Chapter 22

ALV. My Lord, endeavour to be composed.

GARC. I have seen... Vengeance! O Heaven!

ALV. What sudden alarm...?

GARC. It will kill me, Don Alvarez, it is but too certain.

ALV. But, my Lord, what can...

GARC. Alas! Everything is undone. I am betrayed, I am murdered!

[Footnote: The last sentences of Don Alvarez and Don Garcia are also found in the _Misanthrope_, Act iv., Scene 2 (see Vol. II).]

A man, (can I say it and still live) a man in the arms of the faithless Elvira!

ALV. The Princess, my Lord, is so virtuous...

GARC. Ah, Don Alvarez, do not gainsay what I have seen. It is too much to defend her reputation, after my eyes have beheld so heinous an action.

ALV. Our passions, my Lord, often cause us to mistake a deception for a reality; to believe that a mind nourished by virtue can....

GARC. Prithee leave me, Don Alvarez, a counsellor is in the way upon such an occasion; I will take counsel only of my wrath.

ALV. (_Aside_). It is better not to answer him when his mind is so upset.

GARC. Oh! how deeply am I wounded! But I shall see who it is, and punish with my own hand.... But here she comes. Restrain thyself, O rage!