ACT IV.  SCENE I.

  Enter BOABDELIN, ABENAMAR, and Guards.

Boab. Advise, or aid, but do not pity me: 
No monarch born can fall to that degree. 
Pity descends from kings to all below;
But can, no more than fountains, upward flow. 
Witness, just heaven, my greatest grief has been,
I could not make your Almahide a queen.

Aben. I have too long the effects of fortune known,
Either to trust her smiles, or fear her frown. 
Since in their first attempt you were not slain,
Your safety bodes you yet a second reign. 
The people like a headlong torrent go,
And ev’ry dam they break, or overflow;
But, unopposed, they either lose their force,
Or wind, in volumes, to their former course.

Boab. In walls we meanly must our hopes inclose,
To wait our friends, and weary out our foes: 
While Almahide
To lawless rebels is exposed a prey,
And forced the lustful victor to obey.

Aben. One of my blood, in rules of virtue bred!  Think better of her, and believe she’s dead.

  Enter ALMANZOR.

Boab. We are betrayed, the enemy is here; We have no farther room to hope or fear.

Almanz. It is indeed Almanzor whom you see,
But he no longer is your enemy. 
You were ungrateful, but your foes were more;
What your injustice lost you, theirs restore. 
Make profit of my vengeance while you may,
My two-edged sword can cut the other way.—­
I am your fortune, but am swift like her,
And turn my hairy front if you defer: 
That hour, when you deliberate, is too late;
I point you the white moment of your fate.

Aben. Believe him sent as prince Abdalla’s spy; He would betray us to the enemy.

Almanz, Were I, like thee, in cheats of state grown old,
(Those public markets, where, for foreign gold,
The poorest prince is to the richest sold)
Then thou mightst think me fit for that low part;
But I am yet to learn the statesman’s art. 
My kindness and my hate unmasked I wear;
For friends to trust, and enemies to fear. 
My heart’s so plain,
That men on every passing through may look,
Like fishes gliding in a crystal brook;
When troubled most, it does the bottom shew,
’Tis weedless all above, and rockless all below.

Aben. Ere he be trusted, let him then be tried; He may be false, who once has changed his side.

Almanz. In that you more accuse yourselves than me;
None who are injured can inconstant be. 
You were inconstant, you, who did the wrong;
To do me justice does to me belong. 
Great souls by kindness only can be tied;
Injured again, again I’ll leave your side. 
Honour is what myself, and friends, I owe;
And none can lose it who forsake a foe. 
Since, then, your foes now happen to be mine,
Though not in friendship, we’ll in interest join: 
So while my loved revenge is full and high,
I’ll give you back your kingdom by the by.