SCENE II.--DONNA LAURA'S.

_Enter_ LAURA, L., _with precipitation, followed by_ VICTORIA.

_Laura._ 'Tis his carriage!--How successful was my letter! This, my Florio, is a most important moment.

_Vict._ It is, indeed; and I will leave you to make every advantage of it. [_Crosses_, R.] If I am present, I must witness condescensions from you, that I shall not be able to bear, though I know them to be but affected.--Now, Gasper, [_Aside._] play thy part well, and save Victoria! [_Exit_, R.

_Enter_ GASPER, L. _dressed as an old Beau; two_ SERVANTS _follow him, and take off a rich cloak_.

_Gasp._ Take my cloak; and, d'ye hear, Ricardo, go home and bring the eider-down cushions for the coach, and tell the fellow not to hurry me post through the streets of Madrid. [_Exeunt_ SERVANTS, L.] I have been jolted from side to side, like a pippin in a mill stream. Drive a man of my rank, as he would a city vintner and his fat wife, going to a bull fight! Ha, there she is! [_Looking through a glass, suspended by a red ribbon._]--there she is! Charming Donna Laura! let me thus at the shrine of your beauty--[_Makes an effort to kneel, and falls on his face_; LAURA _assists him to rise_.] Fie, fie, those new shoes!--they have made me skate all day, like a Dutchman on a canal; and now--Well, you see how profound my adoration is, madam. Common lovers kneel; I was prostrate.

_Laura._ You do me infinite honour.----Disgustful wretch!--You are thinner than you were, Don Sancho: I protest, now I observe you, you are much altered!

_Gasp._ Ay, madam--fretting. Your absence threw me into a fever, and that destroyed my bloom:--You see, I look almost a middle-aged man, now.

_Laura._ No, really; far from it, I assure you.----The fop is as wrinkled as a baboon! [_Aside._]

_Gasp._ Then jealousy--that gave me a jaundice.--My niece's husband, I hear, Don Carlos, has been my happy rival. Oh, my blade will hardly keep in its scabbard, when I think of him.

_Laura._ Think no more of him--he has been long banished my thoughts, be assured. I wonder you gave your niece to him, with such a fortune.

_Gasp._ Gave! she gave herself; and, as to fortune, she had not a pistole from me.

_Laura._ 'Twas, indeed, unnecessary, with so fine an estate as she had in Leon.

_Gasp._ My niece an estate in Leon! Not enough to give shelter to a field-mouse; and if he has told you so, he is a braggart.

_Laura._ Told me so--I have the writings; he has made over the lands to me.

_Gasp._ Made over the lands to you!--Oh, a deceiver! I begin to suspect a plot. Pray, let me see this extraordinary deed. [_She runs to a Cabinet_, D. F.] A plot, I'll be sworn!

_Laura._ Here is the deed which made that estate mine for ever. No, sir, I will intrust it in no hand but my own. Yet look over me, and read the description of the lands.

_Gasp._ [_Reading through his glass._] H--m--m--. _In the vicinage of Rosalvo, bounded on the west by the river----h--m--m, on the east by the forest_----Oh, an artful dog! I need read no further; I see how the thing is.

_Laura._ How, sir!--but hold----Stay a moment--I am breathless with fear.

_Gasp._ Nay, madam, don't be afraid! 'Tis my estate--that's all; the very castle where I was born; and which I never did, nor ever will, bestow on any Don in the two Castiles. Dissembling rogue! Bribe you with a fictitious title to my estate--ha! ha! ha!

_Laura._ [_Aside._] Curses follow him! The villain I employed must have been his creature; his reluctance all art; and, whilst I believed myself undoing him, was duped myself!

_Gasp._ Could you suppose I'd give Carlos such an estate for running away with my niece? No, no; the vineyards, and the cornfields, and the woods of Rosalvo, are not for him.--I've somebody else in my eye--in my eye, observe me--to give those to:--Can't you guess who it is?

_Laura._ No, indeed!--He gives me a glimmering that saves me from despair! [_Aside._]

_Gasp._ I won't tell you, unless you'll bribe me--I won't indeed. [_Kisses her cheek._] There, now I'll tell you--they are all for you. Yes, this estate, to which you have taken such a fancy, shall be yours.--I'll give you the deeds, if you'll promise to love me, you little, cruel thing!

