By which of all my actions could you guess,
Though more your merit, that my love was less?
What prize can empire with Orazia bear?
Or, where love fills the breast, what room for fear?
_Mont_. Let fair Orazia then the sentence give,
Else he may die whom she desires to live.
_Aca_. Your greater merits bribe her to your side;
My weaker title must by arms be tried.
_Mont_. Oh, tyrant love! how cruel are thy laws!
I forfeit friendship, or betray thy cause:
That person, whom I would defend from all
The world, that person by my hand must fall.
_Aca_. Our lives we to each others friendship owe;
But love calls back what friendship did bestow:
Love has its cruelties, but friendship none;
And we now fight in quarrels not our own. [_Fight.
Enter_ ORAZIA.
_Oraz_. What noise is this?--
Hold, hold! what cause could be so great, to move
This furious hatred?--
_Mont_. 'Twas our furious love.--
_Aca_. Love, which I hid till I had set you free,
And bought your pardon with my liberty;
That done, I thought, I less unjustly might
With Montezuma, for Orazia, fight;
He has prevailed, and I must now confess
His fortune greater, not my passion less;
Yet cannot yield you, till his sword remove
A dying rival, that holds fast his love.
_Oraz_.
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