In these dark moments of suspended fate,
While yet the future fortune of my country
Lies in the womb of Providence conceal'd,
And anxious angels wait the mighty birth;
O grant thy sacred influence, pow'rful Virtue!
Attentive rise, survey the fair creation,
Till, conscious of th' encircling deity,
Beyond the mists of care thy pinion tow'rs.
This calm, these joys, dear innocence! are thine: Is Greece deliver'd? is the tyrant fall'n? Joys ill exchang'd for gold, and pride, and empire. [Enter Irene and Attendants.
ASPASIA, IRENE, and Attendants.
See how the Moon through all th' unclouded sky
Spreads her mild radiance, and descending dews
Revive the languid flow'rs; thus Nature shone
New from the Maker's hand, and fair array'd
In the bright colours of primeval spring ;
When purity, while fraud was yet unknown,
Greece is no more; the prosperous tyrant lives, Reserv'd for other lands, the scourge of Heav'n.
deSay by what fraud, what force, were you feated? Betray'd by falsehood or by crowds o'erborne?
The pressing exigence forbids relation. Abdalla
ASPASIA, IRENE, DEMETRIUS.
Abdalla fails; now, Fortune, all is mine. [Aside.
Haste, Murza, to the palace, let the sultan [To one of her Attendants. Dispatch his guards to stop the flying traitors, While I protract their stay. Be swift and faithful. [Exit Murza. This lucky stratagem shall charm the Sultan, Secure his confidence, and fix his love. [Aside.
Behold a boaster's worth! Now snatch, my fair,
The happy moment; hasten to the shore,
Ere he return with thousands at his side.
In vain I listen to th' inviting call
Of freedom and of love; my trembling joints,
Relax'd with fear, refuse to bear me forward.
Depart, Demetrius, lest my fate involve thee;
Forsake a wretch abandon'd to despair,
To share the miseries herself has caus'd.
Let us not struggle with th' eternal will,
Nor languish o'er irreparable ruins ;
Come, haste and live-Thy innocence and truth
Shall bless our wand'rings, and propitiate Heav'n.
Press not her flight, while yet her feeble nerves
Refuse their office, and uncertain life
Still labours with imaginary woe;
Here let me tend her with officious care,
Watch each unquiet flutter of the breast,
And joy to feel the vital warmth return,
To see the cloud forsake her kindling cheek,
And hail the rosy dawn of rising health.
Oh! rather, scornful of flagitious greatness, Resolve to share our daugers and our toils, Companion of our flight, illustrious exile, Leave slavery, guilt, and infamy behind.
My soul attends thy voice, and banish'd virtue
Strives to regain her empire of the mind:
Assist her efforts with her strong persuasion;
Sure 'tis the happy hour ordain'd above,
When vanquish'd vice shall tyrannize no more.
Remember peace and anguish are before thee, And honour and reproach, and Heav'n and Hell.
Content with freedom, and precarious greatness.
Stay in this dubious twilight of conviction,
The gleams of reason, and the clouds of passion,
Irradiate and obscure my breast by turns:
Stay but a moment, and prevailing truth
Will spread resistless light upon my soul.
But since none knows the danger of a moment,
And Heav'n forbids to lavish life away,
Let kind compulsion terminate the contest.
Ye Christian captives, follow me to freedom;
[Seizing her hand.
A galley waits us, and the winds invite.
Will teach a gentler term.
Forbear this rudeness, And learn the rev'rence due to Turkey's queen: Fly, slaves, and call the sultan to my rescue.
Farewell, unhappy maid: may every joy
Be thine, that wealth can give, or guilt receive!
And when, contemptuous of imperial pow'r,
Disease shall chase the phantoms of ambition,
May penitence attend thy mournful bed,
And wing thy latest prayer to pitying Heav'n!
[Exeunt Dem. Asp. with part of the attendants.
[IRENE walks at a distance from her attendants.] After a pause.
Against the head, which innocence secures,
Insidious malice aims her darts in vain, [Heav'n.
Turn'd backwards by the pow'rful breath of
Perhaps even now the lovers unpursu'd
Bound o'er the sparkling waves. Go, happy bark,
Thy sacred freight shall still the raging main.
To guide thy passage shall th' aërial spirits
Fill all the starry lamps with double blaze;
Th' applauding sky shall pour forth all its beams,
To grace the triumph of victorious virtue;
While I, not yet familiar to my crimes,
Recoil from thought, and shudder at myself.
How am I chang'd! How lately did Irene
Fly from the busy pleasures of her sex, [brance,
Well pleas'd to search the treasures of remem-
And live her guiltless moments o'er anew!
Come, let us seek new pleasures in the palace,
[To her attendants going off.
Till soft fatigue invite us to repose.
SCENE VII.
Now make thy choice, while yet the pow'r of [Enter MUSTAPHA, meeting and stopping her.]
Kind Heav'n affords thee, and inviting mercy Holds out her hand to lead thee back to truth.
From his escape learn thou the pow'r of virtne; Dispatch, ye ling'ring slaves; or nimbler hands,Nor hope his fortune, while thou want'st his
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