SCENE I.--DONNA LAURA'S.

_Enter_ DONNA LAURA _and_ PEDRO, R.

_Laura._ Well, Pedro, hast thou seen Don Florio?

_Ped._ Yes, Donna.

_Laura._ How did he look when he read my letter?

_Ped._ Mortal well; I never see'd him look better--he'd got a new cloak, and a----

_Laura._ Pho, blockhead! did he look pleased? did he kiss my name? did he press the billet to his bosom with all the warmth of love?

_Ped._ No, he didn't warm in that way; but he did another, for he put it into the fire.

_Laura._ How!

_Ped._ Yes, when I spoke, he started, for, I think, he had forgot that I was by--So, says he, go home and tell Donna Laura, I fly to her presence.

[_She waves her hand for him to go._

_Laura._ Is it possible? so contemptuously to destroy the letter, in which my whole heart overflowed with tenderness! Oh, how idly I talk! he is here: his very voice pierces my heart! I dare not meet his eye, thus discomposed! [_Exit_, R.

_Enter_ VICTORIA, L., _in men's clothes, preceded by_ SANCHA.

_San._ I will inform my mistress that you are here, Don Florio; I thought she had been in this apartment. [_Exit_, L.

_Vict._ Now must I, with a mind torn by anxieties, once more assume the lover of my husband's mistress--of the woman, who has robbed me of his heart, and his children of their fortune. Sure, my task is hard. Oh, love! Oh, married love, assist me! If I can, by any art, obtain from her that fatal deed, I shall save my little ones from ruin, and then--But I hear her step. [_Agitated, pressing her hand on her bosom._]--There! I have hid my griefs within my heart, and, now for all the impudence of an accomplished cavalier! [_Sings an air, sets her hat in the glass, dances a few steps, &c. then runs to_ LAURA, R., _and seizes her hand._] My lovely Laura!

_Laura._ That look speaks Laura loved, as well as lovely.

_Vict._ To be sure! Petrarch immortalized his Laura by his verses, and mine shall be immortal in my passion.

_Laura._ Oh, Florio, how deceitful! I know not what enchantment binds me to thee.

_Vict._ Me! my dear! is all this to me? [_Playing carelessly with the feather in her hat._

_Laura._ Yes, ingrate, thee!

_Vict._ Positively, Laura, you have these extravagancies so often, I wonder my passion can stand them. To be plain, those violences in your temper may make a pretty relief in the flat of matrimony, child, but they do not suit that state of freedom which is necessary to my happiness. It was by such destructive arts as these you cured Don Carlos of his love.

_Laura._ Cured Don Carlos! Oh, Florio! wert thou but as he is?

_Vict._ Why, you don't pretend he loves you still? [_Eagerly._]

_Laura._ Yes, most ardently and truly.

_Vict._ Hah!

_Laura._ If thou wouldst persuade me that thy passion is real, borrow his words, his looks: be a hypocrite one dear moment, and speak to me in all the frenzy of that love which warms the heart of Carlos!

_Vict._ The heart of Carlos!

_Laura._ Hah, that seemed a jealous pang--it gives my hopes new life. [_Aside._] Yes, Florio, he, indeed, knows what it is to love. For me he forsook a beauteous wife; nay, and with me he would forsake his country.

_Vict._ Villain! Villain!

_Laura._ Nay, let not the thought distress you thus--Carlos I despise--he is the weakest of mankind.

_Vict._ 'Tis false, madam, you cannot despise him. Carlos the weakest of mankind! Heavens! what woman could resist him? Persuasion sits on his tongue, and love, almighty love, triumphant in his eyes!

_Laura._ This is strange; you speak of your rival with the admiration of a mistress.

_Vict._ Laura! it is the fate of jealousy as well as love, to see the charms of its object, increased and heightened. I am jealous--jealous to distraction, of Don Carlos; and cannot taste peace, unless you'll swear never to see him more.

_Laura._ I swear, joyfully swear, never to behold or speak to him again. When, dear youth, shall we retire to Portugal?--We are not safe here.

_Vict._ You know I am not rich.--You must first sell the lands my rival gave you. [_Observing her with apprehension._

_Laura._ 'Tis done--I have found a purchaser, and to-morrow the transfer will be finished.

_Vict._ [_Aside._] Ah! I have now, then, nothing to trust to but the ingenuity of Gasper. There is reason to fear Don Carlos had no right in that estate, with which you supposed yourself endowed.

_Laura._ No right! what could have given you those suspicions?

_Vict._ A conversation with Juan, his steward, who assures me his master never had an estate in Leon.

_Laura._ Never! what, not by marriage?

_Vict._ Juan says so.

_Laura._ My blood runs cold; can I have taken pains to deceive myself?--Could I think so, I should be mad!

_Vict._ These doubts may soon be annihilated, or confirmed to certainty.--I have seen Don Sancho, the uncle of Victoria; he is now in Madrid.--You have told me that he once professed a passion for you.

_Laura._ Oh, to excess; but at that time I had another object.

_Vict._ Have you conversed with him much?

_Laura._ I never saw him nearer than from my balcony, where he used to ogle me through a glass, suspended by a ribbon, like an order of knighthood; he is weak enough to fancy it gives him an air of distinction--Ha! ha! But where can I find him? I must see him.

_Vict._ Write him a billet, and I will send it to his lodgings.

_Laura._ Instantly--Dear Florio, a new prospect opens to me--Don Sancho is rich and generous; and, by playing on his passions, his fortune may be a constant fund to us.--I'll dip my pen in flattery. [_Exit_, R.

_Vict._ Base woman! how can I pity thee, or regret the steps which my duty obliges me to take? For myself, I would not swerve from the nicest line of rectitude, nor wear the shadow of deceit. But, for my children!--Is there a parental heart that will not pardon me? [_Exit_, R.