Page:Miscellaneous Plays 1.pdf/434

Enter Rodrigo, Othus, and Marthon, with two or three of their followers, fighting bravely with a party of Turks, whom they beat off the stage.

OTHUS.

Now for a space those ruffians stand aloof:

This is a pause that calls upon the mind:
What shall we do?

RODRIGO.

What do men do, when they together stand

On the last perch of the swift-sinking wreck?
Do they not bravely give their parting cheer,
And make their last voice loud and boldly sound
Amidst the hollow roarings of the storm?
Ev'n so will we: we'll bear our manhood up
To the last push.

OTHUS.

Thou speakest well, brave seaman: thou dost speak

What the heart owns: we will do even so.
But Oh that our brave leader now were near us,
Living or dead! Doth no one know his fate?
I thought by him t' have died.

FIRST FOLLOWER.

What corpse is this so cover'd? on its sandal

It wears th'imperial bird in fretted gold.