190
"Soon as some friendly hand, in mercy leads
"My aged father, safe to Chili's meads;
"Death shall for ever, seal the nuptial tie,
"The heart belov'd by thee is fix'd to die."
She ceas'd, when dimly thro' a flood of tears 195
She sees her Zamor's form, his voice she hears.--
"'Tis he, she cried, he moves upon the gale,
"My Zamor's sigh is deep--his look is pale--
"I faint"--his arms receive her sinking frame,
He calls his love by every tender name, 200
He stays her fleeting spirit--life anew
Warms her cold cheek--his tears her cheek bedew--
"Thy Zamor lives, he cried: as on the ground
"I senseless lay, some child of pity bound
"My bleeding wounds, and bore me from the plain-- 205
"But thou art lost, and I have liv'd in vain."
"Forgive, she cried, in accents of despair,
"Zamor forgive thy wrongs, and oh forbear
"The mild reproach that fills thy mournful eye,
"The tear that wets thy cheek--I mean to die! 210
"Could I behold my aged sire endure
"The pains his wretched child had power to cure?
"Still, still my father, stretch'd in death, I see,
"His grey locks trembling, as he gaz'd on me:
"My Zamor, soft--breathe not so loud a sigh-- 215
"Some list'ning foe may pityless deny
"This parting hour--hark, sure some step I hear,
"Zamor again is lost--for now 'tis near"--
She paus'd, when sudden from the shelt'ring wood
A venerable form before them stood: 220
"Fear not, soft maid, he cry'd, nor think I come
"To seal with deeper miseries thy doom;
"To bruise the breaking heart that sorrow rends,
"Ah not for this Las Casas hither bends--
"He comes to bid those rising sorrows cease, 225
"To pour upon thy wounds the balm of peace.
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