Enter HELI.

Leon. Alas! she stirs not yet, nor lifts her eyes; He, too, is fainting-Help me, help me, stranger, Whoe'er thou art, and lend thy hand to raise These bodies.

Hel. Ha! 'tis he! and with- -Almeria! Oh, miracle of happiness! Oh, joy Unhoped for! Does Almeria live?

Osm. Where is she!

Let me behold, and touch her, and be sure

'Tis she; shew me her face, and let me feel

Her lips with mine-'Tis she, I am not deceived;

I taste her breath, I warm her and am warmed.
Look up, Almeria, bless me with thy eyes;
Look on thy love, thy lover, and thy husband!
Alm. I have sworn I'll not wed Garcia: why do
ye force me?

Is this a father?

Osm. Look on thy Alphonso.

Thy father is not here, my love, nor Garcia :.

Nor am I what I seem, but thy Alphonso.

Wilt thou not know me? Hast thou then forgot

me?

Hast thou thy eyes, yet canst not see Alphonso?
Am I so altered, or art thou so changed,
That, seeing my disguise, thou seest not me?
Alm. It is, it is Alphonso! 'tis his face,
His voice-I know him now, I know him all.
Oh, take me to thy arms, and bear me hence,
Back to the bottom of the boundless deep,
To seas beneath, where thou so long hast dwelt.

Oh, how hast thou returned? How hast thou charmed

The wildness of the waves and rocks to this;
That, thus relenting, they have given thee back
To earth, to light and life, to love and me?

Osm. Oh, I'll not ask, nor answer, how or why
We both have backward trod the paths of fate,
To meet again in life; to know I have thee,
Is knowing more than any circumstance,
Or means, by which I have thee-
To fold thee thus, to press thy balmy lips,
And gaze upon thy eyes, is so much joy,
I have not leisure to reflect, or know,
Or trifle time in thinking.

Alm. Stay a while

Let me look on thee yet a little more.

Osm. What wouldst thou? thou dost put me from

thee.

Alm. Yes.

Osm. And why? What dost thou mean? Why dost thou gaze so?

Alm. I know not; 'tis to see thy face, I think-It is too much! too much to bear and live! To see thee thus again in such profusion Of joy, of bliss-I cannot bear-I must Be mad I cannot be transported thus.

Osm. Thou excellence, thou joy, thou heaven of love!

Alm. Where hast thou been? and how art thou

alive?

How is all this? All-powerful Heaven, what are we?

Oh, my strained heart-let me again behold thee, For I weep to see thee-Art thou not paler? Much, much; how thou art changed!

Osm. Not in my love.

Alm. No, no! thy griefs, I know, have done this to thee.

Thou hast wept much, Alphonso; and, I fear,
Too much, too tenderly, lamented me.

Osm. Wrong not my love, to say too tenderly. No more, my life; talk not of tears or grief; Affliction is no more, now thou art found.

Why dost thou weep, and hold thee from my arms,
My arms which ache to hold thee fast, and grow
To thee with twining? Come, come to my heart!
Alm. I will, for I should never look enough.
They would have married me; but I had sworn
To Heaven and thee, and sooner would have died-
Osm. Perfection of all faithfulness and love!

Alm. Indeed I would-Nay, I would tell thee all,
If I could speak; how I have mourned and prayed:
For I have prayed to thee, as to a saint;
And thou hast heard my prayer; for thou art come
To my distress, to my despair, which Heaven

Could only, by restoring thee, have cured.

Osm. Grant me but life, good Heaven, but length of days,

To pay some part, some little of this debt,
This countless sum of tenderness and love,
For which I stand engaged to this all-excellence;
Then bear me in a whirlwind to my fate,

Snatch me from life, and cut me short unwarned:

Then, then, 'twill be enough-I shall be old,
I shall have passed all æras then

Of yet unmeasured time; when I have made
This exquisite, this most amazing goodness,
Some recompense of love and matchless truth.
Alm. 'Tis more than recompense to see thy face
If Heaven is greater joy, it is no happiness,
For 'tis not to be borne-What shall I say?
I have a thousand things to know and ask,
And speak-That thou art here beyond all hope,
All thought; and all at once thou art before me,
And with such suddenness hast hit my sight,
Is such surprise, such mystery, such ecstasy,
It hurries all my soul, and stuns my sense.
Sure from thy father's tomb thou didst arise?
Osm. I did; and thou, my love, didst call me;

thou.

Alm. True; but how cam'st thou there? Wert thou alone?

Osm. I was, and lying on my father's lead,
When broken echoes of a distant voice
Disturbed the sacred silence of the vault,

In murmurs round my head. I rose and listened,
And thought I heard thy spirit call Alphonso;
I thought I saw thee too; but, Oh, I thought not
That I indeed should be so blest to see thee—

Alm. But still, how cam'st thou thither? How thus- -Ha!

What's he, who, like thyself, is started here
Ere seen?

Osm. Where? Ha! What do I see, Antonio! I am fortunate indeed-my friend, too, safe!

Heli. Most happily, in finding you thus blessed. Alm. More miracles! Antonio escaped!

-Osm. And twice escaped; both from the rage of

seas

And war: for in the fight I saw him fall.

Heli. But fell unhurt, a prisoner as yourself, And as yourself made free; hither I came, Impatiently to seek you, where I knew

Your grief would lead you to lament Anselmo.

Osm. There are no wonders; or else all is wonder. Heli. I saw you on the ground, and raised you up, When with astonishment I saw Almeria.

Osm. I saw her too, and therefore saw not thee. Alm. Nor I; nor could I, for my eyes were yours.

Osm. What means the bounty of all-gracious Heaven,

That persevering still, with open hand,

It scatters good, as in a waste of mercy!
Where will this end? But Heaven is infinite.

In all, and can continue to bestow,
When scanty number shall be spent in telling.

Leon. Or I am deceived, or I beheld the glimpse Of two in shining habits cross the aisle ;

Who, by their pointing, seem to mark this place. Alm. Sure I have dreamt, if we must part so

soon..

Osm. I wish at least our parting were a dream, Or we could sleep till we again were met.