to the death:
Honour, be gone! what art thou but a breath?
I'll live, proud of my infamy and shame,
Graced with no triumph but a lover's name;
Men can but say, love did his reason blind,
And love's the noblest frailty of the mind.--
Draw off my men; the war's already done.

_Piz_. Your orders come too late, the fight's begun;
The enemy gives on, with fury led,
And fierce Orbellan combats at their head.

_Cort_. He justly fears, a peace with me would
prove
Of ill concernment to his haughty love;
Retire, fair excellence! I go to meet
New honour, but to lay it at your feet.

[_Exeunt_ CORTEZ, VASQUEZ, _and_ PIZARRO.]

_Enter_ ODMAR _and_ GUTOMAR, _to_ ALIBECH _and_
CYDARIA.

_Odm_. Now, madam, since a danger does appear
Worthy my courage, though below my fear;
Give leave to him, who may in battle die,
Before his death, to ask his destiny.

_Guy_. He cannot die, whom you command to live;
Before the fight, you can the conquest give;
Speak, where you'll place it?

_Alib_. Briefly, then, to both,
One I in secret love, the other loathe;
But where I hate, my hate I will not show,
And he, I love, my love shall never know;
True worth shall gain me, that it may be said,
Desert, not fancy, once a woman led.
He who, in fight, his courage shall oppose,
With most success, against his country's foes,
From me shall all that recompence receive,
That valour merits, or that love can give.
'Tis true, my hopes and fears are all for one,
But hopes and fears are to myself alone.
Let him not shun the danger of the strife;
I but his love, his country claims his life.

_Odm_. All obstacles my courage shall remove.

_Guy_. Fall on, fall on.

_Odm_. For liberty!

_Guy_. For love!

[_Exeunt, the women following_.

SCENE III.--_Changes to the Indian country_.

_Enter_ Montezuma, _attended by the Indians_.

_Mont_. Charge, charge! their ground the faint Taxallans yield!
Bold in close ambush, base in open field.
The envious devil did my fortune wrong:--
Thus fought, thus conquered I, when I was young.

[_Exit_.

_Alarm. Enter CORTEZ bloody_.

_Cort_. Furies pursue these false Taxallans' flight;
Dare they be friends to us, and dare not fight?
What friends can cowards be, what hopes appear
Of help from such, who, where they hate, show fear!

_Enter_ PIZARRO _and_ VASQUEZ.

_Piz_. The field grows thin; and those, that now remain,
Appear but like the shadows of the slain.

_Vasq_. The fierce old king is vanish