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Sent by her unknown mother, oft bespeaks her

Of kingly race.

Chorus (CAJETAN).

And hast thou won naught else

From her garrulous age?

DON MANUEL.

Too much I feared to peril

My secret bliss!

Chorus (CAJETAN).

What were his words? What tidings

He bore-perchance thou know'st.

DON MANUEL.

Oft he has cheered her

With promise of a happier time, when all

Shall be revealed.

Chorus (CAJETAN).

Oh, say-betokens aught

The time is near?

DON MANUEL.

Not distant far the day

That to the arms of kindred love once more

Shall give the long forsaken, orphaned maid-

Thus with mysterious words the aged man

Has shadowed oft what most I dread-for awe

Of change disturbs the soul supremely blest:

Nay, more; but yesterday his message spoke

The end of all my joys-this very dawn,

He told, should smile auspicious on her fate,

And light to other scenes-no precious hour

Delayed my quick resolves-by night I bore her

In secret to Messina.

Chorus (CAJETAN).

Rash the deed

Of sacrilegious spoil! forgive, my prince,

The bold rebuke; thus to unthinking youth

Old age may speak in friendship's warning voice.

DON MANUEL.

Hard by the convent of the Carmelites,

In a sequestered garden's tranquil bound,

And safe from curious eyes, I left her,-hastening

To meet my brother: trembling there she counts

The slow-paced hours, nor deems how soon triumphant

In queenly state, high on the throne of fame,

Messina shall behold my timid bride.

For next, encompassed by your knightly train,

With pomp of greatness in the festal show,

Her lover's form shall meet her wondering gaze!

Thus will I lead her to my mother; thus-

While countless thousands on her passage wait

Amid the loud acclaim-the royal bride

Shall reach my palace gates!

Chorus (CAJETAN).

Command us, prince,

We live but to obey!

DON MANUEL.

I tore myself

Reluctant from her arms; my every thought

Shall still be hers: so come along, my friends,

To where the turbaned merchant spreads his store

Of fabrics golden wrought with curious art;

And all the gathered wealth of eastern climes.

First choose the well-formed sandals-meet to guard

And grace her delicate feet; then for her robe

The tissue, pure as Etna's snow that lies

Nearest the sun-light as the wreathy mist

At summer dawn-so playful let it float

About her airy limbs. A girdle next,

Purple with gold embroidered o'er, to bind

With witching grace the tunic that confines

Her bosom's swelling charms: of silk the mantle,

Gorgeous with like empurpled hues, and fixed

With clasp of gold-remember, too, the bracelets

To gird her beauteous arms; nor leave the treasure

Of ocean's pearly deeps and coral caves.

About her locks entwine a diadem

Of purest gems-the ruby's fiery glow

Commingling with the emerald's green. A veil,

From her tiara pendent to her feet,

Like a bright fleecy cloud shall circle round

Her slender form; and let a myrtle wreath

Crown the enchanting whole!

Chorus (CAJETAN).

We haste, my prince.

Amid the Bazar's glittering rows, to cull

Each rich adornment.

DON MANUEL.

From my stables lead

A palfrey, milk-white as the steeds that draw

The chariot of the sun; purple the housings,

The bridle sparkling o'er with precious gems,

For it shall bear my queen! Yourselves be ready

With trumpet's cheerful clang, in martial train

To lead your mistress home: let two attend me,

The rest await my quick return; and each

Guard well my secret purpose.

[He goes away accompanied by two of the CHORUS.

Chorus (CAJETAN).

The princely strife is o'er, and say,

What sport shall wing the slow-paced hours,

And cheat the tedious day?

With hope and fear's enlivening zest

Disturb the slumber of the breast,

And wake life's dull, untroubled sea

With freshening airs of gay variety.

One of the Chorus (MANFRED).

Lovely is peace! A beauteous boy,

Couched listless by the rivulet's glassy tide,

'Mid nature's tranquil scene,

He views the lambs that skip with innocent joy,

And crop the meadow's flowering pride:-

Then with his flute's enchanting sound,

He wakes the mountain echoes round,

Or slumbers in the sunset's ruddy sheen,

Lulled by the murmuring melody.

But war for me! my spirit's treasure,

Its, stern delight, and wilder pleasure:

I love the peril and the pain,

And revel in the surge of fortune's boisterous main!

A second (BERENGAR).

Is there not love, and beauty's smile

That lures with soft, resistless wile?

'Tis thrilling hope! 'tis rapturous fear

'Tis heaven upon this mortal sphere;

When at her feet we bend the knee,

And own the glance of kindred ecstasy

For ever on life's checkered way,

'Tis love that tints the darkening hues of care

With soft benignant ray:

The mirthful daughter of the wave,

Celestial Venus ever fair,

Enchants our happy spring with fancy's gleam,

And wakes the airy forms of passion's golden dream.

First (MANFRED).

To the wild woods away!

Quick let us follow in the train

Of her, chaste huntress of the silver bow;

And from the rocks amain

Track through the forest gloom the bounding roe,

The war-god's merry bride,

The chase recalls the battle's fray,

And kindles victory's pride:-

Up with the streaks of early morn,

We scour with jocund hearts the misty vale,

Loud echoing to the cheerful horn

Over mountain-over dale-

And every languid sense repair,

Bathed in the rushing streams of cold, reviving air.

Second (BERENGAR).

Or shall we trust the ever-moving sea,

The azure goddess, blithe and free.

Whose face, the mirror of the cloudless sky,

Lures to her bosom wooingly?

Quick let us build on the dancing waves

A floating castle gay,

And merrily, merrily, swim away!

Who ploughs with venturous keel the brine

Of the ocean crystalline-

His bride is fortune, the world his own,

For him a harvest blooms unsown:-

Here, like the wind that swift careers

The circling bound of earth and sky,

Flits ever-changeful destiny!

Of airy chance 'tis the sportive reign,

And hope ever broods on the boundless main

A third (CAJETAN).

Nor on the watery waste alone

Of the tumultuous, heaving sea;-

On the firm earth that sleeps secure,

Based on the pillars of eternity.

Say, when shall mortal joy endure?

New bodings in my anxious breast,

Waked by this sudden friendship, rise;

Ne'er would I choose my home of rest