Page:The Siege of Valencia.pdf/160

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If it be so—I could weep burning tears For very shame!—If this can be, return! Tell him, of all his wealth, his battle-spoils, I will but ask a war-horse and a sword, And that beside him in the mountain-chase, And in his halls and at his stately feasts, My place shall be no more!—but no!—I wrong, I wrong my father!—Moor! believe it not! He is a champion of the cross and Spain, Sprung from the Cid;—and I too, I can die As a warrior's high-born child!

Alas! Alas! And wouldst thou die, thus early die, fair boy? What hath life done to thee, that thou shouldst cast Its flower away, in very scorn of heart, Ere yet the blight be come?

That voice doth sound——

Stranger, who art thou?—this is mockery! speak!

My boys! whom I have rear'd through many hours