University of Virginia Library

Scene III

A magnificent apartment in Don Carlos' palace.
Enter Leoni, attended by Elvira.
Let nature reinstate herself again.
The past in happiness has gone forever,
And lends the present only sterner grief.
We cannot feel the joys we have enjoyed,
And only know the joys we now enjoy.

Leoni
The fiery blood leaps through my burning brain,
And there enkindles thoughts too wild too name—
Foul, murderous thoughts!

Elvira
Thy vengeance then will seek
The villain throughout all the world?

Leoni
It will;
And finding him will open every vein,
And filling each foul tube with molten lead,
Shall hang him up for mockery to the world,
Till he has grown so old in ugliness,
That every fowl that soars through Heaven shall scream,
And every wolf stand howling at his course!
But did your brother watch him to my wish?

Elvira
He did. He has more in his heart against
The Count, than ever entered thy soft soul.

Leoni
Then he has watched the fiend for something more
Than friendship for an injured girl?

Elvira
He has;
But every fibre of thy tender heart
Will echo back the justness of the cause.

Leoni
The cause? What cause is that?

Elvira
Revenge! revenge!
But see, my brother comes.

Enter Don Carlos
Don Carlos
Leoni weeps
Would that my hand could stay those gentle tears.

Leoni
Ah, know you not some way to wipe them off,
And make the cheeks of poor Leoni smile?

Don Carlos
If I could muster in my faithful soul
A single thought that would, when called to act,
Be beneficial to thy injured cause,
I would devote the remnant of my days
In exercising it for thee!

Leoni
Then mark,
I would not have him chronicled on earth,
But have thee dip thy dagger in his blood,
And write upon the tablet of his heart
The fulness of the vengeance of my hate.

Don Carlos
Then glut the hunger of my own revenge!
But then his wife—

Leoni
His wife?

Don Carlos
Ay, wife, by Heaven!

Leoni
Then you have seen her with the Count.

Don Carlos
I have;
And told him if every hair upon
His head were gifted with ten thousand lives,
And every life were punished by the inch
Through all eternity, that he would not
Repay you for the injury he has done.

Leoni
But why not blast him to Theresa's face!

Don Carlos
I would have told her of the blackest crime
That ever lashed the groping soul to Hell,
Had it not been that, when he drew his sword,
She spat upon me with her words and said,
“What, would you have your blood upon his sword?”
As if she looked upon me with disdain!
Then pity, that moment, left my heart,
And such eternal vengeance took its place,
I said, “Now may his pestilential breath
Contaminate the air in which she lives,
Breed foul consumption in her honored blood,
And rot her bones through all eternity!”

Leoni
Then, in the name of all that is most dear,
Let not another day roll round!

Don Carlos
But stay!
What if she heard me tell him he would die?

Leoni
Well, did you say it, Carlos?

Don Carlos
Yes, I did.
And sorry am I that the word was said.

Leoni
Why so? Alas, all false!

Don Carlos
You called me false!
How false, Leoni?

Leoni
Puerile as the child,
That over-fed will vomit in its sleep.
I thought thou wert the thorn among the flowers,
Who stood to wound the hand that came to pluck
The rose. But, like the Dead Sea Apples, thou
Hast won upon my appetite to taste
The hope that turns to ashes on my lips!

Don Carlos
By Jove, you wrong me!

Leoni
Then, revenge thyself!
Revenge thyself upon Theresa's lord!
Wait not another day—not even an hour!

Don Carlos
I told the villain he should die tonight.

Leoni
Then let it be tonight—the dead of night!

Don Carlos
Nay, wronged Leoni, that would never do.
She may have heard my threat, which, if she did,
Such foul suspicion would be fixed upon
Me from that hour, that all would say at once,
“'Twas Carlos killed the Count!” No—mark me now!
Let not the fragment of an evil thought
Give utterance to the breathing of his name,
And write Alvino to return from Rome.

Leoni
Alvino, call that blessed name again,
And let the music settle in my soul,
And tune the discord of my broken heart
To childhood melody!

Don Carlos
And when he comes—

Leoni
The Count—

Don Carlos
But let no human being know
That Carlos ever knew the Count—

Leoni
Shall die!
I thank thee for that blessed thought, good friend!
I thank you for that thought—Count Alvar dies!

(Exeunt omnes.)
Curtain falls. End of Act First.