Ev'n in the tyrant's hands, compell❜d to hear
His irksome tale of love; but now the war
Demands his abfence from her.
And can't thou think, my Prince, th'enamour'd Sultan
Wou'd leave behind the treasure of his foul?
Court voluntary abfence, fond to figh
With anguish unconftrain'd, and needless woe,
Wilfully wretched? Rather with her prefence,
Her charms, to footh the rugged toils of war,
He forc'd her to the field, reluctant, with him.
Ev'n now perhaps, in yonder hoftile tents,
Tir'd with his naufeous love, and loath'd addrefs,
She counts the tedious hours, the flow-pac'd moments,
Inceffant pines with anxious expectation
For the bleft minute of thy wifh'd return,
And weeps and mourns her Scanderbeg's delay:
From whofe victorious arm, alone, fhe dates
Her only hopes of rescue.
O! were I fure to find that charming maid,
Gaze on the luftre of that beauteous form,
Drink in th' inchanting accents of her voice,
That flow like mufick in melodious notes;
I'd rush impetuous on the tyrant's camp,
Like torrents from the fteepy mountain's top,
Thro' his throng'd legions force refiftless way,
And bear her fingly off, a glorious prize!
-But, ha! from whence that groan, that dying groan?
-Another yet with feeble fault'ring found,
Faint and half utter'd, feems to reach mine ears.
From yonder aged trunks methought the found
Some in diftrefs, perhaps,
Demand our speedy aid; hafte, let's advance.
[Advancing difcovers Aradin wounded.
URANES.
O dismal fight! Behold a murther'd wretch,
Lies welt'ring in his gore, and feems expiring.
SCANDERBEG.
O woeful fight indeed! My faithful eunuch!
My friend, th' inftructor of my early youth,
O Aradin! speak, if thou can't declare,
Say, I conjure thee, from whence this deed?
ARADIN.
What mean thofe founds? Onames but too well known!
My much-lov'd Aradin, O! speak, say on
But, lo! he's dead. His laft expiring breath
Could only gafp-O Amurath! O Arianiffa!
Millions of anxious doubts perplex my mind,
Loft in an endlefs labyrinth of woe,
And all bewilder'd in a maze of errors;
A flood of different paffions breaking on me,
Bear down, with fudden gufh, the mounds of reafon.
O fhould the tyrant! O! Uranes, should he,
Eager with love, impatient with defire,
Rufh uncontroul'd on the defenceless maid,
Like favage tigers on their trembling prey! -
O! thought diftracting! Now perhaps, ev'n now
Th' affrighted virgin fues in vain for pity:
Now floods of tears burft from her lovely eyes,
And streaming fall in torrents to the ground:
Now her dire fhrieks the vales and rocks repeat;
Dreadfully echoing to the doleful found,
Yet unavailing
Perplex not thus, my Prince, thy troubled mind;
Nor add to real ills, by doubtful fears,
Imaginary griefs and fancied woes.
Perhaps the feeble Aradin yet lives,
And the weak lamp of life, not quite extinct,
Tho' dying and exhausted, may revive
Its finking flame, and yield a fhort-liv'd blaze;
By him inform❜d, thy doubts and fears may cease,
And vanish all like mifts before the fun.
Life's vapour's fled; behold, the stiff'ning limbs,
Rigid in death grow cold and motionless!
[Difcovers a letter about him.
But, lo, a folded paper - This may disclose,
What hafty death prevented.
Open and read it ftrait- my flutt'ring heart
Beats quick with anxious joy; while hope and fear
With doubtful conflict ftruggling in my breast,
Distract me with fufpenfe, and quite o'erpow'r me—
Why ftand'st thou filent thus, and fixt in grief?
Inftant declare the cause.
O! fpare the difmal task-I cannot speak it.
SCANDERBEG.
Hath fhe then yielded? hath that godlike maid
Broke all her facred oaths, her folemn vows?
O faithlefs! O forfworn! O perjur'd!
O! no how could my troubled mind fuggeft,
Injurious, fuch a thought? No- facred truth
Dwells in her foul, innate-Yet lawless pow'r,
And brutal force O! all my fears were juft.
No longer rack my foul with dread suspense.
My fears diftract me: O! denounce at once
What e'er it be, give me to know my doom.
O! Scanderbeg, now man thy foul with all its firmness, And call up all thy courage to thine aid.
I'll ftand the shock-but may not fate allow
Redress, or vengeance?—I conjure you speak,
Declare the dread contents.
[Uranes reads the letter.
Then, thus- To ORCHAN, Grand Vizier.
My love at last gives place to rage. Go, Orchan,
Go, let the ungrateful Arianissa fall
A facrifice t'appease. our just revenge,
For having made me figh fa long in vain;
The remnant of my flame her blood shall quench.
Thefe our commands are abfolute.
O horrid monfter! Execrable villain!
Vengeance
Vengeance! I'll feize the tyrant 'midst his camp.
[Scanderbeg drawing, and offering to run to-
wards the enemy's camp, Uranes ftays him.
Thro' thousands and thro' millions feize the ruffian;
Seize, tear him, rend him, drag him, headlong drag him
To dungeons, tortures, racks Aranit !
O hoary, venerable, wretched parent!
Unhappy father! tho' that name's no more:
No more th' endearing found fhall charm thine ear;
That was fo late the comfort of thine age,
That wont ere while to foften other woes,
Solace thy griefs, and footh thine every care
For then, tho' captive, ftill thou had'st a daughter.
O hapless Aranit! how wilt thou bear the load,
The tempeft of distress that preffes on thee?
How wilt thou hear th' unutterable deed?
O! let me hide it ever ever from thee.
My foul forebodes fome dreadful, fad event.
Father--that name's no more---thou had'ft a daughter!
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