532 SCENES FKOM CALDKRON^S NINA DE GOMEZ ARIAS. 



Our path directs, this letter brought to me : 



Heavy he left me, tho* he found me light. 



O, would'st thou deign my royal Queen to read it, 



And thus shalt thou instruct thy generous heart, 



And spare to me the bitter pang to name, 



My cruel wrong before the assembled world. 



QUEEN. Give me ! (she reads) " My dearest, ever-honoured father ! 

 Past crimes can never better be excused 

 Than by confession. By a man deceived 

 I erred : but first his hand and oath he gave 

 As spouse, and afterwards with countless wiles, 

 And perjured treasons to the fierce Canjeri 

 He sold me for a slave. Treat for my ransom ! 

 Chastise me afterwards as I deserve : 

 I do not fear to die upon thy sword : 

 Yet much I fear to risk my holy faith/' 



QUEEN (raising her voice.) 



The warlike bands who from Castile have come 



Hither with me unto Granada's heights, 



And every man who has besieged the city, 



Shall forward now to Alpujarra's peaks. 



No pause, no rest, my zeal will give your march ; 



And for this man if he the name of man (To DON Luis.) 



Deserve, what is he ? 



DON Luis. Arias, is he called ! 



QUEEN. Be it proclaimed, no man, on pain of treason, 

 Aid or abet to save this villain's life : 

 But whoso captive brings him unto us, 

 Dead or alive, receives a thousand crowns. 

 Here I, in face of heaven, do vow an oath, 

 Never to sleep or garment change till all 

 The tyrant Moors are subject to my power : 

 That ages yet to come shall surely know, 

 A woman wronged, a woman has avenged. 



(Exeunt.) 



(To be continued.) 



