University of Virginia Library

Scene II

A magnificent apartment in Count Rodolph's palace.
Enter Count Alvar and Theresa. Don Carlos enters, unobserved, behind them.
Count Alvar
The air is filled with freshness from the sea,
And all the winds seem laden down with balm.
And now, Theresa, blessed of my heart,
How sweet to trace the outlines of thy face,
And drink the living music of thy voice,
Whose tones first taught me what it was to love!
How sweet to hear the softness of thy sighs,
And fold thee gently on my bosom thus!

(Embracing her.)
Theresa
When next we meet, my lord, this hand of mine
Will have the privilege of grasping thine
In everlasting love.

Count Alvar
Then shall thine eyes,
Twin-born divinities, gaze into all
The secret sanctuary of my soul,
And learn the richness of my love for thee.

Don Carlos
(Aside.)
That voice reminds me of my native land.

Count Alvar
(Observing him.)
What brought you here?

Don Carlos
(Aside.)
Foul fiend!
(Aloud.)
When that is told,
Thou wilt not hate Leoni's love.

Count Alvar
(Drawing his sword.)
Begone!

Theresa
(Preventing him.)
What, would you have his blood upon your sword?

Count Alvar
(Putting up his sword.)
No, by the Gods! Retire awhile, farewell!
(Exit Theresa.)
Well, Carlos, stealing on me as thou hast,
What business have you with me at this hour?

Don Carlos
(Aside.)
If that is not the everlasting voice
Which drowned the music of my soul, there is
No discord in the language of the damned. (Aloud.)

I come as some dark whirlwind from the sea,
Crushing the oak amid the silent woods,
When from the forest boughs the morning dew,
Is shaken by the mighty sound in rain.

Count Alvar
Who made thee bearer of such wondrous news?

Don Carlos
Leoni, she who was betrayed by thee!

Count Alvar
What could have urged her on to this extreme?

Don Carlos
Revenge! Ay, deeper than thy perjury,
And stronger than the whirlwinds of the sea!

Count Alvar
Then go, foul braggart! tell her that the down
Upon the turtle's wing were better armed
Against the furious hurricane!—Revenge!

Don Carlos
You know that schoolboy friend of hers,
Who means to marry her on his return?

Count Alvar
By heavens, if that is all, he will do well.

Don Carlos
By Jove, that is not all. He will do well!

Count Alvar
(Aside.)
He will do well. By Heavens, he is too bold!
There must be something devilish in his talk.
(Aloud.)
What, heard you Leoni was his bride?

Don Carlos
I did not come to tell you what I heard.

Count Alvar
I trace the outlines of some devilish deed,
Upon the marble of thy lofty brow.

Don Carlos
But if Count Alvar would advise me how
To shame the Devil of the mask he wears,
I would unfold to him the foulest crime
That ever stained the Annals of the damned.

Count Alvar
Foul crime! Will Carlos tell me what he means?

Don Carlos
With joy if you will listen to my tale.

Count Alvar
I will with all my heart. Speak on.

Don Carlos
Then mark,
It was the gentlest of those summer eves,
When day stood pausing on the hills of Spain,
That, wandering through the orange groves alone,
I met Almeda coming from the sea-
A sweeter spirit never came from Heaven.
She stood so sinless that you might have plucked
Perfection from her lofty brow.

Count Alvar
And then—

Don Carlos
As innocence hath ever done, she sought
Protection, due her gentler sex, within
My arms.

Count Alvar
Which bore her soon away.

Don Carlos
I did,
Alas!

Count Alvar
And married her that night.

Don Carlos
I did.
But Gods! it ended sooner than 'twas done.
Two years had scarcely told our hopes were crowned,
When late one night about the hour of ten,
A villian came tapping upon my door,
And waking her from slumber by my side,
Playing upon his lute, won her heart.
She rose like Venus from her downy sea,
And leaping in his arms with frantic joy,
There, Devil-like, forgot that she was mine!
Oh, God, such earthquake vengeance rent my heart,
I chased her Paris with Achille's speed,
And like another Grecian—

Count Alvar
Stabbed him dead!

Don Carlos
No, by the eternal Gods, the villain lives!

Count Alvar
And did she die?

Don Carlos
I neither knew nor cared.
I left my perjured Helen from that hour,
A jewel worn upon my breast in joy—
And from that fatal hour, now twenty years,
I have not seen my childhood's native land.

Count Alvar
And did you ever learn that villain's name?

Don Carlos
I did—although he traveled in disguise—
A Florentine, who courted with his lute,
And oft repeated songs—who never knew
Nor cared what garment virtue wore, so he
Could win her by the sorcery of false smiles,
To his lascivious arms. Should he not die?
By Heavens, the answer stifles in thy throat!

Count Alvar
Away!

Don Carlos
Count Alvar, thou shalt die tonight!

(Exit.)
Count Alvar
Tonight, by Heavens, the villain said tonight!
As if there were no time to die but night!
The reed that cannot stay the torrent's course,
Must die beneath the glory of its force.

(Exit.)