And each of ours two lives of yours shall buy.

ALMANZOR _enters betwixt them, as they stand ready to engage._

_Alm._ I cannot stay to ask which cause is best;
But this is so to me, because opprest. [_Goes to the Aben._

_To them_ BOABDELIN _and his guards, going betwixt them._

_Boab._ On your allegiance, I command you stay;
Who passes here, through me must make his way;
My life's the Isthmus; through this narrow line
You first must cut, before those seas can join.
What fury, Zegrys, has possessed your minds?
What rage the brave Abencerrages blinds?
If of your courage you new proofs would show,
Without much travel you may find a foe.
Those foes are neither so remote nor few,
That you should need each other to pursue.
Lean times and foreign wars should minds unite;
When poor, men mutter, but they seldom fight.
O holy Alha! that I live to see
Thy Granadines assist their enemy!
You fight the christians' battles; every life
You lavish thus, in this intestine strife,
Does from our weak foundations take one prop,
Which helped to hold our sinking country up.

_Ozm._ 'Tis fit our private enmity should cease;
Though injured first, yet I will first seek peace.