_Laura._ Can you be serious?

_Gasp._ I'll sign and seal to-morrow.

_Laura._ Noble Don Sancho! Thus, then, I annihilate the proof of his perfidy, and my weakness.--Thus I tear to atoms his detested name; and as I tread on these, so would I on his heart.

_Enter_ VICTORIA, R.

_Vict._ My children then are saved! [_In transport._]

_Laura._ [_Apart._] Oh, Florio, 'tis as thou saidst--Carlos was a villain, and deceived me.--Why this strange air? Ah, I see the cause--you think me ruined, and will abandon me. Yes, I see it in thy averted face; thou dar'st not meet my eyes. If I misjudge thee, speak!

_Vict._ Laura, I cannot speak.--You little guess the emotions of heart.--Heaven knows, I pity you!

_Laura._ Pity! Oh, villain! and has thy love already snatched the form of pity? Base, deceitful----

_Car._ [_Without._] Stand off; loose your weak hold; I'm come for vengeance!

_Enter_ CARLOS, L.

Where is this youth? Where is the blooming rival, for whom I have been betrayed? Hold me not, base woman! In vain the stripling flies me; for, by Heaven, my sword shall in his bosom write its master's wrongs!

[VICTORIA _first goes towards the Flat, then returns, takes off her hat, and drops on one knee_.

_Vict._ Strike, strike it here! Plunge it deep into that bosom, already wounded by a thousand stabs, keener and more painful than your sword can give. Here lives all the gnawing anguish of love betrayed; here live the pangs of disappointed hopes, hopes sanctified by holiest vows, which have been written in the book of Heaven.----Hah! he sinks.--[_She flies to him._]--Oh! my Carlos! beloved! my husband! forgive my too severe reproaches; thou art dear, yet dear as ever, to Victoria's heart!

_Car._ [_Recovering._] Oh, you know not what you do--you know not what you are. Oh, Victoria, thou art a beggar!

_Vict._ No, we are rich, we are happy! See there, the fragments of that fatal deed, which, had I not recovered, we had been indeed undone; yet still not wretched, could my Carlos think so!

_Car._ The fragments of the deed! the deed which that base woman----

_Vict._ Speak not so harshly.----To you, madam, I fear, I seem reprehensible; yet, when you consider my duties as a wife and mother, you will forgive me. Be not afraid of poverty--a woman has deceived, but she will not desert you!

_Laura._ Is this real? Can I be awake?

_Vict._ Oh, may'st thou indeed awake to virtue!--You have talents that might grace the highest of our sex; be no longer unjust to such precious gifts, by burying them in dishonour.--Virtue is our first, most awful duty; bow, Laura! bow before her throne, and mourn in ceaseless tears, that ever you forgot her heavenly precepts!

_Laura._ So, by a smooth speech about virtue, you think to cover the injuries I sustain. Vile, insinuating monster!--but thou knowest me not.--Revenge is sweeter to my heart than love; and if there is a law in Spain to gratify that passion, your virtue shall have another field for exercise. [_Exit_, R.

_Car._ [_Turning towards_ VICTORIA.] My hated rival and my charming wife! How many sweet mysteries have you to unfold?----Oh, Victoria! my soul thanks thee, but I dare not yet say I love thee, till ten thousand acts of watchful tenderness, have proved how deep the sentiment's engraved.

_Vict._ Can it be true that I have been unhappy?--But the mysteries, my Carlos, are already explained to you--Gasper's resemblance to my uncle----

_Gasp._ Yes, sir, I was always apt at resemblances--In our plays at home, I am always Queen Cleopatra--You know she was but a gipsey queen, and I hits her off to a nicety.

_Car._ Come, my Victoria----Oh, there is a painful pleasure in my bosom--To gaze on thee, to listen to and to love thee, seems like the bliss of angels' cheering whispers to repentant sinners. [_Exeunt_ CARLOS _and_ VICTORIA, L.

_Gasp._ Lord help 'em! how easily the women are taken in! [_Exit_, L.