SCENE I.
ZAMOR, AMERICANS.
ZAMOR.
My noble friends, and fellow-sufferers,
Whom dangers strengthen, and misfortunes make
But more illustrious, shall we ne’er obtain
Our sweet revenge, or honorable death?
Still must we live unable or to serve
Alzire, or our country; shall we never
Find out the hated Guzman, and destroy
That fell destroyer? O my country’s gods,
Powerless and vain, ye gave up this fair land
Of liberty to hostile deities;
And tamely suffered a few wandering Spaniards
To spoil your altars, lay your temples waste,
And desolate our empire; I have lost
A kingdom and Alzire; all is gone
But shame, and sorrow, and resentment, those
I carried with me to the burning sands
And gloomy deserts; there I cherished long
The secret hopes of vengeance: you, my friends
Revived your drooping Zamor, and inspired
His soul with flattering thoughts of better days:
Deep in the forest’s shade we left a band
Of chosen spirits, resolute and bold,
And hither came, impatient to observe
The walls upraised by our tremendous foe.
They watched, and seized us: in a dungeon long
Confined, at length our tyrant masters grant us
Leave to walk forth, and breathe the wholesome air,
Yet will not deign to let us know our fate:
Can none inform me where we are, who dwells
Within this seat of sorrow? where’s Alzire,
Where’s Montezuma, lives he, is he free,
Or a vile slave like Zamor? say, my friends,
And partners in affliction, know ye not?
AN AMERICAN.
Like you, my lord, in chains, and hither led
By secret paths, we’re ignorant of all:
Great Cacique, worthy of a better fate,
If ‘tis decreed that thou must fall, at least
Thou shalt find friends prepared to perish with thee,
And own them not unworthy of their master.
ZAMOR.
After a glorious victory, my friends,
A glorious death is most to be desired;
But O, to die in vile obscurity,
To perish thus in ignominious bondage,
To leave our bleeding country thus enslaved
By European robbers, those assassins
Whose thirst for blood and gold, these proud usurpers,
Who would extort by every cruel art
Of punishment those riches which we hold
More cheap, more worthless than themselves, to leave
My loved Alzire, Zamor’s dearer half,
To their licentious fury, O my friends,
‘Tis worse than death: I tremble at the thought.
SCENE II.
ALVAREZ, ZAMOR, AMERICANS.
ALVAREZ.
Live, and be free.
ZAMOR.
Good heavens, what do I hear?
O unexpected sound! what God art thou
In human shape? a Spaniard, and forgive!
It cannot be: art thou the ruler here?
ALVAREZ.
No, captive; I am only the protector
Of innocence oppressed.
ZAMOR.
Thou good old man,
What is thy office here?
ALVAREZ.
To aid the wretched.
ZAMOR.
What could inspire thee with a thought so noble?
ALVAREZ.
My gratitude, religion, and my God.
ZAMOR.
God and religion! what! these cruel tyrants,
These ruffians, that still bathed in human blood
Depopulate earth, and change the smiling face
Of nature to a dreary desert, they
Who worship avarice alone! their God
Cannot be thine!
ALVAREZ.
It is the same, my son,
But they offend him, they disgrace his name,
And are indeed more guilty; they abuse
Their new-got power: thou knowest their crime, but know
My duty too: twice hath the travelling sun
Enlightened in his course our world and yours
Since a brave Indian, who he was I know not,
Stepped from amidst his fellow-savages,
And saved me from their fury; from that moment
I felt your sorrows, pitied your misfortunes,
And held you as my brethren and my friends;
Could I but meet my kind deliverer,
That gallant stranger, I should die in peace.
ZAMOR.
His age, his features, his transcendent virtue,
All, all conspire to say it is Alvarez:
Behold, and mark us well, canst thou distinguish
The hand that saved thee?
ALVAREZ.
Gracious heaven! come near.
O Providence! it is, it must be he,
The wished-for object of my gratitude;
He whom these eyes, grown dim with age, have sought
So long in vain; my son, my benefactor,
What shall I do to serve thee? thou shalt live
With old Alvarez; he shall be thy father,
Thy guardian and protector here: kind heaven
In gracious pity hath prolonged my days,
That I might pay the debt I owe to thee.
ZAMOR.
O if thy barbarous nation had possessed
But half the virtues that adorn Alvarez,
Our willing world had bowed submissive down
Before them; but their souls are not like thine,
For they delight in blood, whilst nature’s self
Abhorring shudders at their cruelty;
Death were more welcome far than life with them:
Urge me not therefore, good Alvarez, all
I wish to know is this, have they destroyed
My noble friend, the wretched Montezuma?
Where’s my Alzire’s father? O my lord,
Forgive these tears, the memory of past griefs
Sits heavy on me.
ALVAREZ.
