Page:Sebastian of Portugal.pdf/4

 A sudden darkness?—All things seem to float Obscurely round me!—Now 'tis past. The streets Are blazing with strange fire. Go, quench those lamps; They glare upon me, till my very brain Grows dizzy, and doth whirl. How dar'd ye thus Light up your shrines for him?

Gon.—Away, away! This is no time, no scene.

Seb.—Philip of Spain! How name ye this fair land?–Why, is it not The free, the chivalrous Portugal?—The land, By the proud ransom of heroic blood, Won from the Moor of old?–Did that red stream Sink to the earth, and leave no fiery current I' the veins of noble men, that so its tide, Full swelling at the sound of hostile steps, Might be a kingdom's barrier?

2d Cit.—That high blood Which should have been our strength, profusely shed By the rash King Sebastian, bath'd the plain Of fatal Alcazar. Our monarch's guilt Hath brought this ruin down.

Seb. Must this be heard, And borne, and unchastis'd?—Man! dar'st thou stand Before me face to face, and thus arraign Thy sovereign?

''Zam. (to Sebastian.)''—Shall I liſt the sword, my prince, Against thy foes?

Gon.—Be still, or all is lost.

2d Cit.—I dare speak that which all men think and know. 'Tis to Sebastian, and his waste of life, And power, and treasure, that we owe these bonds.

3d Cit.—Talk not of bonds!—May our new monarch rule The weary land in peace!—But who art thou? Whence cam'st thou, haughty stranger, that these things, Known to all nations, should be new to thee?

Seb, (wildly.)—I come from regions where the cities lie In ruins, not in chains! [Exit Sebastian with Zamor and Gonzalez.

2d Cit.—He wears the mien Of one that hath commanded, yet his looks And words were strangely wild.

1st Cit.—Mark'd you his fierce And haughty gesture, and the flash that broke