University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE FIRST.

Romilda, Ildovaldo.
Rom.
I've seen Rosmunda. Can I now believe? ...

Il.
All is at length disposed: thou'rt safe already,
Provided that thou wilt at fall of night
To me repair. Scarce from the fatal walls
Shall we have parted, ere we shall discover
A guard of chosen champions: afterwards
All obstacles will vanish with our progress.

Rom.
Oh thou, my true defender! Who indeed
Could have imagined this? Where I expected
Death, as the least of ills, shall I receive
Life and enjoyment from the same Rosmunda?
Say, should my bosom welcome such a hope?
We, who were erewhile in the depths of woe,
Are, in a space incalculably swift,
Raised to the pinnacle of happiness?
I join'd to thee? I free? exempt from danger? ...
Can this be true?

Il.
That I should rescue thee
I was convinced, but in a different manner:
Yet this involves less danger to ourselves.
In this Rosmunda doth befriend herself,
E'en more than us; she is compell'd to do it.
It grieves me, for the present, to be forced
To drag thee from thy kingdom; but, in safety
Provided that I see thee, hopes I cherish
To reconduct thee in another fashion
One day to thy hereditary realm.

Rom.
Where'er with thee I am my kingdom lies.
Hence I've such transports that all seems unreal ...
But yet such ecstacy scarce counteracts
The new forebodings that assault my heart.
The traitor Almachilde is my lover;
I have not merited his impious love;
All unexpected to my innocent ears
It came; but yet I heard it; nor in him ...

Il.
I should have understood that miscreant better:
But for my gifts I swear I will exact
A recompense; the victory, the realm,
His life that I defended with my blood,
He shall repay to me. But, for the present,
I ought to shun him, and I will, while thou
Art not in safety.

Rom.
Ah! thou canst not know
What agonizing wounds my heart sustain'd
In hearing his base words! How all at once
I seem'd less worthy in my own esteem,
Since I had pleased a nature so ignoble!
Oh how I hate him!—But Rosmunda is
The origin of all my wretchedness;
She has oppress'd and laden me with insults,
And evermore degraded me. I feel
An inauspicious presage in my heart
That she will never, never prove to me
The instrument of safety; I know well
The infinite abhorrence, which, in her,
By her ferocity, her deadly crimes,
And rankling jealousy, is now redoubled.
But all, whate'er they be, all the effects
Of her wild passions, as a lesser ill
I rather chuse to bear, than the base love
And insolent addresses of her minion.

Il.
His foolish hardihood shall cost him dear:
Appease thyself; it was no crime of thine
That thou didst hear him.

Rom.
I, but for one moment,
Should ne'er have seem'd accessible to him;
Behold my fault; should never have endured
That he for my misfortunes dared to seem
Impress'd with pity; never should have made him
The witness of my tears; a joy by me
To proud Rosmunda evermore denied.
Often my eyes with tear-drops ill suppress'd,
My heart with sorrow fill'd, the miscreant saw;
Hence rose his boldness; ... hence my guilt arose;
And a disgrace I ever must deplore. ...

Il.
To make thee e'en exult in this, leave me;
And him in tears of blood to weep his crime.
To him who never blamed thee yet, Romilda,
One look of thine, in which thy innocent soul,
And thy most pure and ardent heart, shine forth,
More than exculpates thee.—Let this suffice.
Be thou here ready at the approach of night
To follow me; of nothing else take thought.
Meanwhile the sight of Almachilde shun;
Thus his suspicious wilt thou best defeat.
Rosmunda equally do thou avoid,
For she, perchance ...

Rom.
I understand thee well;
Lest in her bosom for a pitying deed
Remorse arise.

Il.
Farewell. A longer stay
Our projects may defeat.

Rom.
Dost thou then leave me?

Il.
Ere long, and never more shall we be severed.