University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV.

A Room in Don Luis' house. Calaynos and Oliver.
Calaynos.
What, not yet rid of your suspicious thoughts?
Pray cast them off, as unbecoming things,
Unworthy to consume the idle time
Which you will waste in entertaining them.
Suspicious men are like those slinking curs
That whine and fly, if we but show the lash,
And suffer torture ere they feel a blow.
If you will nourish them, I promise you
Enough of food to rear your nurslings on;
For you will strain and twist his every act
To confirmation of your worst suspicions.
A falling straw shall make you swear him false,
An idle word shall damn him past reclaim;
Though he, poor man, be innocent of crime,
And all the guilt be harbored in your breast.
I 'd as soon be a conscience-hunted felon,
As one pursued by packs of fantasies!

Oliver.
My lord, for you, I'll try to love your friend;
But you will pardon, if with poor success.
When first I saw him, a cold shudder ran
From head to foot; the while my faint heart thumped,
Like a great weight, against its prison-house;
And when he strained you in his close embrace,
I 'd rather have seen a tiger mount your breast.
You half believe in these antipathies,
That tell, like instinct, of some coming ill;
For you are firm of faith in sympathies,
Which prove, if they exist, their opposites.

Cal.
Cease, Oliver; we cannot harmonize.
I will not doubt him till I find him false.

Oli.
Pray give me leave to ask the creditors,
Unknown to him, how in their debt he grew?

Cal.
Yes, for your own repose; I 'd have you friends;
If that will satisfy, you have my leave.
Now to your writings; here Don Luis comes.

(Enter Don Luis and the Usurers.)
Don Luis.
(Apart to Calaynos.)
Here are the creditors; pray treat them fair:
'T will but make foes to chide them for their wrongs;
And, as thou know'st, I 've enemies enough.

Cal.
As you think fit. Come hither, gentlemen,
And give your papers to my secretary;
He will write orders for their settlement.

[To the Usurers.]
(Calaynos and Don Luis talk apart. Oliver seats himself at a table.)
Oli.
This is a large amount for one man's bond.
[Aside.]
What usury did good Don Luis pay?

[To the Usurers.]
First Usurer.
'T was not by usury he came in debt;
'T was by a bond, which he endorsed for one
Who raised the gold, and then proved false to him.

Oli.
But where 's the bond? When paid, 't must be erased.

First U.
(Apart to the others.)
The devil! here 's a strait! What shall we say?

Don L.
(Advancing.)
What is the matter with you, gentlemen?

First U.
Señor, the secretary wants your bond,
Which we forgot to bring.

Don L.
Nay, nay, not so;
'T was put into my hands as we came here.
You gave it, did you not? [To Fourth Usurer.]


Fourth Usurer.
I did, my lord.

[Don Luis retires.]
Oli.
Baffled! and yet 't is strange! These creditors
Take up their pay, as if they felt no shame;
Which, were the action guilty, they should show.
[Aside.]
(Turns to the Fourth Usurer.)
Why, sirrah, what a curséd knave are you,
To grasp your cheatings with so meek a face!
You 've done a deed might bring you to the oar.
You, and your fellows, should march two by two,
With iron chains around your villain necks,
To seek the hulks, by dint of conscience driven.—
You slimy swindler, you vile cozener!

Fourth U.
Why is it wrong to lend—
(Don Luis advances, playing with his dagger-hilt.)
to lend—to lend—

Oli.
To lend what, rascal?

Don L.
Lend my house your room.
[To Fourth Usurer.]
Have you not paid these men, my gentle friend?

[To Oliver.]
Oli.
I have, sir.

Don L.
(To Usurers.)
Gentlemen, you may depart.

[Exeunt Usurers.]
Oli.
(Aside.)
Here was a struggle; but he bore it off;
A moment more, and he 'd have been betrayed.
Yon man is guilty, though I have no proof.
I'll seem his friend, but watch him as a foe:
Heaven grant, thereby, I keep my lord from harm!

[Retires.]
(Calaynos and Don Luis advance.)
Don L.
My noble friend, what service hast thou done
To one unworthy of thy least regard!
How like a dew thy gentle acts have fallen
On that dry waste, my scarred and thirsting heart!
O, may the blessings of a grateful mind
Rise up in prayers to Heaven, like evening mists,
To fall on thee in balmy freshening showers,
Dropped from His hand who smiles on kindly deeds!
I'll love my former sufferings from this hour;
Since, through my pain, thou hast such rapture wrought.

Cal.
Cease, cease! Thy words have overpaid the act;
If thou proceed'st, thou plungest me in debt;
Such gratitude doth shame my blushing gold.
But, Luis, to this corner of thy heart,
Warmed with the heat of friendship's holy flame,
Take not thy friend, unless thou 'lt take mankind;
And, for the love of one, love all his race:
Many are worthier of regard than I.

Don L.
I think not so; but thou shalt use my heart
As a poor mansion, over which thou rulest:
If so thou will'st, call in thy dearest friends;
They shall be welcome, though they 're all mankind.

Cal.
And now make ready to depart with me.
I long to have thee breathe my native air,
And share such pleasures as my home affords.

Don L.
An hour, and I'll be with you.

[Exit.]
Cal.
Oliver.

Oli.
My lord.

Cal.
Collect the train; we must be gone.

Oli.
How soon?—To-day?

Cal.
Within an hour, at most.

Oli.
It can be done.

Cal.
Then haste; your time is brief.

[Exit.]
Oli.
Confusion! He departs with such hot speed,
I'll not have time to see the creditors.
I purposed to untwist this tangled skein—
To free the Don, or to confirm his guilt:
But this unthought of haste o'erturns my scheme,
And leaves me wandering 'mid my doubts and fears.

[Exit.]