University of Virginia Library

SCENE VII.

SYLVEYRA, THE VICEROY.
THE VICEROY
(entering as VELORA goes out.)
Distraction! death! thou treacherous boy!
So young, and so accomplished in deceit!
Thou viper! that I cherish in my bosom
To sting me into madness! have I caught thee?
Surprised thy guilty secrets, and beheld thee
Staining the brilliant ruby of her lip
With thy false breath?

SYLVEYRA.
Just, and noble Castro!
Recover but the firmness of thy soul,
And thou shalt own, that I have ne'er deceived thee!

THE VICEROY.
Oh! insolence of falsehood! not deceived me!
E'en now thy base confusion proves thee false;
And coward guilt denies thy faltering tongue
The power to frame an artful subterfuge,
To give thee e'en the varnish of a villain.

SYLVEYRA.
My lord! I scorn the unmanly accusation;
I grieve indeed that you have seen our loves,
But my pure lips have never breathed a falsehood
To hide them from your sight: I will avow
It was my wish to keep them still concealed:
Not with a coward's treachery and fear:
No! from a nobler cause, from generous pity.

THE VICEROY.
Thou insolent!—thy pity!—patience, Heaven:
Patience! is Castro then debased so far,
To be the pity of a slave like this?
What! while my generous soul was idly dreaming
Of virtuous love, and purest admiration,
Thou, like a secret sacrilegious thief.
Hast basely robbed the shrine of sacred beauty.

SYLVEYRA.
My lord! my father! grant me patient hearing.

THE VICEROY.
Hear thee! thou traitor to that generous friendship,
Which called thee forth from darkness into glory!
Hear thee! for what? thou canst no longer make me
The easy dupe of thy detested falsehood:
And wouldst thou boast, it has been thine to riot
In the rich plunder of her prostrate beauty,
And teach thy willing wanton to deride
Her nobler claims to a superior station?

SYLVEYRA
My lord! my lord! power has no privilege
To sanctify the infamy of slander;
And thou dost slander innocence itself,
A soul as spotless, as the hand of Heaven
Has e'er inshrined in woman's angel form:
This purity is placed beneath my guard,
And when I want the spirit to defend it,
May I be branded by the public voice!—
For your past bounties to my orphan youth,
I spoke them many and magnificent;
But thus insulted, my indignant honor
Disclaims the debt, these injuries have cancelled.

THE VICEROY.
Thou wretch! who mak'st ingratitude thy glory,
Soon shalt thou feel the power, thou hast provoked:
Velora was thy prisoner, only held
In just dependance on our sovereign pleasure.
I shall resume a grant, so ill deserved,
And made so rashly by deluded bounty.

SYLVEYRA.
Resume thy grant! Velora's free as air;
The voice of justice, and thy own award
Pronounced her free; and I will guard that freedom
E'en with my life, against the uplifted arm
Of majesty itself.

THE VICEROY.
Presumptuous upstart!
What! canst thou threaten too?—by Heaven 'tis well:
I thank thee: thy presumption has restored
My condescending spirit to itself;
It will forget its dignity no more
To join in altercation with thy baseness:
No! I will teach thee, false ungrateful boy!
How poor, how low, how lost a thing thou art,
Stript of that favor, which thy fraud abused.

(Exit.