POLONIA. -- LUIS.
POLONIA [aside] (Now with mind made up I come.)
Luis, an occasion offers
Ever as the test and touchstone
Of true love. By certain knowledge
Have I learned the imminent danger
Of thy life. The wrath grows hotter
Of my father, and his fury
To evade is most important.
All the guards that here are with thee
Has my liberal hand suborned,
So that at the clink of gold
Have their ears grown deaf and torpid.
Fly! and that thou mayest see
How a woman's heart can prompt her,
How her honour she can trample,
How her self-respect leave prostrate,
With thee I will go, since now
It is needful that henceforward
I in life and death am thine,
For without thee life were worthless,
Thou who in my heart dost live.
I bring with me gems and money
Quite enough to the most distant
Parts of India to transport us,
Where the sun with beams and shadows
Scatters frost, or burning scorches.
At the door two steeds are standing,
I should rather call these horses
Two swift lynxes, air-born creatures,
Thoughts by liveliest minds begotten;
They so rapid are, that though
We as fugitives fly on them,
An assurance of our safety
We shall feel. At once resolve then.
Why thus ponder? what delays thee?
Time is pressing, therefore shorten
All discourse; and that mischance,
Which disturbs love's plans so often,
May not offer an obstruction
To so well-prepared a project,
First before thee I will go.
Issue, while in specious converse
I divert thy guards, and give
To thy coming forth a cover.
Even the sun our project favours,
Which amid the west waves yonder,
Sinking, dips his golden curls
To refresh his glowing forehead.
[Exit.
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