-How chang'd, alas!-Now ghastly desolation
In triumph sits upon our shatter'd spires;
Now superstition, ignorance, and error,
Usurp our temples, and profane our altars.
From ev'ry palace bursts a mingled clamour,
The dreadful dissonance of barb'rous triumph,
Shrieks of affright and wailings of distress.
Oft when the cries of violated beauty
Arose to heaven, and pierc'd my bleeding breast,
I felt thy pains, and trembled for Aspasia.
Aspasia! spare that lov'd, that mournful name: Dear hapless maid-tempestuous grief o'erbears My reasoning powers-Dear, hapless, lost, Aspasia !
All thought on her is madness;
Yet let me think-I see the helpless maid, Behold the monsters gaze with savage rapture, Behold how lust and rapine struggle round her!
Awake, Demetrius, from this dismal dream,
Sink not beneath imaginary sorrows;
Call to your aid your courage and your wisdom;
Think on the sudden change of human scenes;
Think on the various accidents of war;
Think on the mighty power of awful virtue Think on that Providence that guards the good.
O Providence! extend thy care to me,
For courage droops unequal to the combat,
And weak philosophy denies her succours.
Sure some kind sabre in the heat of battle,
Ere yet the foe found leisure to be cruel,
Dismiss'd her to the sky.
Perhaps, enamour'd of resembling virtue,
With gentle hand restrain❜d the streams of life,
And snatch'd her timely from her country's fate.
From those bright regions of eternal day,
Where now thou shin'st among thy fellow-saints,
Array'd in purer light, look down on me :
In pleasing visions and assuasive dreams,
O! sooth my soul and teach me how to lose thee.
Enough of unavailing tears, Demetrius:
I came obedient to thy friendly summons,
And hop'd to share thy counsels, not thy sorrows: While thus we mourn the fortune of Aspasia,
To what are we reserv'd?
But hope, yet hope, to happiness and honour;
If happiness can be without Aspasia.
But whence this new-sprung hope?
The chief whose wisdom guides the Turkish counsels.
He, tir'd of slav'ry, though the highest slave,
Projects at once our freedom and his own;
And bids us thus disguis'd await him here.
Can he restore the state he could not save?
In vain, when Turkey's troops assail❜d our walls,
His kind intelligence betray'd their measures;
Their arms prevail'd though Cali was our friend.
When the tenth sun had set upon our sorrows,
At midnight's private hour, a voice unknown
Sounds in my sleeping ear, Awake, Demetrius,
Awake, and follow me to better fortunes.'
Surpris❜d I start, and bless the happy dream
Then, rousing, know the fiery chief Abdalla,
Whose quick impatience seiz'd my doubtful hand,
And led me to the shore where Cali stood,
Pensive and list'ning to the beating surge.
There, in soft hints and in ambiguous phrase,
With all the diffidence of long experience,
That oft had practis'd fraud, and oft detected,
The vet'ran courtier half reveal'd his project.
By his command, equipp'd for speedy flight,
Deep in a winding creek a galley lies,
Mann'd with the bravest of our fellow-captives,
Selected by my care, a hardy band,
That long to hail thee chief.
So small a force? or why should Cali fly?
Or how can Cali's flight restore our country?
Reserve these questions for a safer hour;
Or hear himself, for see the Bassa comes.
SCENE II.-DEMETRIUS, LEONTIUS, CALI Bassa.
Now summon all thy soul, illustrious Christian!
Awake each faculty that sleeps within thee,
The courtier's policy, the sage's firmness,
The warrior's ardour, and the patriot's zeal :
If chasing past events with vain pursuit,
Or wand'ring in the wilds of future being,
A single thought now rove, recal it home.
But can thy friend sustain the glorious cause,
The cause of liberty, the cause of nations?
Observe him closely with a statesman's eye,
Thou that hast long perus'd the draughts of Nature,
And know'st the characters of vice and virtue,
Left by the hand of Heaven on human clay.
His mien is lofty, his demeanour great,
Nor sprightly folly wantons in his air,
Nor dull serenity becalms his eyes.
Such had I trusted once as soon as seen,
But cautious age suspects the flatt'ring form,
And only credits what experience tells.
Has silence press'd her seal upon his lips?
Does adamantine faith invest his heart?
Will he not bend beneath a tyrant's frown?
Will he not melt before ambition's fire?
Will he not soften in a friend's embrace?
Or flow dissolving in a woman's tears?
Sooner the trembling leaves shall find a voice,
And tell the secrets of their conscious walks;
Sooner the breeze shall catch the flying sounds,
And shock the tyrant with a tale of treason.
Your slaughter'd multitudes, that swell the shore
With monuments of death, proclaim his courage;
Virtue and liberty engross his soul,
And leave no place for perfidy or fear.
I scorn a trust unwillingly repos'd;
Demetrius will not lead me to dishonour;
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