Count Alarcos | Page 2

2ND COURT. A page is ever pert
I:1:23 PAGE. Ay! ever pert is youth that baffles age.
[Exit PAGE.]
I:1:24 1ST COURT. The Count is married?
I:1:25 2ND COURT. To a beauteous lady; And blessed with a fair race. A happy man Indeed is Count Alarcos.
[A trumpet sounds.]
I:1:26 1ST COURT. Prithee, see; Passes he now?
I:1:27 2ND COURT. Long since. Yon banner tells The Count Sidonia. Let us on, and view The passage of his pomp. His Moorish steeds, They say, are very choice.
[Exeunt Two Courtiers.]

SCENE 2.
A Chamber in the Palace of Alarcos. The COUNTESS seated and working at her tapestry; the COUNT pacing the Chamber.
I:2:1 COUN. You are disturbed, Alarcos?
I:2:2 ALAR. 'Tis the stir And tumult of this morn. I am not used To Courts.
I:2:3 COUN. I know not why, it is a name That makes me tremble.
I:2:4 ALAR. Tremble, Florimonde, Why should you tremble?
I:2:5 COUN. Sooth I cannot say. Methinks the Court but little suits my kind; I love our quiet home.
I:2:6 ALAR. This is our home,
I:2:7 COUN. When you are here.
I:2:8 ALAR. I will be always here.
I:2:9 COUN. Thou canst not, sweet Alarcos. Happy hours, When we were parted but to hear thy horn Sound in our native woods!
I:2:10 ALAR. Why, this is humour! We're courtiers now; and we must smile and smirk.
I:2:11 COUN. Methinks your tongue is gayer than your glance. The King, I hope, was gracious?
I:2:12 ALAR. Were he not, My frown's as prompt as his. He was most gracious.
I:2:13 COUN. Something has chafed thee?
I:2:14 ALAR. What should chafe me, child, And when should hearts be light, if mine be dull? Is not mine exile over? Is it nought To breathe in the same house where we were born, And sleep where slept our fathers? Should that chafe?
I:2:15 COUN. Yet didst then leave my side this very morn, And with a vow this day should ever count Amid thy life most happy; when we meet Thy brow is clouded.
I:2:16 ALAR. Joy is sometimes grave, And deepest when 'tis calm. And I am joyful If it be joy, this long forbidden hall Once more to pace, and feel each fearless step Tread on a baffled foe.
I:2:17 COUN. Hast thou still foes
I:2:18 ALAR. I trust so; I should not be what I am, Still less what I will be, if hate did not Pursue me as my shadow. Ah! fair wife, Thou knowest not Burgos. Thou hast yet to fathom The depths of thy new world.
I:2:19 COUN. I do recoil As from some unknown woo, from this same world. I thought we came for peace.
I:2:20 ALAR. Peace dwells within No lordly roof in Burgos. We have come For triumph.
I:2:21 COUN. So I share thy lot, Alarcos, All feelings are the same.
I:2:22 ALAR. My Florimonde, I took thee from a fair and pleasant home In a soft land, where, like the air they live in, Men's hearts are mild. This proud and fierce Castille Resembles not thy gentle Aquitaine, More than the eagle may a dove, and yet It is my country. Danger in its bounds Weighs more than foreign safety. But why speak Of what exists not?
I:2:23 COUN. And I hope may never!
I:2:24 ALAR. And if it come, what then? This chance shall find me Not unprepared.
I:2:25 COUN. But why should there be danger? And why should'st thou, the foremost prince of Spain, Fear or make foes? Thou standest in no light Would fall on other shoulders; thou hast no height To climb, and nought to gain. Thou art complete; The King alone above thee, and thy friend.
I:2:26 ALAR. So I would deem. I did not speak of fear.
I:2:27 COUN. Of danger?
I:2:28 ALAR. That's delight, when it may lead To mighty ends. Ah, Florimonde! thou art too pure; Unsoiled in the rough and miry paths Of ibis same trampling world; unskilled in heats Of fierce and emulous spirits. There's a rapture In the strife of factions, that a woman's soul Can never reach. Men smiled on me to-day Would gladly dig my grave; and yet I smiled, And gave them coin as ready as their own, And not less base.
I:2:29 COUN. And can there be such men, And canst thou live with them?
I:2:30 ALAR. Ay! and they saw Me ride this morning in my state again; The people cried 'Alarcos and Castille!' The shout will dull their feasts.
I:2:31 COUN. There was a time Thou didst look back as on a turbulent dream On this same life.
I:2:32 ALAR. I was an exile then. This stirring Burgos has revived my vein. Yea, as I glanced from off the Citadel This very morn, and at my feet outspread Its amphitheatre of solemn towers And groves of golden pinnacles, and marked Turrets of friends and foes; or traced the range, Spread since my exile, of our city's walls Washed by the swift Arlanzon: all around The