in.

SALADIN.

Of what do you remind me? I had quite
Forgot the youth. Where is he? Know you him?

NATHAN.

Have you not heard, then, how your clemency
Through him has flowed to me? How, at the risk
Of the existence which your mercy gave,
He saved my daughter from the raging flames?

SALADIN.

Ha! did he so? He looked like one that would!
My brother, too--his image--would have done it.
Is he still here? Bring him to me at once.
I have so often spoken to my sister
Of this same brother, whom she never knew,
That I must let her see his counterfeit.
Go, fetch him. How a single noble deed,
Though but the offspring of the merest whim,
Gives birth to other blessings! Bring him to me.

NATHAN (_loosing_ Saladin's _hand_).

I'll go--the other matter then is settled. (_Exit_.)

SALADIN.

I wish I had but let my sister listen.
I'll go at once to her and tell it all.
(_Exit on the opposite side_.)

Scene VIII.

_The Place of Palms in the neighbourhood of the Convent, where the_
Templar _awaits_ Nathan.

TEMPLAR (_walking to and fro, in conflict with himself_.)

The panting victim here may rest awhile.
So far 'tis well. I dare not ask myself
What change has sprung within me, nor inquire
What yet may happen. Flight has proved in vain,
And, come what may, I could no more than flee,
The stroke was far too sudden to escape.
Long--much--I strove to keep aloof, in vain.
But once to see her, e'en against my will,
To see her, and to frame a firm resolve
Never to lose her. What, then, is resolve?
Resolve is purpose--action, while--in truth--
I was but passive. But to see her once,
And feel that I was woven into her being,
Was then and still remains the self-same thing.
To live apart from her--oh, bitter thought!--
Were death; and after death--where'er we were--
'Twould there be death too. Say, then, is this love?
And doth the Templar love? A Christian loves
A Jewish maiden! Well, and what of that?
This is the holy land; holy to me,
And dear, because I have of late renounced
Full many a prejudice. What says my vow?
In the same hour that made me prisoner
To Saladin. The head he ga