Let them flow my son,
‘Tis the best mark of our humanity:
The heart that feels not for another’s woe
Is fit for every crime: thy friend survives,
And full of years and honors lives with us
In happiness and peace.
ZAMOR.
Might I behold him?
ALVAREZ.
Yes; thou shalt see him soon: may his persuasion
Induce thee to think better of us all,
And follow his example!
ZAMOR.
Can he live
With Christians, Montezuma live with Christians?
ALVAREZ.
Have patience, son, and he shall tell thee all,
Touching our union, and the sacred bonds
That soon shall bind in cords of amity
Our world to thine — but I must to my son,
And let him know my happiness; I leave thee
But for a moment; fare thee well.
SCENE III.
ZAMOR, AMERICANS.
ZAMOR.
At last
Heaven seems to smile on Zamor; I have found
Amongst these vile barbarians one just man,
Honest and true: Alvarez is a god,
Sent down from heaven to soften this rude world,
And bless mankind: he said he had a son,
That son shall be my brother and my friend,
If he is worthy of his noble father:
O glorious hope! shall I again behold
Great Montezuma after three long years?
Alzire too, my dear, my loved Alzire,
Shall I embrace thee, hast thou kept thy faith,
That first of virtues, to reward thy Zamor?
The heart oppressed is ever diffident:
Another old man comes this way: my soul
It still perplexed.
SCENE IV.
MONTEZUMA, ZAMOR, AMERICANS.
ZAMOR.
O noble Montezuma,
Do I once more embrace thee? see thy Zamor
Snatched from the jaws of death; he lives to save
And to defend his prince: behold thy friend,
Thy soldier, and thy son: O where’s Alzire?
Be quick, and tell me, let me know her fate,
My life depends on that.
MONTEZUMA.
Unhappy Cacique,
With grief sincere we have lamented thee;
Thy fellow-soldiers to thy memory raised
The decent tomb, and every honor paid
Due to thy virtues: but thank heaven! thou livest,
Henceforth may happier days await thee, Zamor!
But say, why camest thou hither?
ZAMOR.
To avenge
My gods, myself, my father and Alzire.
MONTEZUMA.
What sayst thou?
ZAMOR.
Call to mind that dreadful day
When the fierce Spaniard, terrible in arms,
Rushed through our powerless hosts, o’erthrew our bulwarks,
And laid our empire waste; his name was Guzman:
That name, thou well rememberest, was the signal
Given for destruction; at that name they snatched
The sweet Alzire, thy loved daughter, from me,
And bore her to captivity with thee
And all thy race; destroyed the holy altar,
Where I had hoped to make Alzire mine,
Then dragged me to the tyrant: shall I tell thee
What cruel torments that insatiate monster
Inflicted on me, to extort confession
Of hidden gold, the Christian’s deity,
Which we despise and trample on? half-dead
They left me and retired: time, Montezuma,
Can never bury injuries like mine;
Thou seest me here, prepared for great revenge:
Some chosen friends, attached to Zamor’s cause,
By equal wrongs provoked, with equal hate
Inspired, await me in the neighboring forest,
Resolved with me to conquer or to die.
MONTEZUMA.
O Zamor, whither would thy headlong passion
Transport thee? wherefore wouldst thou thus pursue
That death which seems so willing to avoid thee?
What can thy friends do for thee? their weak arms,
Their fish-bone spears, their sabres made of stone,
Their soldiers naked, and ill-disciplined,
Against these giants armed with mortal steel,
And launching their dread thunder bolts against thee?
Swift as the winds, their fiery coursers bear them
To certain victory; the world is theirs,
And we, my Zamor, must submit.
ZAMOR.
Whilst life
Shall animate these veins, I never will:
No, Montezuma: their destructive thunder,
Their coats of steel, their fiery coursers taught
Like them to fight, and share their master’s glory,
This might affright, and terrify a while
Our gaping savages, but I behold
This pompous scene unruffled: to subdue
Our haughty foe one thing alone’s required,
And that is, not to fear them; novelty,
That conquers cowards, only has enslaved us:
Gold, that pernicious native of our soil,
Draws Europe hither, but defends us not
Against her; niggard nature has denied us
A nobler metal, her all-conquering steel,
And given it to barbarians; but kind heaven,
In lieu of this indulgence, hath bestowed
Virtues on us which Europe never knew.
I come to fight and conquer for Alzire.
MONTEZUMA.
Urge it no more, my Zamor, heaven declares
Against us, calm thy rage; the times are changed.
ZAMOR.
Changed, didst thou say, my lord? it cannot be,
If Montezuma’s heart is still the same,
If my Alzire’s faithful, if I live
Still in her memory. — Thou turnest aside
And weepest.
MONTEZUMA.
Unhappy Zamor!
ZAMOR.
Am I not
Thy son? our tyrants have not altered thee?
