EGILONA _enters_.
_Egi._ Remain, I order thee.
Attend, and do thy duty: I am queen,
Unbent to degradation.
_Cov._ I attend
Ever most humbly and most gratefully
My too kind sovereign, cousin now no more;
Could I perform but half the services
I owe her, I were happy for a time;
Or dared I show her half my love, ’twere bliss.
_Egi._ Oh! I sink under gentleness like thine.
Thy sight is death to me; and yet ’tis dear.
The gaudy trappings of assumptive state
Drop at the voice of nature to the earth,
Before thy feet—I cannot force myself
To hate thee, to renounce thee; yet—Covilla!
Yet—oh distracting thought! ’tis hard to see,
Hard to converse with, to admire, to love—
As from my soul I do, and must do, thee—
One who hath robbed me of all pride and joy,
All dignity, all fondness. I adored
Roderigo—he was brave, and in discourse
Most voluble; the masses of his mind
Were vast, but varied; now absorbed in gloom,
Majestic, not austere; now their extent
Opening, and waving in bright levity—
_Jul._ Depart, my daughter—’twere as well to bear
His presence as his praise—go—she will dream
This phantasm out, nor notice thee depart.
[COVILLA _goes_.
_Egi._ What pliancy! what tenderness! what life!
Oh for the smiles of those who smile so seldom,
The love of those who know no other love!
Such he was, Egilona, who was thine.
_Jul._ While he was worthy of the realm and thee.
_Egi._ Can it be true, then, Julian, that thy aim
Is sovereignty? not virtue, nor revenge?
_Jul._ I swear to Heaven, nor I nor child of mine
Ever shall mount to this polluted throne.
_Egi._ Then am I still a queen. The savage Moor
Who could not conquer Ceuta from thy sword,
In his own country, not with every wile
Of his whole race, not with his myriad crests
Of cavalry, seen from the Calpian heights
Like locusts on the parched and gleamy coast,
Will never conquer Spain.
_Jul._ Spain then was conquered
When fell her laws before the traitor king.