A Chamber in the Palace of Alarcos.
The COUNTESS and SIDONIA.
IV:2:1 SIDO.
Lady, you’re moved: nay, ‘twas an idle word.
IV:2:2 COUN.
But was it true?
IV:2:3 SIDO.
And yet might little mean.
IV:2:4 COUN.
That I should live to doubt!
IV:2:5 SIDO.
But do not doubt;
Forget it, lady. You should know him well;
Nay, do not credit it.
IV:2:6 COUN.
He’s very changed.
I would not own, no, not believe that change,
I’ve given it every gloss that might confirm
My sinking heart. Time and your tale agree;
Alas! ‘tis true.
IV:2:7 SIDO.
I hope not; still believe
It is not true. Would that I had not spoken!
It was unguarded prate.
IV:2:8 COUN.
You have done me service:
Condemned, the headsman is no enemy,
Bat closes suffering.
IV:2:9 SIDO.
Yet a bitter doom
To torture those you’d bless. I have a thought.
What if this eve you visit this same spot,
That shrouds these meetings? If he’s wanting then,
The rest might prove as false.
IV:2:10 COUN.
He will be there,
I feel he will be there.
IV:2:11 SIDO.
We should not think so,
Until our eyes defeat our hopes.
IV:2:12 COUN.
O Burgos,
My heart misgave me when I saw thy walls!
To doubt is madness, yet ‘tis not despair,
And that may be my lot.
IV:2:13 SIDO.
The palace gardens
Are closed, except to master-keys. Here’s one,
My office gives it me, and it can count
Few brethren. You will be alone.
IV:2:14 COUN.
Alas!
I dare not hope so.
IV:2:15 SIDO.
Well, well, think of this;
Yet take the key.
IV:2:16 COUN.
O that it would unlock
The heart now closed to me! To watch his ways
Was once my being. Shall I prove the spy
Of joys I may not share? I will not take
That fatal key.
IV:2:17 SIDO.
‘Tis well; I pray you, pardon
My ill-timed zeal.
IV:2:18 COUN.
Indeed, I should be grateful
That one should wish to serve me. Can it be?
‘Tis not two months, two little, little months,
You crossed this threshold first; Ah! gentle air,
And we were all so gay! What have I done?
What is all this? so sudden and so strange?
It is not true, I feel it is not true;
‘Tis factious care that clouds his brow, and calls
For all this timed absence. His brain’s busy
With the State. Is’t not so? I prithee speak,
And say you think it.
IV:2:19 SIDO.
You should know him well;
And if you deem it so, why I should deem
The inference just.
IV:2:20 COUN.
Yet if he were not there,
How happy I should sleep! there is no peril;
The garden’s near; and is there shame? ‘Tis love
Makes me a lawful spy. He’ll not be there,
And then there is no prying.
IV:2:21 SIDO.
Near at hand,
Crossing the way that bounds your palace court,
There is a private portal.
IV:2:22 COUN.
If I go,
He will not miss me. Ah, I would he might!
So very near; no, no; I cannot go;
And yet I’ll take the key.
[Takes the key.]
Would thou could’st speak,
Thou little instrument, and tell me all
The secrets of thy office! My heart beats;
‘Tis my first enterprise; I would it were
To do him service. No, I cannot go;
Farewell, kind sir; indeed I am so troubled,
I must retire.
[Exit COUNTESS.]
IV:2:23 SIDO.
Thy virtue makes me vile;
And what should move my heart inflames my soul.
O marvellous world, wherein I play the villain
From very love of excellence! But for him,
I’d be the rival of her stainless thoughts
And mate her purity. Hah!
[Enter ORAN.]
IV:2:24 ORAN.
My noble lord!
IV:2:25 SIDO.
The Moor!
IV:2:26 ORAN.
Your servant.
IV:2:27 SIDO.
Here! ‘tis passing strange.
How’s this?
IV:2:28 ORAN.
The accident of war, my lord.
I am a prisoner.
IV:2:29 SIDO.
But at large, it seems.
You have betrayed me
IV:2:30 ORAN.
Had I chosen that,
I had been free and you not here. I fought,
And fell in single fight. Why spared I know not,
But that the lion’s generous.
IV:2:31 SIDO.
Will you prove
Your faith
IV:2:32 ORAN.
Nay, doubt it not.
IV:2:33 SIDO.
You still can aid me.
IV:2:34 ORAN.
I am no traitor, and my friends shall find
I am not wanting.
IV:2:35 SIDO.
Quit these liberal walls
Where you’re not watched. In brief, I’ve coined a tale
Has touched the Countess to the quick. She seeks,
Alone or scantly tended, even now,
The palace gardens; eager to discover
A faithless husband, where she’ll chance to find
One more devout. My steeds and servants wait
At the right post; my distant castle soon
Shall hold this peerless wife. Your resolute spirit
May aid me much. How say you, is it well
That we have met?
IV:2:36 ORAN.
Right well. I will embark
Most heartily in this.
IV:2:37 SIDO.
With me at once.
IV:2:38 ORAN.
At once?
IV:2:39 SIDO.
No faltering. You have learned and know
Too much to spare you from my sight, good Oran.
With me at once.
IV:2:40 ORAN.
‘Tis urgent; well at once,
And I will do good service, or I’ll die.
For what is life unless to aid the life
Has aided thine?
IV:2:41 SIDO.
On then; with me no eye
Will look with jealousy upon thy step.
[Exeunt both.]