Defer this noble stranger's punishment,
Or your rash orders you will soon repent.

_Boab._ Brother, you know not yet his insolence.

_Abdal._ Upon yourself you punish his offence:
If we treat gallant strangers in this sort,
Mankind will shun the inhospitable court;
And who, henceforth, to our defence will come,
If death must be the brave Almanzor's doom?
From Africa I drew him to your aid,
And for his succour have his life betrayed.

_Boab._ Is this the Almanzor whom at Fez you knew,
When first their swords the Xeriff brothers drew?

_Abdal._ This, sir, is he, who for the elder fought,
And to the juster cause the conquest brought;
Till the proud Santo, seated on the throne,
Disdained the service he had done to own:
Then to the vanquished part his fate he led;
The vanquished triumphed, and the victor fled.
Vast is his courage, boundless is his mind,
Rough as a storm, and humorous as wind:
Honour's the only idol of his eyes;
The charms of beauty like a pest he flies;
And, raised by valour from a birth unknown,
Acknowledges no power above his own. [BOABDELIN _coming to_ ALMANZOR.

_Boab._ Impute your danger to our ignorance;