I yet will save him-Necessary means, Deceit is truth and virtue-But how hold To me, I know 'tis ruin; But safety to the public, to the king. I will not reason more-No-'tis fixed! Enter OSMOND. Osm. My Lord Siffredi, The princess to thy will submits her claims. I could discern, that not from prudence merely Sif. Noble Osmond, You have in this done to the public great Upbraids the rashness of my former judgment. I have so long opposed the best good man you Το Sif. My lord, You have my glad consent. To be allied Osm. You make him happy. I from this moment vow myself the friend Enter an OFFICER. Off [To SIFFREDI.] The king, my lord, demands your speedy presence. Sif. I will attend him straight.-Farewell, my lord; The senate meets; there, a few moments hence, Osm. There, my noble lord, We will complete this salutary work; Will there begin a new auspicious era. [Exeunt SIFFREDI and OFFICER. Siffredi gives his daughter to my wishes; But does she give herself? Gay, young, and flattered, Perhaps engaged. I am not form'd, by flattery and praise, By sighs and tears, and all the whining trade To charm at once and spoil her. These soft arts Resigns his daughter to a husband's power, Enter RODOLPHO from the Senate. Rod. This will perplexes all. No, Tancred never Can stoop to these conditions, which at once Attack his rights, his honour, and his love. Th' unjust, the base conditions of the will, He oft, methought, address'd himself to speak, With conscious haste to dread that interruption, Enter LAURA. Laura. Your high-praised friend, the king, Is false, most vilely false. The meanest slave Had shown a nobler heart. He Manfred's son! away! it cannot be ! The son of that brave prince could never sacrifice All faith, all honour, gratitude and love. And, for what? why, truly, For kind permission, gracious leave, to sit On his own throne, with tyrant William's daughter! Rod. I stand amazed-You surely wrong him, Laura. There must be some mistake. Laura. There can be none ! Siffredi read his full and free consent Before the applauding senate. True, indeed, To act this scene in Sigismunda's eye, e! presence [Exit LAURA. Enter TANCRED and SIFfredi. Tan. Avoid me, hoary traitor!-Go, Rodolpho, Give orders that all passages this way Be shut-Defend me from a hateful world, The bane of peace and honour-then return [Exit RODOLPHO. What! dost thou haunt me still? O, monstrous in sult! Unparallel'd indignity! Just Heaven! Was ever king, was ever man só treated; So trampled into baseness? Sif. Here, my liege, Here strike! I nor deserve, nor ask for, mercy. Tan. All, all but this, I could have borne-but this! This daring insolence, beyond example! This murderous stroke, that stabs my peace for ever! That wounds me there-there! where the human heart Most exquisitely feels Sif. O, bear it not, t My royal lord; appease on me your vengeance! Which thou hast dared, with rash, audacious hand, And impious fraud, in me to violate Sif. Behold, my lord, that rash, audacious hand, Which not repents its crime-Oh, glorious, happy! If by my ruin I can save your honour. Tan. Such honour I renounce; with sovereign scorn Greatly detest it, and its mean adviser! Hast thou not dared beneath my name to shelter- Beneath thy sovereign's name, basely presumed This poor contrivance is as weak as base. Her cities razed, her valleys drench'd with slaugh ter Love set aside, my pride assumes the quarrel;, Sif. Sir, 'tis just. Exhaust on me thy rage; I claim it all. But for these public threats thy passion utters, "Tis what thou canst not do. Tan. I cannot! ha! What shall arrest my vengeance? Who? Sif. Thyself. Tan. Away! dare not to justify thy crime! That, that alone can aggravate its horror, |