University of Virginia Library

SCENE XII.

ANTONIA.
My lord, you said, was to be here at noon.

TERESA.
So Ferdinando told me. Heard you not
What he reported when he came last night?

ANTONIA.
Eternal horror blot the fatal night.
I heard him not; I was wrapt up in sleep.
Oh! my lov'd lord, that could so rashly leave
Thy faithful wife defenceless while a slave.—
Where is the fiend?—

TERESA.
Whom, my dear lady, whom?

ANTONIA.
The sacrilegious and infernal snake
That crawled, unheard, to—

TERESA.
Ferdinando?

ANTONIA.
—Yes.

TERESA.
You heard him then when he was in the room?

ANTONIA.
Darest thou, presumptuous wench, say that I knew?

TERESA.
Pardon me, madam, if I say amiss.
It was, indeed, an impious intrusion.

ANTONIA.
Ha! how intrusion? What know'st thou of it?

TERESA.
Was he not seen by signor Carravagio?
He often walks the gallery at night.

ANTONIA.
Go send the painter, instantly, to me.

TERESA.
Here is a riddle, ravell'd and perplext!