Read Ebook: Count Alarcos; a Tragedy by Disraeli Benjamin Earl Of Beaconsfield

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Ebook has 437 lines and 85380 words, and 9 pages

I:2:10 ALAR. Why, this is humour! We're courtiers now; and we must smile and smirk.

I:2:11 COUN. Methinks your tongue is gayer than your glance. The King, I hope, was gracious?

I:2:12 ALAR. Were he not, My frown's as prompt as his. He was most gracious.

I:2:13 COUN. Something has chafed thee?

I:2:14 ALAR. What should chafe me, child, And when should hearts be light, if mine be dull? Is not mine exile over? Is it nought To breathe in the same house where we were born, And sleep where slept our fathers? Should that chafe?

I:2:15 COUN. Yet didst then leave my side this very morn, And with a vow this day should ever count Amid thy life most happy; when we meet Thy brow is clouded.

I:2:16 ALAR. Joy is sometimes grave, And deepest when 'tis calm. And I am joyful If it be joy, this long forbidden hall Once more to pace, and feel each fearless step Tread on a baffled foe.

I:2:17 COUN. Hast thou still foes

I:2:18 ALAR. I trust so; I should not be what I am, Still less what I will be, if hate did not Pursue me as my shadow. Ah! fair wife, Thou knowest not Burgos. Thou hast yet to fathom The depths of thy new world.

I:2:19 COUN. I do recoil As from some unknown woo, from this same world. I thought we came for peace.

I:2:20 ALAR. Peace dwells within No lordly roof in Burgos. We have come For triumph.

I:2:21 COUN. So I share thy lot, Alarcos, All feelings are the same.

I:2:22 ALAR. My Florimonde, I took thee from a fair and pleasant home In a soft land, where, like the air they live in, Men's hearts are mild. This proud and fierce Castille Resembles not thy gentle Aquitaine, More than the eagle may a dove, and yet It is my country. Danger in its bounds Weighs more than foreign safety. But why speak Of what exists not?

I:2:23 COUN. And I hope may never!

I:2:24 ALAR. And if it come, what then? This chance shall find me Not unprepared.

I:2:25 COUN. But why should there be danger? And why should'st thou, the foremost prince of Spain, Fear or make foes? Thou standest in no light Would fall on other shoulders; thou hast no height To climb, and nought to gain. Thou art complete; The King alone above thee, and thy friend.

I:2:26 ALAR. So I would deem. I did not speak of fear.

I:2:27 COUN. Of danger?

I:2:28 ALAR. That's delight, when it may lead To mighty ends. Ah, Florimonde! thou art too pure; Unsoiled in the rough and miry paths Of ibis same trampling world; unskilled in heats Of fierce and emulous spirits. There's a rapture In the strife of factions, that a woman's soul Can never reach. Men smiled on me to-day Would gladly dig my grave; and yet I smiled, And gave them coin as ready as their own, And not less base.

I:2:29 COUN. And can there be such men, And canst thou live with them?

I:2:30 ALAR. Ay! and they saw Me ride this morning in my state again; The people cried 'Alarcos and Castille!' The shout will dull their feasts.

I:2:31 COUN. There was a time Thou didst look back as on a turbulent dream On this same life.

I:2:32 ALAR. I was an exile then. This stirring Burgos has revived my vein. Yea, as I glanced from off the Citadel This very morn, and at my feet outspread Its amphitheatre of solemn towers And groves of golden pinnacles, and marked Turrets of friends and foes; or traced the range, Spread since my exile, of our city's walls Washed by the swift Arlanzon: all around The flash of lances, blaze of banners, rush Of hurrying horsemen, and the haughty blast Of the soul-stirring trumpet, I renounced My old philosophy, and gazed as gazes The falcon on his quarry!

I:2:33 COUN. Jesu grant The lure will bear no harm!

I:2:34 ALAR. Whose note is that? I hear the tramp of horsemen in the court; We have some guests.

I:2:35 COUN. Indeed!

I:2:36 ALAR. My noble friends, My Countess greets ye!

I:2:37 SIDO. And indeed we pay To her our homage.

I:2:38 LEON. Proud our city boasts So fair a presence.

I:2:39 COUN. Count Alarcos' friends Are ever welcome here.

I:2:40 ALAR. No common wife. Who welcomes with a smile her husband's friends.

I:2:41 SIDO. Indeed a treasure! When I marry, Count, I'll claim your counsel.

I:2:42 COUN. 'Tis not then your lot?

I:2:43 SIDO. Not yet, sweet dame; tho' sooth to say, full often I dream such things may be.

I:2:44 COUN. Your friend is free?

I:2:45 LEON. And values freedom: with a rosy chain I still should feel a captive.

I:2:46 SIDO. Noble Leon Is proof against the gentle passion, lady, And will ere long, my rapier for a gage, Marry a scold.

I:2:47 LEON. In Burgos now, methinks, Marriage is scarce the mode. Our princess frowns, It seems, upon her suitors.

I:2:48 SIDO. Is it true The match is off?

I:2:49 LEON. 'Tis said.

I:2:50 COUN. The match is off You did not tell me this strange news, Alarcos.

I:2:51 SIDO. Did he not tell you how--

I:2:52 ALAR. In truth, good sirs, My wife and I are somewhat strangers here, And things that are of moment to the minds That long have dwelt on them, to us are nought.

There was a sort of scene to-day at Court; The Princess fainted: we were all dismissed, Somewhat abruptly; but, in truth, I deem These rumours have no source but in the tongues Of curious idlers.

I:2:53 SIDO. Faith, I hold them true. Indeed they're very rife.

I:2:54 LEON. Poor man, methinks His is a lot forlorn, at once to lose A mistress and a crown!

I:2:55 COUN. Yet both may bring Sorrow and cares. But little joy, I ween, Dwells with a royal bride, too apt to claim The homage she should yield.

I:2:56 SIDO. I would all wives Hold with your Countess in this pleasing creed.

I:2:57 ALAR. She has her way: it is a cunning wench That knows to wheedle. Burgos still maintains Its fame for noble fabrics. Since my time The city's spread.

I:2:58 SIDO. Ah! you're a traveller, Count. And yet we have not lagged.

I:2:59 COUN. The Infanta, sirs, Was it a kind of swoon?

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