Ozm. Hold, sir! since you so far insist on law, We can from thence one just advantage draw:  That law, which dooms adultresses to die, Gives champions, too, to slandered chastity.

Almanz. And how dare you, who from my bounty live,
Intrench upon my love’s prerogative? 
Your courage in your own concernments try;
Brothers are things remote, while I am by.

Ozm. I knew not you thus far her cause would own,
And must not suffer you to fight alone: 
Let two to two in equal combat join;
You vindicate her person, I her line.

Lyndar. Of all mankind, Almanzor has least right In her defence, who wrong’d his love, to fight.

Almanz. ’Tis false:  she is not ill, nor can she be; She must be chaste, because she’s loved by me.

Zul. Dare you, what sense and reason prove, deny?

Almanz. When she’s in question, sense and reason lie.

Zul. For truth, and for my injured sovereign, What I have said, I will to death maintain.

Ozm. So foul a falsehood, whoe’er justifies,
Is basely born, and, like a villain, lies. 
In witness of that truth, be this my gage.
                                      [Takes a ring from his finger.

Hamet. I take it; and despise a traitor’s rage.

Boab. The combat’s yours.—­A guard the lists surround;
Then raise a scaffold in the encompassed ground,
And, by it, piles of wood; in whose just fire,
Her champions slain, the adultress shall expire.

Aben. We ask no favour, but what arms will yield.

Boab. Choose, then, two equal judges of the field:  Next morning shall decide the doubtful strife, Condemn the unchaste, or quit the virtuous wife.

Almanz. But I am both ways cursed: 
For Almahide must die, if I am slain;
Or for my rival I the conquest gain. [Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE I.

  ALMANZOR solus.

I have outfac’d myself; and justified,
What I knew false, to all the world beside. 
She was as faithless as her sex could be;
And, now I am alone, she’s so to me. 
She’s fallen! and, now, where shall we virtue find? 
She was the last that stood of womankind. 
Could she so holily my flames remove,
And fall that hour to Abdelmelech’s love? 
Yet her protection I must undertake;
Not now for love, but for my honour’s sake,
That moved me first, and must oblige me still: 
My cause is good, however her’s be ill. 
I’ll leave her, when she’s freed; and let it be
Her punishment, she could be false to me.

  To him ABDELMELECH, guarded.

Abdelm. Heaven is not heaven, nor are there deities
There is some new rebellion in the skies. 
All that was good and holy is dethroned,
And lust and rapine are for justice owned.