PIZARRO.

ACT I. SCENE I.

A magnificent Pavilion near PIZARRO'S Tent a View of the Spanish Camp in the back Ground.— ELVIRA is discovered sleeping under a canopy on one side of the pavilion-VALVERDE enters, gazes on ELVIRA, kneels, and attempts to kiss her hand; ELVIRA, awakened, rises and looks at him with indignation.

Elv. AUDACIOUS! Whence is thy privilege to interrupt the few moments of repose my harassed mind can snatch amid the tumults of this noisy camp? Shall I inform your master of this presumptuous treachery? Shall I disclose thee to Pizarro ? hey!

Val. I am his servant, it is true- trusted by him and I know him well; and therefore 'tis I

ask, by what magic could Pizarro gain your heart; by what fatality still holds he your affection? Elv. Hold! thou trusty secretary!

Val. Ignobly born! in mind and manners rude, ferocious, and unpolished, though cool and crafty if occasion need-in youth audacious-ill his first manhood a licensed pirate-treating men as brutes, the world as booty; yet now the Spanish hero is he styled the first of Spanish conquerors! and for a warrior so accomplished, 'tis fit Elvira should leave her noble family, her fame, her home, to share the dangers, humours, and the crimes of such a lover as Pizarro!

Elv. What! Valverde moralizing! But grant I am in error, what is my incentive? Passion, infatuation, call it as you will; but what attaches thee to this despised, unworthy leader? - Base lucre is thy object, mean fraud thy means. Could you gain me, you only hope to win a higher interest in Pizarro — I know you.

Val. On my soul, you wrong me; what else my faults, I have none towards you: but indulge the scorn and levity of your nature; do it while yet the time permits; the gloomy hour, I fear, too soon approaches.

Elv. Valverde, a prophet too!

Val. Hear me, Elvira - Shame from his late de

feat, and burning wishes for revenge, again have brought Pizarro to Peru; but trust me, he overrates his strength, nor measures well the foe. Encamped in a strange country, where terror cannot force, nor corruption buy a single friend, what have we to hope? The army murmuring at increasing hardships, while Pizarro decorates with gaudy spoil the gay pavilion of his luxury! each day diminishes our force.

Elv. But are you not the heirs of those that fall? Val. Are gain and plunder then our only purpose? Is this Elvira's heroism ?

Elv. No, so save me Heaven! I abhor the motive, means, and end of your pursuits; but I will trust none of you:in your whole army there is not one of you that has a heart, or speaks ingenuously-aged Las-Casas, and he alone, excepted.

Val. He! an enthusiast in the opposite and worse extreme!

Elv. Oh! had I earlier known that virtuous man, how different might my lot have been!

Val. I will grant, Pizarro could not then so easily have duped you: forgive me, but at that event I still must wonder.

Elv. Hear me, Valverde.-When first my virgin fancy waked to love, Pizarro was my country's idol.

Self-taught, self-raised, and self-supported, he became a hero; and I was formed to be won by glory and renown. 'Tis known that when he left Panama in a slight vessel, his force was not a hundred men. Arrived in the island of Gallo, with his sword he drew a line upon the sands, and said, 'Pass those who fear to die or conquer with their leader.' Thirteen alone remained, and at the head of these the warrior stood his ground. Even at the moment when my ears first caught this tale, my heart exclaimed, Pizarro is its lord!' What since I have perceived, or thought, or felt, you must have more worth to win the knowledge of.

Val. I press no further; still assured that while Alonzo de Molina, our general's former friend and pupil, leads the enemy, Pizarro never more will be a conqueror. [Trumpets without.

Elv. Silence! I hear him coming; look not perplexed.- How mystery and fraud confound the countenance! Quick, put on an honest face, if thou canst.

Piz. [Speaking without.] Chain and secure him; I will examine him myself.

PIZARRO enters.

[VALVERDE bows-ELVIRA laughs.]

Piz. Why dost thou smile, Elvira ?

Elv. To laugh or weep without a reason, is one of the few privileges poor women have.

Piz. Elvira, I will know the cause, I am resolved!

Elv. I am glad of that, because I love resolution, and am resolved not to tell you. Now my resolution, I take it, is the better of the two, because it depends upon myself, and yours does not. Piz. Psha! trifler!

Val. Elvira was laughing at my apprehensions that

Piz. Apprehensions!

Val. Yes-that Alonzo's skill and genius should so have disciplined and informed the enemy, as

to

Piz. Alonzo! the traitor! How I once loved that man! His noble mother entrusted him, a boy, to my protection. At my table did he feast-in my tent did he repose. I had marked his early genius, and the valorous spirit that grew with it. Often I had talked to him of our first adventures what storms we struggled with—what perils we surmounted! When landed with a slender host upon an unknown land—then, when I told how famine and fatigue, discord and toil, day by day, did thin our ranks; amid close-pressing enemies, how still undaunted I endured and dared—maintained my VOL. II. 23