Pedro the Cruel
Fad. What if I be?
I do not know why I should prize my life,
And I had rather die a traitor's death
Than be one.
Enri.
Oh, 'tis monstrous to be other
Than traitor in this cause. How shall I move you?
Must I go over with you, page by page,
All our sad history?
Fad. I have not forgotten it,
Enri. Oh, then more shame for you. Think, think, Fadrique,
How when my father died, who loved us so,
Whose last breath sighed away our royalty,
Whose corpse we dared not follow to its grave;
We, his best, first-born, dearest sons, shut out,
While common soldiers and the gaping rabble
Elbowed each other round his funeral vault,
And watched him into darkness. How the boy
Men had so long forgotten, from his nursery
Started upon a sudden to reign over us!
Then oh, what gnashing of the teeth were ours!
What scorn did grin, clap hands, and mock at us!
What deep-sworn friendship turned its back on us!
And what came next? Have you forgotten that?
Fad. No more, Enriquez!
Enri. How the crowned she-devil
Did, for the dear love that she bore her imp—
I do not know why I should prize my life,
And I had rather die a traitor's death
Than be one.
Enri.
Oh, 'tis monstrous to be other
Than traitor in this cause. How shall I move you?
Must I go over with you, page by page,
All our sad history?
Fad. I have not forgotten it,
Enri. Oh, then more shame for you. Think, think, Fadrique,
How when my father died, who loved us so,
Whose last breath sighed away our royalty,
Whose corpse we dared not follow to its grave;
We, his best, first-born, dearest sons, shut out,
While common soldiers and the gaping rabble
Elbowed each other round his funeral vault,
And watched him into darkness. How the boy
Men had so long forgotten, from his nursery
Started upon a sudden to reign over us!
Then oh, what gnashing of the teeth were ours!
What scorn did grin, clap hands, and mock at us!
What deep-sworn friendship turned its back on us!
And what came next? Have you forgotten that?
Fad. No more, Enriquez!
Enri. How the crowned she-devil
Did, for the dear love that she bore her imp—
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