University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

SCENE, The Prospect of a Village.
Enter Julio with a Letter, and Citizen.
Citiz.
When from the Window she did bow and call,
Her Passions shook her Voice; and from her Eyes
Mistemper and Distraction, with strange Wildness
Bespoke Concern above a common Sorrow.

Jul.
Poor Leonora! Treacherous, damn'd Henriquez!
She bids me fill my Memory with her Danger;
I do, my Leonora; yes, I fill
The Region of my Thought with nothing else;
Lower, she tells me here, that this Affair
Shall yield a Testimony of her Love:
And prays, her Letter may come safe and sudden.
This Pray'r the Heav'ns have heard, and I beseech 'em,
To hear all Pray'rs she makes.

Citiz.
—Have Patience, Sir.

Jul.
O my good Friend, methinks, I am too patient.
Is there a Treachery, like This in Baseness,
Recorded any where? It is the deepest:
None but Itself can be its Parallel:
And from a Friend, profess'd!—Friendship? Why, 'tis
A Word for ever maim'd; in human Nature
It was a Thing the noblest; and 'mong Beasts,
It stood not in mean Place: Things of fierce Nature
Hold Amity and Concordance.—Such a Villany
A Writer could not put down in his Scene,
Without Taxation of his Auditory
For Fiction most enormous.

Citiz.
—These Upbraidings
Cool Time, while they are vented.

Jul.
—I am counsel'd.
For you, evermore, Thanks. You've done much for Us;
So gently press'd to't, that I may perswade me
You'll do a little more.

Citiz.
—Put me t'Employment
That's honest, tho' not safe, with my best Spirits
I'll give 't Accomplishment.

Jul.
No more but This;
For I must see Leonora: And to appear
Like Julio, as I am, might haply spoil
Some good Event ensuing. Let me crave
Th'Exchange of Habit with you: some Disguise,
May bear Me to my Love, unmark'd, and secret.

Citiz.
You shall not want. Yonder's the House before us:
Make Haste to reach it.

Jul.
—Still I thank you, Sir.
O Leonora! stand but this rude Shock;
Hold out thy Faith against the dread Assault
Of this base Lord, the Service of my Life
Shall be devoted to repay thy Constancy.

[Exeunt.