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And till my ghastly tale is told
This heart within me burns.

I pass, like night, from land to land;
I have strange power of speech;
The moment that his face I see
I know the man that must hear me;
To him my tale I teach.

What loud uproar bursts from that door!
The wedding-guests are there;
But in the garden-bower the bride
And bride-maids singing are;
And hark the little vesper-bell
Which biddeth me to prayer.

O wedding-guest! this soul hath been
Alone on a wide, wide sea:
So lonely 'twas, that God himself
Scarce seemed there to be.

O sweeter than the marriage-feast,
'Tis sweeter far to me
To walk together to the kirk,

With a goodly company:—

To walk together to the kirk,

And altogether pray,

While each to his Great Father bends,

Old men, and babes, and loving friends, And youths, and maidens gay.

Farewell, farewell; But this I tell
To thee, thou wedding-guest!
He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man, and bird, and beast.

He prayeth best who loveth best,
All things both great and small:
For the dear God, who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."

The Mariner whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone; and now the wedding-guest
Turned from the bridegroom's door.

He went like one, that hath been stunned,

And is of sense forlorn :

A sadder and a wiser man

He rose the morrow moru.

REMORSE;

A TRAGEDY, IN FIVE ACTS.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

Marquis Valdez, Father to the two brothers, and Donna Teresa's

Guardian.

Don Alvar, the eldest son.

Don Ordonio, the youngest son.

Monviedro, a Dominican and Inquisitor.

Zulimez, the faithful attendant on Alvar.

Isidore, a Moresco Chieftain, ostensibly a Christian.

Familiars of the Inquisitim.

Naomi.

Moors, Servants, &c.

Donna Teresa, an Orphan Heiress.

Alhadra, Wife to Isidore.

Time. The reign of Philip II., just at the close of the civil wars against the Moors, and during the heat of the persecution which raged against them, shortly after the edict which forbade the wearing of Moresco apparel under pain of death.

REMORSE.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-The Sea Shore on the Coast of Granada.

DON ALVAR, wrapt in a Boat-cloak, and ZULIMEZ (a Moresco), both as just landed.

Zul. No sound, no face of joy to welcome us! Alv. My faithful Zulimez, for one brief moment Let me forget my anguish and their crimes. If aught on earth demand an unmix'd feeling, "Tis surely this after long years of exile To step forth on firm land, and gazing round us, To hail at once our country, and our birth-place. Hail, Spain! Granada, hail! once more I press Thy sands with filial awe, land of my fathers!

Zul. Then claim your rights in it! O, revered Don Alvar,

Yet, yet give up your all too gentle purpose.

It is too hazardous! reveal yourself,

And let the guilty meet the doom of guilt!

Alv. Remember, Zulimez! I am his brother: Injured, indeed! O deeply injured! yet Ordonio's brother.

Zul.

Nobly-minded Alvar!

This sure but gives his guilt a blacker dye.

Alv. The more behoves it, I should rouse within him

Remorse! that I should save him from himself.

Zul. Remorse is as the heart in which it grows :

If that be gentle, it drops balmy dews

Of true repentance; but if proud and gloomy,
It is a poison-tree that, pierced to the inmost,
Weeps only tears of poison.

And of a brother,

Alv Dare 1 hold this, unproved? nor make one effort To save him?-Hear me, friend! I have yet to tell thee, That this same life, which he conspired to take, Himself once rescued from the angry flood,

And at the imminent hazard of his own.

Add too my oath

Zul.

The

years

You have thrice told already

of absence and of secrecy

To which a forced oath bound you: if in truth
A suborn'd murderer have the power to dictate
A binding oath—

Alv.

My long captivity

Left me no choice: the very Wish too languish'd
With the fond Hope that nursed it; the sick babe
Droop'd at the bosom of its famish'd mother.
But (more than all) Teresa's perfidy;
The assassin's strong assurance, when no interest,
No motive could have tempted him to falsehood:
In the first pangs of his awaken'd conscience,
When, with abhorrence of his own black purpose,
The murderous weapon, pointed at my breast,
Fell from his palsied hand—

Zul.

Heavy presumption !

Alv. It weigh'd not with me— -Hark! I will tell thee

all:

As we pass'd by, I bade thee mark the base

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