LYSANDER and LIVIA enter from opposite doors.--JUSTINA.
LYSANDER. My child?
LIVIA. What means this cry?
JUSTINA. Saw you not a man (ah, me!)
Who but left me instantly?
I can scarce express my thought.
LYSANDER. A man here?
JUSTINA. You saw him not?
LIVIA. No, senora.
JUSTINA. I could see.
LYSANDER. Saw a man here? That is hard,
When the place was locked and barred.
LIVIA [aside]. Moscon sure she must have seen,
Whom I have contrived to screen
In my changer.
LYSANDER. I regard
What you saw but as the play
Of your fancy and your fear.
Melancholy surely may
Have, the man that you saw here,
Formed from atoms of the day.
LIVIA. Yes, I think my master's right.
JUSTINA. No, 'twas no defect of sight,
No illusion: since my heart,--
Ah! too well I feel the smart--
Has been broken by the fright.
Some strange witchery of my will
Must have been effected here.
And with such consummate skill,
That if God had not been near
I might have pursued my ill.
He who at such timely hour
Helped me to resist the power
Of this fearful violence,
Will my humble innocence
Guard, whatever dangers lower.--
Livia, my cloak: whene'er
[Exit LIVIA.
Overwhelming griefs oppress,
I to holy church repair,
Where we secretly confess
The true faith.
[LIVIA returns with the cloak, which she places on JUSTINA.
LIVIA. 'Tis this you wear.
JUSTINA. There perchance I may appease
This strange fire that burns me so.
LYSANDER. I desire with thee to go.
LIVIA [aside]. I will breathe much more at ease
When they're out of the house, I know.
JUSTINA. Since I wholly trust to thee
Heaven, thy hold to me afford.
Save me....
LYSANDER. Come: so it may be.
JUSTINA. Since the cause is thine, O Lord!
Oh, defend Thyself and me!
[Exeunt JUSTINA and LYSANDER.
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