Alon. Generous loveliness! spare thy unavailing pity. Seek not to thwart the tiger with the prey beneath his fangs.

Piz. Audacious rebel! thou a renegado from thy monarch and thy God!

Alon. ’Tis false.

Piz. Art thou not, tell me, a deserter from thy country’s legions—and, with vile heathens leagued, hast thou not warred against thy native land?

Alon. No! deserter I am none! I was not born among robbers! pirates! murderers! When those legions, lured by the abhorred lust of gold, and by thy foul ambition urged, forgot the honour of Castilians, and forsook the duties of humanity, they deserted me. I have not warred against my native land, but against those who have usurped its power. The banners of my country, when first I followed arms beneath them, were justice, faith, and mercy. If these are beaten down and trampled under foot, I have no country, nor exists the power entitled to reproach me with revolt.

Piz. The power to judge and punish thee at least exists.

Alon. Where are my judges?

Piz. Thou wouldst appeal to the war council?

Alon. If the good Las-Casas have yet a seat there, yes; if not, I appeal to Heaven!

Piz. And, to impose upon the folly of Las-Casas, what would be the excuses of thy treason?

Elv. The folly of Las-Casas! Such, doubtless, his mild precepts seem to thy hard-hearted wisdom! Oh, would I might have lived, as I will die, a sharer in the follies of Las-Casas!

Alon. To him I should not need to urge the foul barbarities which drove me from your side; but I would gently lead him by the hand through all the lovely fields of Quito; there, in many a spot where late was barrenness and waste, I would show him how now the opening blossom, blade, or perfumed bud, sweet bashful pledges of delicious harvest, wafting their incense to the ripening sun, give cheerful promise to the hope of industry. This, I would say, is my work! Next, I should tell how hurtful customs and superstitions, strange and sullen, would often scatter and dismay the credulous minds of these deluded innocents; and then would I point out to him where now, in clustered villages, they live like brethren, social and confiding, while through the burning day Content sits basking on the cheek of Toil, till laughing Pastime leads them to the hour of rest—this too is mine! And prouder, yet, at that still pause between exertion and repose, belonging not to pastime, labour, or to rest, but unto Him who sanctions and ordains them all, I would show him many an eye, and many a hand, by gentleness from error won, raised in pure devotion to the true and only God!—this too I could tell him is Alonzo’s work! Then would Las-Casas clasp me in his aged arms; from his uplifted eyes a tear of gracious thankfulness would fall upon my head, and that one blessed drop would be to me at once this world’s best proof that I had acted rightly here, and surest hope of my Creator’s mercy and reward hereafter.

Elv. Happy, virtuous Alonzo! And thou, Pizarro, wouldst appal with fear of death a man who thinks and acts as he does.

Piz. Daring, obstinate enthusiast! But know, the pious blessing of thy preceptor’s tears does not await thee here: he has fled like thee—like thee, no doubt, to join the foes of Spain. The perilous trial of the next reward you hope is nearer than perhaps you’ve thought; for by my country’s wrongs, and by mine own, to-morrow’s sun shall see thy death!

Elv. Hold! Pizarro, hear me: if not always justly, at least act always greatly. Name not thy country’s wrongs; ’tis plain they have no share in thy resentment. Thy fury ’gainst this youth is private hate, and deadly personal