Chapter 16

_Elvira._ Rodrigo, what hast them done? Whence comest thou, unhappy man?

_Don Rodrigo._ Here [i.e. to the house of Chimène], to follow out the sad course of my miserable destiny.

_Elvira._ Whence obtainest thou this audacity, and this new pride, of appearing in places which thou hast filled with mourning? What! dost thou come even here to defy the shade of the Count? Hast thou not slain him?

_Don Rodrigo._ His existence was my shame; my honor required this deed from my [reluctant] hand.

_Elvira._ But to seek thy asylum in the house of the dead! Has ever a murderer made such his refuge?

_Don Rodrigo._ And I come here only to yield myself to my judge. Look no more on me with astonishment [_lit._ an eye amazed]; I seek death after having inflicted it. My love is my judge; my judge is my Chimène. I deserve death for deserving her hatred, and I am come to receive, as a supreme blessing, its decree from her lips, and its stroke from her hand.

_Elvira._ Fly rather from her sight, fly from her impetuosity; conceal your presence from her first excitement. Go! do not expose yourself to the first impulses which the fiery indignation of her resentment may give vent to.

_Don Rodrigo._ No, no. This beloved one, whom I [could] so displease, cannot have too wrathful a desire for my punishment; and I avoid a hundred deaths which are going to crush me if, by dying sooner, I can redouble it [i.e. that wrath].

_Elvira._ Chimène is at the palace, bathed in tears, and will return but too well accompanied. Rodrigo, fly! for mercy's sake relieve me from my uneasiness! What might not people say if they saw you here? Do you wish that some slanderer, to crown her misery, should accuse her of tolerating here the slayer of her father? She will return; she is coming--I see her; at least, for the sake of _her_ honor, Rodrigo, conceal thyself! [_Rodrigo conceals himself._]