn the important se

Mah. Nay, more, Surrender Mecca to me, quit this temple, Assist me to impose upon the world, Thunder my Koran to the gazing crowd, Proclaim me for their prophet and their king, And be a glorious pattern of credulity

To Korah's stubborn tribe. These terms performed,

Thy son shall be restored, and Mahomet's self Will deign to wed thy daughter.

Alc. Hear me, Mahomet

I am a father, and this bosom boasts
A heart as tender as e'er parent bore.
After a fifteen years of anguish for them,

Once more to view my children, clasp them to

And help to spread black error o'er the earth, Or to behold these blood-embrued hands Deprive me of them both-Know me, then, Mahomet,

I'd not admit a doubt to cloud my choice— [Looking earnestly at MAHOMET, for some time, before he speaks.

Farewell. [Erit ALCANOR. Mah. Why, fare thee well then-churlish dotard!

Inexorable fool! Now, by my arms,

I will have great revenge; I'll meet thy scorn
With treble retribution.

Enter MIRVAN.

Well, my Mirvan,

What sayest thou to it now? Mir. Why, that Alcanor

Or we must fall.

Mah. Fall, then, the obdurate rebel!

Mir. The truce expires to-morrow, when Al

canor

Again is Mecca's master, and has vowed
Destruction on thy head: the senate, too,
Have passed thy doom.

Mah. Those heart-chilled paltry babblers, Placed on the bench of sloth, with ease can nod, And vote a man to death! Why don't the cowards

Stand me in yonder plain? With half their numbers

I drove them headlong to their walls for shelter,
And he was deemed the wisest senator,
That entered first the gate; but, now they think
They've got me in the toil, their spirits mount,
And they could prove most valorous assassins.—
Well, this I like-I always owed my greatness
To opposition; had I not met with struggles,
I'd been obscure.-Enough.-Perish Alcanor!
He marbled up, the pliant populace,
Those dupes of novelty, will bend before us,
Like osiers to a hurricane.

Mir. No time

Is to be lost.

Mah. But for a proper arm;

For, however irksome, we must save
Appearances, and mask it with the vulgar.
Mir. True, my sage chief.-What think'st thou
then, of Zaphna?

Mah. Of Zaphna, say'st thou!
Mir. Yes, Alcanor's hostage-
He can, in private, do thee vengeance on him:
Thy other favourites, of maturer age,

And more discreetly zealous, would not risk it.
Youth is the stock, whence grafted superstition
Shoots with unbounded vigour. He's a slave
To thy despotic faith; and, urged by thee,
However mild his nature may appear,
Howe'er humane and noble is his spirit,
Or strong his reason, where allowed to reason,
He would, for Heaven's sake, martyr half man-
kind.

Mah. The brother of Palmira!

Mir. Yes, that brother,

The only son of thy outrageous foe,

And the incestuous rival of thy love.

Mah. I hate the stripling, loathe his very name; The manes of my son, too, cry for vengeance On the cursed sire; but then thou know'st my love,

Know'st from whose blood she sprang: this staggers, Mirvan;

And yet I'm here surrounded with a gulf
Ready to swallow me; come, too, in quest
Of altars and a throne-What must be done?-
My warring passions, like contending clouds,
When fraught with thunder's fatal fuel, burst
Upon themselves, and rend me with the shock.
And shall enervating contagious love
Hag my aspiring spirit, sink me down
To woman's shackles, make a lapthing of me?
Glory! that must not be! ambition still,

SCENE I.—A grand Apartment.

Enter ZAPHNA and PALMIRA.

Zaph. Alcanor claims a private conference with us!

What has he to unfold?

Pal. I tremble, Zaphna.

Zaph. Time press'd too, did he say?
Pal. He did; then cast

A look so piercing on me, it o'erwhelmed
My face with deep confusion; this he marked,
Then, starting, left me.

Zaph. (aside.] Ha! this gives me fear,
That Mirvan's jealousies are too well grounded;
But I must not distract her tender bosom
With visionary terrors. [To PAL.] Both in private?
Pal. In private both.

[Apart.

Zaph. Her virtue and my life! It cannot be; so reverend a form Could ne'er be pander to such black devices. Pal. But let us shun it, Zaphna; much I fear Alcanor has deceived us: dread the treachery Of this blood-thirsty senate. Trust me, Zaphna, They have sworn the extirpation of our faith, Nor care by what vile means

Zaph. My soul's best treasure,
For whose security my every thought
Is up in arms, regardless of my own;
Shun thou Alcanor's presence. This hour, Pal-
mira,

Mirvan, by order of our royal pontiff,
Prepares to solemnize some act of worship
Of a more hallowed and mysterious kind
Than will admit of vulgar eye; myself
Alone am honoured to assist.

Pal. Alone!

Zaph. Yes, to devote myself by solemn vow For some great act, of which my fair's the prize. Pal. What act?

Zaph. No matter, since my loved Palmira
Shall be the glorious recompence.
Pal. Oh, Zaphna!

Methinks I do not like this secret vow.

Why must not I be present! were I with thee,
I should not be so anxious;

For trust me, Zaphna, my affection for thee
Is of that pure disinterested nature,

So free from passion's taint, I have no one wish
To have thee more than thus, have thee my

friend,

Share thy loved converse, wait upon thy welfare, And view thee with a sister's spotless eye.

Zaph. Angelic excellence!

Pal. And let me tell thee,

This Mirvan, this fierce Mirvan, gives me terrors: So far from tendering consolation to me, His theme is blood and slaughter. As I met him, His eyes flamed fury, whilst in dubious phrase He thus bespoke me- The destroying angel 'Must be let loose-Palmira, Heaven ordains 'Some glorious deed for thee, yet hid in darkness: 'Learn an implicit reverence for its will; And above all, I warn thee, fear for Zaphna.' Zaph. What could he mean? can I believe,

Alcanor,

Thy fair deportment but a treacherous mask?
Yet spite of all the rage that ought to fire me
Against this rebel to our faith and prophet,
I still have held me happy in his friendship,
And bondage wore the livery of choice.

Pal. How has Heaven fraught our love-linked hearts, my Zaphna,

With the same thoughts, aversions and desires!
But for thy safety and our dread religion,
That thunders hatred to all infidels,
With great remorse I should accuse Alcanor.

Zuph. Let us shake off this vain remorse, Pal