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Don Diego has just received a terrible insult from Don Gomez, the
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O rage ! ô désespoir ! ô vieillesse ennemie !
N'ai-je donc tant vécu que pour cette infamie ?
Et ne suis-je blanchi dans les travaux guerriers
Que pour voir en un jour flétrir tant de lauriers .
Mon bras, qu'avec respect toute l'Espagne admire,
Mon bras, qui tant de fois a sauvé cet empire.
Tant de fois affermi le trône de son roi.
Trahit donc ma querelle, et ne fait rien pour moi
O cruel souvenir de ma gloire passée !
Œuvre de tant de jours en un jour effacée !
Nouvelle dignité, fatale à mon bonheur !
Précipice élevé d'où tombe mon honneur !
Faut-il de votre éclat voir triompher le Comte,
Et mourir sans vengeance, ou vivre dans la honte?
Comte, sois de mon prince à présent gouverneur :
Ce haut rang n'admet point un homme sans honneur;
Et ton jaloux orgueil par cet affront insigne.
Malgré le choix du Roi, m'en a su rendre indigne.
Et toi, de mes exploits glorieux instrument,
Mais d'un corps tout de glace inutile ornement,
Fer, jadis tant à craindre, et qui, dans cette offense,
M'as servi de parade, et non pas de défense,
Va, quitte désormais le dernier des humains,
Passe, pour me venger, en de meilleures mains.
O rage! O despair! O inimical old age! Have I then lived so long only for this disgrace? And have I grown grey in warlike toils, only to see in one day so many of my laurels wither? Does my arm [i.e. my valor], which all Spain admires and looks up to [lit. with respect]—[does] my arm, which has so often saved this empire, and so often strengthened anew the throne of its king, now [lit. then] betray my cause, and do nothing for me? O cruel remembrance of my bygone glory! O work of a lifetime [lit. so many days] effaced in a day! new dignity fatal to my happiness! lofty precipice from which mine honor falls! must I see the count triumph over your splendor, and die without vengeance, or live in shame? Count, be now the instructor of my prince! This high rank becomes [lit. admits] no man without honor, and thy jealous pride, by this foul [lit. remarkable] insult, in spite of the choice of the king, has contrived [lit. has known how] to render me unworthy of it. And thou, glorious instrument of my exploits, but yet a useless ornament of an enfeebled body numbed by age [lit. all of ice], thou sword, hitherto to be feared, and which in this insult has served me for show, and not for defence, go, abandon henceforth the most dishonored [lit. the last] of his race; pass, to avenge me, into better hands!
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