“known four and twenty leaders of revolts.” (vol. iii. p. 302.)

The tragedy of “LURIA” is supposed to be enacted at some period of the fifteenth century; being an episode in the historical struggle between Florence and Pisa.  It occupies one day; and the five acts correspond respectively to its “Morning,” “Noon,” “Afternoon,” “Evening,” and “Night.”  The day is that of a long-expected encounter which is to end the war.  The Florentine troops are commanded by the Moorish mercenary Luria.  He is encamped between the two cities; and with, or near him, are his Moorish friend and confidant Husain; Puccio—­the officer whom he has superseded; Braccio—­Commissary of the Republic; his secretary Jacopo, or Lapo; and a noble Florentine lady, Domizia.

Luria is a consummate general, a brave fighter, and a humane man.  Every soldier of the army is devoted to him, and the triumph of the Republic seems secured.  But the men who trust him to win the victory cannot trust him not to misuse it.  They are afraid that his strength will be turned against themselves so soon as it has disposed of their foreign foe:  and Braccio is on the spot, in order to watch his movements, to register every deed that can give the slightest hold for an accusation—­in short, to supply the Signoria with the materials for a trial, which is proceeding step by step with Luria’s successful campaign, and is to crush him the moment this is completed.  Everyone but Husain is more or less his enemy.  For Lapo is almost blindly devoted to his chief.  Puccio is jealous of the stranger for whom he has been set aside.  Domizia is making him an instrument of revenge.  Her brothers have been faithful as he is, and condemned as he is to be.  They accepted their sentence because it was the mother-city who passed it.  She encourages Luria to encounter the same ingratitude, because she believes he will resist and punish it.

He is not unwarned of his danger.  The Pisan general, Tiburzio, has discovered the conspiracy against him, and brings him, shortly before the battle, an intercepted letter from Braccio to the Signoria, in which he is convinced that he may read his fate.  He urges him to open it; to desert the perfidious city, and to adopt Pisa’s cause.  But Luria’s loyalty is unshaken.  He tears up the letter in the presence of Braccio, Puccio, and Domizia:  and only when the battle has been fought and won demands the secret of its contents.  At the word “trial” he is carried away by a momentary indignation; but this subsides into a tender regret that “his Florentines” should have so misjudged him; that he should have given them cause to do it.  He has laboured for their city, not only with the obedience of a son, but with the devotion of a lover.  His Eastern fancy has been enslaved by her art, her intellect:  by the life of educated thought which so far removed her from the blind unrest, and the animal strength of his savage world; Domizia’s attractions have added to the spell.  He has never guarded his love for Florence against doubt, for he never dreamed that it could be doubted.  He cannot find it in his heart to chastise her now.