They cannot, sure they cannot have corrupted
An old man’s heart, and made it false as theirs?
MONTEZUMA.
I am not guilty, Zamor, nor are all
These conquerors tyrants; some were sent by heaven
To guide our footsteps in the paths of truth,
To teach us arts unknown, immortal secrets,
The knowledge of mankind, the arts, my son,
To speak, to think, to live, and to be happy.
ZAMOR.
O horrid! canst thou praise these ruffians, whilst
Thy daughter, thy Alzire, is their slave?
MONTEZUMA.
Zamor, Alzire’s free.
ZAMOR.
Ha! Montezuma,
Alzire free? forgive me, but remember,
She’s mine, my lord, by every solemn tie;
You promised me, before the gods you promised,
To give her to me; they received our vows;
She is not perjured?
MONTEZUMA.
Call not on those gods,
For they are vain, and fancied idols all;
I have abjured them, and henceforth must worship
That power supreme which hath subdued them.
ZAMOR.
Ha!
The law of thy forefathers, thy religion,
Is that deserted?
MONTEZUMA.
I have found its weakness,
And left its vain chimeras: may the God
Of Gods convert thee, and inspire with truth
Thy unenlightened soul! unhappy Zamor,
Soon mayest thou know that Europe thou condemnest,
Her virtues, and her faith!
ZAMOR.
What mighty virtues
Has she to boast? thou art indeed a slave
If thou hast lost thy gods, thy faith, thy honor,
And broke thy sacred word: Alzire too,
Has she betrayed me? O take heed!
MONTEZUMA.
My heart
Reproaches me for nothing: fare thee well!
I bless my own good fate, and weep for thine.
ZAMOR.
If thou art false, thou hast cause to weep indeed:
Pity the torments which I feel for thee,
And for thy guilt; pity a heart distracted
By love and vengeance; let me find out Guzman
Let me behold Alzire, let me fall
Beneath her feet; O do not hide her from me:
Conduct me, urge me not thus to despair,
Put on a human heart, let thy lost virtue —
SCENE V.
MONTEZUMA, ZAMOR, Guards.
GUARD.
[To Montezuma.
The ceremony waits, my lord.
MONTEZUMA.
I come.
ZAMOR.
Thou wilt not leave me? tell me, Montezuma,
What ceremony’s this.
MONTEZUMA.
No more: away,
And leave this fatal place.
ZAMOR.
Though heaven itself
Forbade me, I would follow thee.
MONTEZUMA.
Forgive
My rude denial, Zamor, but you must not,
I say you must not — guards, prevent him — pagans
Must not profane our Christian altars; I
Command not here, but Guzman speaks by me:
You must obey: farewell.
SCENE VI.
ZAMOR, AMERICANS.
ZAMOR.
What do I hear?
Guzman? O shameful treason! Montezuma
The slave of Guzman! where is virtue fled?
Alzire too, is my Alzire guilty?
Has she too drank corruption’s poisonous bowl
From these vile Christians? — that destroyer Guzman
Rules here, it seems; what’s to be done?
FIRST AMERICAN.
Permit me
To counsel you, my lord; the good old man
Who saved thee with his son will soon return,
He can deny you nothing; ask of him
Safe conduct to the city gates; that done,
We may return and join our noble friends
Against the foe: I doubt not of success:
We will not spare a man of them except
Alvarez, and his son: I’ve marked, my lord,
With most observant eye, their fosses, ramparts,
And brazen thunders, European arts
That fright not me: alas! our countrymen
Forge their own shameful chains, and tamely bend
Beneath these sons of pride; but soon, my lord,
When they shall see their great avenger here,
Then will they rise indignant, and destroy
This ignominious work of slavery:
Yes; on the bleeding bodies of our foes
We’ll make a path to glory; on the heads
Of these vile Christians turn the fiery tempest,
And with their own destructive instruments
Of murder shake this all-usurping power,
Founded by pride on ignorance and fear.
ZAMOR.
O how I joy, ye great unfortunate,
To find your kindred breasts thus nobly beat
With sympathetic fury! let us punish
The haughty Guzman, let his blood atone
For our lost country’s: O thou deity
Of injured mortals, sweet revenge, O come,
Assist thy servants, let but Guzman perish
And we are satisfied! but O my friends,
We talk of vengeance, yet are captives still,
Still groan beneath the yoke of shameful bondage:
Deserted by Alvarez, and betrayed
By Montezuma, all I love perhaps
Is in the power of him whom most I hate,
The only comfort left me is — to doubt.
But hark! what noise is that? the torches flame
On every side, and yield a double day:
This barbarous people’s brazen thunder speaks
Some horrid rites, or pompous sacrifice
Preparing: look around, and see if Zamor
Shall save his much-loved friends, or perish with them.
End of the Second Act.