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O, Tancred, cease to persecute me more!
O, grudge me not some calmer state of woe!
Some quiet gloom to shade my hopeless days,
Where I may never hear of love and thee!
Has Laura too conspired against my peace?
Why did you take this letter?-Bear it back-
I will not court new pain. [Giving her the Letter.
Laura. Madam, Rodolpho

Urged me so much, nay, even with tears conjured me,
But this once more to serve th' unhappy king-
For such he said he was-that though enraged,
Equal with thee, at his inhuman falsehood,
I could not to my brother's fervent prayers
Refuse this office.- -Read it-his excuses
Will only more expose his falsehood.
Sig. No ;-

It suits not Osmond's wife to read one line
From that contagious hand-she knows too well!
Laura. He paints him out distressed beyond ex-
pression,

Even on the point of madness.

He dies to see you, and to clear his faith.

Sig. Save me from that!-That would be worse than all !

Laura. I but report my brother's words; who then Began to talk of some dark imposition,

That had deceived us all when, interrupted,
We heard your father and Earl Osmond near,
As summon'd to Constantia's court they went.
Sig. Ha! imposition !-Well, if I am doom'd
To be, o'er all my sex, the wretch of love,
In vain I would resist.-Give me the letter-
To know the worst is some relier-Alas,
It was not thus, with such dire palpitations,
That, Tancred, once, I used to read thy letters!
[Attempting to read the Letter, but gives it to
LAURA.

Ah, fond remembrance blinds me !—Read it, Laura.

Laura. [Reads.] Deliver me, Sigismunda, from that most exquisite misery which a faithful heart can sufferTo be thought base by her, from whose esteem even virtue borrows new charms. When I submitted to my cruel situation, it was not falsehood you beheld, but an excess of love. Rather than endanger that, I for a while gave up my honour. Every moment, till I see you, stabs me with severer pangs than real guilt itself can feel. Let me then conjure you to meet me in the garden, towards the close of the day, when I will explain this mystery. We have been most inhumanly abused; and that by the means of the very paper which I gave you from the warmest sincerity of love, to assure to you the heart and hand of

TANCRED.

Sig. There, Laura! there the dreadful secret sprung! That paper! ah, that paper! it suggests

A thousand horrid thoughts-I to my father
Gave it; and he, perhaps-I dare not cast
A look that way!-If yet indeed you love me
Laura. Madam,

Behold he comes—the king!

Sig. Heavens! how escape?

No I will stay.-This one last meeting-Leave me.

[Exit LAURA.

Enter TANCRed.

Tan. And are these long, long hours of torture

past?

My life! My Sigismunda!

Sig. Rise, my lord.

[Throwing himself at her feet.

To see my sovereign thus, no more becomes me. Tan. O, let me kiss the ground on which you tread!

Let me exhale my soul in softest transport !

[Rising.

Since I again behold my Sigismunda !
Unkind! how could'st thou ever deem me false?
How thus dishonour love? after the vows,
The fervent truth, the tender protestations,
Which mine has often pour'd, to let thy breast,
Whate'er th' appearance was, admit suspicion?
Sig. How! when I heard, myself, your full consent
To the late king's so just and prudent will?
Heard it before you read, in solemn senate?
When I beheld you give your royal hand
To her, whose birth and dignity of right
Demands that high alliance? Yes, my lord,
You have done well. The man whom Heaven ap-
points

To govern others, should himself first learn
To bend his passions to the sway of reason.
In all, you have done well;-but when you bade
My humble hopes look up to you again,

And sooth'd with wanton cruelty my weakness-
That too was well-my vanity deserved
The sharp rebuke.

Tan. Chide on, chide on. Thy soft reproaches

now,

Instead of wounding, only sooth my fondness.
No, no, thou charming consort of my soul!
I never loved thee with such faithful ardour,
As in that cruel, miserable moment,

You thought me false !

It was thy barbarous father, Sigismunda,

Who caught me in the toil.

He turn'd that paper,

Meant for th' assuring bond of nuptial love,

To ruin it for ever! he, he wrote

That forged consent you heard beneath my name. Had he not been thy father-Ha! my love! You tremble-you grow pale!—

Sig. O, leave me, Tancred!.

Tan. No!-Leave thee!-Never!-never, till you

set

My heart at peace; till these dear lips again Pronounce thee mine!-Without thee, I renounce Myself, my friends, the world!-Here, on this handSig. My lord, forget that hand, which never now Can be to thine united

Tan. Sigismunda!

What dost thou mean?-Thy words, thy look, thy

manners,

Seem to conceal some horrid secret-Heavens!-
No-that was wild-Distraction fires the thought!~
Sig. Inquire no more -I never can be thine.
Tan. What!-Who shall interpose? Who dares
attempt

To brave the fury of an injured king?

Who, ere he sees thee ravish'd from his hopes,
Will wrap all blazing Sicily in flames!

Sig. In vain your power, my lord-This fatal error, Join'd to my father's unrelenting will,

Has placed an everlasting bar betwixt us—
-Earl Osmond's-wife-

I am

Tan. Earl Osmond's wife!

[After a long pause, during which they look at one another with the highest agitation, and most tender distress.

Heavens! did I hear thee right ?—What! married? married!

Lost to thy faithful Tancred?-lost for ever!
Could'st thou then doom me to such matchless woe,
Without so much as hearing me?-Distraction!-
Alas! what hast thou done?-Ah, Sigismunda!
Thy rash credulity has done a deed,

Which, of two happiest lovers that e'er felt
The blissful power, has made two finish'd wretches!
But-madness!-Sure thou know'st it cannot be?
This hand is mine!-a thousand thousand vows-

D

Enter OSMOND.

Osm. [Snatching her hand from the king.] Madam, this hand, by the most solemn rites,

A little hour ago, was given to me;

And did not sovereign honour now command me,
Never but with my life to quit my claim,
I would renounce it- -thus!

Tan. Ha, who art thou?

Sig. [Aside.] Where is my father? Heavens!

[Goes out. Osm. One thou should'st better know.-Yes--view

me, one

Who can and will maintain his rights and honour Against a faithless prince, an upstart king! Whose first base deed is what a harden'd tyrant Would blush to act.

Tan. Insolent Osmond! know,

This upstart king will hurl confusion on thee,
And all who shall invade his sacred rights,
Prior to thine!-thine, founded on compulsion,
On infamous deceit. I will annul,

By the high power with which the laws invest me,
Those guilty forms, in which you have entrapp'd
My queen betroth'd, who has my heart, my hand,
And shall partake my throne.-If, haughty lord,
If this thou didst not know, then know it now;
And know, besides, as I have told thee this,
Should'st thou but think to urge thy treason further,
Thy life shall answer for it.

Osm. Ha! my life!

It moves my scorn to hear thy empty threats.
When was it that a Norman baron's life

Became so vile, as on the frown of kings

To hang ?-Of that, my lord, the law must judge: Or, if the law be weak, my guardian sword

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