Aca.  But that you may be so—­
Your dangers must be past before I go. 
Fierce Montezuma will for fight prepare,
And bend on you the fury of the war,
Which, by my presence, I will turn away,
If fortune gives my Mexicans the day.

Inca.  Come, then, we are alike to honour just,
Thou to be trusted thus, and I to trust. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.—­Mexico.

Enter ZEMPOALLA, TRAXALLA, and attendants.

Zemp.  O my Acacis! 
Does not my grief, Traxalla, seem too rude,
Thus to press out before my gratitude
Has paid my debts to you?—­yet it does move
My rage and grief, to see those powers above
Punish such men, as, if they be divine,
They know will most adore, and least repine.

Trax.  Those, that can only mourn when they are crost,
May lose themselves with grieving for the lost. 
Rather to your retreated troops appear,
And let them see a woman void of fear: 
The shame of that may call their spirits home. 
Were the prince safe, we were not overcome,
Though we retired:  O, his too youthful heat,
That thrust him where the dangers were so great! 
Heaven wanted power his person to protect
From that, which he had courage to neglect: 
But since he’s lost, let us draw forth, and pay
His funeral rites in blood; that we or they
May, in our fates, perform his obsequies,
And make death triumph when Acacis dies.

Zemp.  That courage, thou hast shown in fight, seems less
Than this, amidst despair to have excess: 
Let thy great deeds force fate to change her mind: 
He, that courts fortune boldly, makes her kind.

Trax.  If e’er Traxalla so successful proves,
May he then say he hopes, as well as loves;
And that aspiring passion boldly own,
Which gave my prince his fate, and you his throne? 
I did not feel remorse to see his blood
Flow from the spring of life into a flood;
Nor did it look like treason, since to me
You were a sovereign much more great than he.

Zemp.  He was my brother, yet I scorned to pay
Nature’s mean debts, but threw those bonds away;
When his own issue did my hopes remove,
Not only from his empire, but his love. 
You, that in all my wrongs then bore a part,
Now need not doubt a place within my heart: 
I could not offer you my crown and bed,
Till fame and envy with long time were dead;
But fortune does now happily present
Occasions, fit to second my intent. 
Your valour may regain the public love,
And make the people’s choice their queen’s approve.

[Shout.

Hark, hark, what noise is this, that strikes my ear!

Trax.  ’Tis not a sound that should beget a fear; Such shouts as these have I heard often fly From conquering armies, crowned with victory.

Zemp.  Great God of vengeance, here I firmly vow,
Make but my Mexicans successful now,
And with a thousand feasts thy flames I’ll feed;
And that I take shall on the altars bleed;
Princes themselves shall fall, and make thy shrine,
Died with their blood, in glorious blushes shine.