Cort.  To doubt your virtue, or your love, were sin!  Call for the captive prince, and bring him in.

Enter Guyomar, bound and sad.

You look, sir, as your fate you could not bear: 
[To Guy. 
Are Spanish fetters, then, so hard to wear? 
Fortune’s unjust, she ruins oft the brave,
And him, who should be victor, makes the slave.

Guy.  Son of the sun! my fetters cannot be
But glorious for me, since put on by thee;
The ills of love, not those of fate, I fear;
These can I brave, but those I cannot bear: 
My rival brother, while I’m held in chains,
In freedom reaps the fruit of all my pains.

Cort.  Let it be never said that he, whose breast
Is filled with love, should break a lover’s rest.—­
Haste! lose no time!—­your sister sets you free:—­
And tell the king, my generous enemy,
I offer still those terms he had before,
Only ask leave his daughter to adore.

Guy.  Brother, (that name my breast shall ever own, [He embraces him. 
The name of foe be but in battles known;)
For some few days all hostile acts forbear,
That, if the king consents, it seem not fear: 
His heart, is noble, and great souls must be
Most sought and courted in adversity.—­
Three days, I hope, the wished success will tell.

Cyd.  Till that long time,—­

Cort.  Till that long time, farewell.

[Exeunt severally.

ACT III.

SCENE I.—­A Chamber Royal.

Enter ODMAR and ALIBECH.

Odm.  The gods, fair Alibech, had so decreed,
Nor could my valour against fate succeed;
Yet though our army brought not conquest home,
I did not from the fight inglorious come: 
If, as a victor, you the brave regard,
Successless courage, then, may hope reward;
And I, returning safe, may justly boast,
To win the prize which my dear brother lost.

Enter GUYOMAR behind him.

Guy.  No, no, thy brother lives! and lives to be
A witness, both against himself and thee;
Though both in safety are returned again,
I blush to ask her love for vanquished men.

Odm.  Brother, I’ll not dispute but you are brave; Yet I was free, and you, it seems, a slave.

Guy.  Odmar, ’tis true that I was captive led;
As publicly ’tis known, as that you fled: 
But of two shames, if she must one partake,
I think the choice will not be hard to make.

Odm.  Freedom and bondage in her choice remain; Darest thou expect she will put on thy chain?

Guy.  No, no, fair Alibech, give him the crown,
My brother is returned with high renown: 
He thinks by flight his mistress must be won,
And claims the prize, because he best did run.