[_Exit._
_Bend._ 'Twas a bare saving game I made with Dorax;
But better so than lost. He cannot hurt me;
That I precautioned: I must ruin him.--
But now this love; ay, there's the gathering storm!
The tyrant must not wed Almeyda: No!
That ruins all the fabric I am raising.
Yet, seeming to approve, it gave me time;
And gaining time gains all. [_Aside._
[BENDUCAR _goes and waits behind the Emperor.
The Emperor,_ SEBASTIAN, _and_ ALMEYDA,
_advance to the front of the stage: Guards
and Attendants._
_Emp._ to _Seb._ I bade them serve you; and, if they obey not,
I keep my lions keen within their dens,
To stop their maws with disobedient slaves.
_Seb._ If I had conquered,
They could not have with more observance waited:
Their eyes, hands, feet,
Are all so quick, they seem to have but one motion,
To catch my flying words. Only the alcayde
Shuns me; and, with a grim civility,
Bows, and declines my walks.
_Emp._ A renegade:
I know not more of him, but that he's brave,
And hates your Christian sect. If you can frame
A farther wish, give wing to your desires,
And name the thing you want.
_Seb._ My liberty;
For were even paradise itself my prison,
Still I should long to leap the crystal walls.
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