O, Tancred, cease to persecute me more! Urged me so much, nay, even with tears conjured me, It suits not Osmond's wife to read one line 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, 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 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 ! To govern others, should himself first learn And sooth'd with wanton cruelty my weakness- Tan. Chide on, chide on. Thy soft reproaches now, Instead of wounding, only sooth my fondness. 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!- To brave the fury of an injured king? Who, ere he sees thee ravish'd from his hopes, 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— 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! Which, of two happiest lovers that e'er felt 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, 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, By the high power with which the laws invest me, Osm. Ha! my life! It moves my scorn to hear thy empty threats. 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 |