[_MIAMI retires._

_Enter POWHATAN._

POWHATAN. Now, priest, I attend the summons of thy voice.

GRIMOSCO. So you consult your safety, for 'tis the voice of warning.

POWHATAN. Of what would you warn me?

GRIMOSCO. Danger.

POWHATAN. From whom?

GRIMOSCO. Your enemies.

POWHATAN. Old man, these have I conquered.

GRIMOSCO. The English still exist.

POWHATAN. The English!

GRIMOSCO. The nobler beast of the forest issues boldly from his den, and
the spear of the powerful pierces his heart. The deadly adder lurks in his
covert till the unwary footstep approach him.

POWHATAN. I see no adder near me.

GRIMOSCO. No, for thine eyes rest only on the flowers under which he
glides.

POWHATAN. Away, thy sight is dimmed by the shadows of age.

GRIMOSCO. King, for forty winters hast thou heard the voice of counsel
from my lips, and never did its sound deceive thee; never did my tongue
raise the war cry, and the foe appeared not. Be warned then to beware the
white man. He has fixed his serpent eye upon you, and, like the charmed
bird, you flutter each moment nearer to the jaw of death.

POWHATAN. How, Grimosco?

GRIMOSCO. Do you want proof of the white man's hatred to the red? Follow
him along the bay; count the kings he has conquered, and the nations that
his sword has made extinct.

POWHATAN. Like a warrior he subdued them, for the chain of friendship
bound them not to each other. The white man is brave as Aresqui; and can
the brave be treacherous?

GRIMOSCO. Like the red feathers of the flamingo is craft, the brightest
plume that graces the warrior's brow. Are not your people brave? Yet does
the friendly tree shield them while the hatchet is thrown. Who doubts the
courage of Powhatan? Yet has the eye of darkness seen Powhatan steal to
the surprise of the foe.

POWHATAN. Ha! priest, thy words are true. I will be satisfied. Even now I
received a swift messenger from my son: to-day he will conduct the
English to my banquet. I will demand of him if he be the friend of
Powhatan.

GRIMOSCO. Yes; but demand it of him as thou drawest thy reeking hatchet
from his cleft head. [_KING starts._] The despoilers of our land must die!

POWHATAN. What red man can give his eye-ball the glare of defiance when
the white chief is nigh? He who stood alone amidst seven hundred foes,
and, while he spurned their king to the ground, dared them to shoot their
arrows; who will say to him, "White man, I