[CYDARIA _descends and opens the door_, ALMERIA _rushes betwixt
with_ MONTEZUMA.
_Cyd_. Almeria here! then I am lost again.
[_Both thrust_.
_Alm_. Yield to my strength, you struggle but in vain.
Make haste and shut, our enemies appear.
[CORTEZ _and Spaniards appear at the other end_.
_Cyd_. Then do you enter, and let me stay here.
[_As she speaks,_ ALMERIA _overpowers her, thrusts
her in, and shuts_.
_Cort_. Sure I both heard her voice and saw her face:
She's like a vision vanished from the place.
Too late I find my absence was too long;
My hopes grow sickly, and my fears grow strong.
[_He knocks a little, then_ MONTEZUMA, CYDARIA, _and_
ALMERIA, _appear above_.
_Alm_. Look up, look up, and see if you can know
Those, whom in vain you think to find below.
_Cyd_. Look up, and see Cydaria's lost estate.
_Mont_. And cast one look on Montezuma's fate.
_Cort_. Speak not such dismal words as wound my ear;
Nor name death to me, when Cydaria's there.
Despair not, sir; who knows but conquering Spain
May part of what you lost restore again?
_Mont_. No, Spaniard; know, he who, to empire born,
Lives to be less, deserves the victor's scorn:
Kings and their crowns have but one destiny:
Power is their life; when that expires, they die.
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