University of Virginia Library

SCENE FIFTH.

DONNA ISABELLA, DONNA LEONORA, DONNA ELVIRA, BLANCHE, DON CARLOS, DON MANRIQUE, DON LOPEZ, DON ALVAREZ.
D. ISABELLA
(to Alvarez).
Say, what success?—Hast thou obtain'd thy suit?
And will this Peasant quit his claim to Carlos?

D. ALVAREZ.
Nor prayers, nor bribe can win this wretched Shepherd,
To aid in our design. I strove in vain,
By every argument, to make him feel
How irksome his ungracious presence was.
That he disgrac'd a generous, valiant Son,
Ruin'd his fortune, stigmatiz'd his honour:
That if he lov'd him, he must now declare,
'T was a mean trick he had been brib'd to play him.
To all the reasons I could urge, I added menaces—

D. CARLOS.
My Father's virtue has withstood them all?—

D. ALVAREZ.
Unshaken, unseduc'd—He claims his Son—
And for his loss of fortune, or of honour,
He says that he can make him a great Lord.
Simple and credulous he this believes;
Because his wife a hundred times has told him,
That at the sight of a poor paltry token,
The Queen of Arragon will Carlos aggrandize.
I, won by the old man's tears, and earnest prayers,
Present this homely pledge, this Iron Casket.

(Don Alvarez presents an Iron Casket to Donna Leonora; who starts at the sight of it, and leans for support upon her Daughter.)
D. ISABELLA.
What trouble, at this sight, shakes your whole frame?

D. LEONORA.
Well may my soul be shaken to behold it.
That Casket, Queen! is mine: and it contains
The marks by which I am to know my Son,
E'en by the King his Father testified.
Whether he lives, or not, this may declare.

Enter Guard.
GUARD
(to Donna Leonora).
Madam! Don Raymond begs an audience of you.

D. LEONORA.
Swift let him come.
(Exit Guard.)
(To Isabella.)
Forgive my impatient ardour.
Raymond alone can clear this mystery.