There's death in this eclipse too; sweet, dismiss
Thy ungentle veil, and let thy eyes make bright
This melancholy air, that droops and dies
For want of thy restoring beams.
Estef. Now, sir,

[Takes off her veil. What think you of your mistress?

Alb. You are the lady Estefanía, I take it.
Estef. Yes, you did take me from the coach,
Alberto,

But by a consequence I find you thought
Jacinta in your power; I could have told you,
Had you discover'd sooner what you were,
Where to have found your mistress, but she's

now

Above your hope, and by the priest, ere this, Made wife to Don Francisco.

Alb. To Don Pedro.

Estef. It was not, sir, impossible that I,
Had not your violence prevented me
(By a plot between Jacinta and myself,
To take her place and person in the coach),

Had by this time been married to Count Pedro,
Whom I have power and justice, sir, to challenge,
If contracts carry weight.

Alb. Have I so long

Lain beating at the bush, and is the bird
Fled to Francisco?

Estef. I should show I had

A passion, sir, and sense of this captivity,
But that I find 'twas error, and not will,

Led you to this; and your own loss, now made
Irreparable, helps to tie up my anger.

Alb. Madam, I must confess a wrong, and dare
Submit to let your anger punish me,
For I despise myself, now I have lost
My expectation; and if you please
To think I had no malice in this act

To you, you can propose no satisfaction
I shall esteem a penance to repair you,
As far as my poor life, if you'll direct it.

Estef. "Tis nobly promis'd, sir. You shall redeem

In my thoughts what is past, if you be pleas'd
To make my stay no longer here; I have
No desperate aim to make Don Pedro yet
Know how to right [me], or make public what
Should bind his honour to perform.

Alb. Was not Luys, madam, entertain'd your

servant?

Estef. I shall make known the story, if you walk

But to Don Carlos' house.

Alb. You shall command me.

[Exeunt.

1 slug-sluggish, slow.

That should preserve your bosom suffer for My sake, 'twere better I were dead.

Fer. No, live,

And live for ever happy: thou deservedst it.
It is Fernando doth make haste to sleep
In his forgotten dust.

Fel. Those accents did
Not sound so cheerfully.
Fer. Dost love me?
Fel. Sir?

Fer. Do not, I pr'ythec, do not; I am lost, Alas! I am no more Fernando, there Is nothing but the empty name of him That did betray thee; place a guard about Thy heart betime; I am not worth this sweetness. Fel. Did not Fernando speak all this? Alas, He knew that I was poor before, and needed not Despise me now for that.

Fer. Desert me goodness,

When I upbraid thy wants. 'Tis I am poor,
For I have not a stock in all the world

Of so much dust as would contrive one narrow
Cabin to shroud a worm: my dying father
Hath given away my birthright to Francisco;
I'm disinherited, thrown out of all,

But the small earth I borrow, thus to walk on; And having nothing left, I come to kiss thee, And take my everlasting leave of thee too. Farewell! this will persuade thee to consent To my eternal absence.

Fel. I must beseech you stay a little, sir, And clear my faith. Hath your displeased father Depriv'd you then of all, and made Francisco The lord of your inheritance, without hope To be repair'd in fortune?

Fer. "Tis sad truth.1

Fel. This is a happiness I did not look for. Fer. A happiness!

Fel. Yes, sir, a happiness.

Fer. Can Felisarda take delight to hear What hath undone her servant?

Fel. Heaven avert it.

But 'tis not worth my grief to be assured
That this will bring me nearer now to him
Whom I most honour of the world; and 'tis
My pride, if you exceed me not in fortune,
That I can boast my heart, as high and rich,
With noble flame, and every way your equal.
And if you be as poor as I, Fernando,

I can deserve you now, and love you more
Than when your expectation carried all
The pride and blossoms of the spring upon it.
Fer. Those shadows will not feed more than
your fancies;

Two poverties will keep but a thin table;

And while we dream of this high nourishment, We do but starve more gloriously.

Fel. 'Tis ease

And wealth first taught us art to surfeit by:
Nature is wise, not costly, and will spread
A table for us in the wilderness;

And the kind earth keep us alive and healthful,
With what her bosom doth invite us to;
The brooks, not there suspected, as the wine
That sometime princes quaff, are all transparent,
And with their pretty murmurs call to taste them.
In every tree a chorister to sing

Health to our loves; our lives shall there be free
As the first knowledge was from sin, and all
Our dreams as innocent.

Fer. Oh, Felisarda!

If thou didst own less virtue I might prove Unkind, and marry thee: but being so rich

1'Tis sad truth. Had Fernando forgotten that a pension was left him by his father?-See p. 541.

Als. An armed troop,

In vizards, forced her from my coach; and
Heaven knows

Where they have hurried the poor Jacinta..
Car. A troop of armed devils!
Ped. Let them be

A legion, they are all damn'd.

Als. Nay, they were men and mortal sure. Ped. I will not leave one soul amongst them all.

Car. Mine is in torment.

I' the hope and height of my ambition
To be thus crossed! How 'scap'd you?

Als. Alas, I was not young enough; I offered Myself to bear her company, and suffer

As much as she did, but one boisterous fellow, With a starch'd voice, and a worse vizard, took

me

Just here above my sciatica, and quoited me
Into the coach again upon my head

I had a larum in't for half an hour,
And so I 'scap'd with life.

Ped. Did they use her
With any rigour?

Als. To say truth, they were
Gentle enough to her.

Ped. That mollifies, and they may live.
Car. Hell overtake them! Let's return.

There's death in this eclipse too; sweet, dismiss
Thy ungentle veil, and let thy eyes make bright
This melancholy air, that droops and dies
For want of thy restoring beams.
Estef. Now, sir,

[Takes off her veil. What think you of your mistress?

Alb. You are the lady Estefania, I take it.
Estef. Yes, you did take me from the coach,
Alberto,

But by a consequence I find you thought
Jacinta in your power; I could have told you,
Had
you discover'd sooner what you were,
Where to have found your mistress, but she's

Lain beating at the bush, and is the bird
Fled to Francisco?

Estef. I should show I had

A passion, sir, and sense of this captivity,
But that I find 'twas error, and not will,

Led you to this; and your own loss, now made
Irreparable, helps to tie up my anger.

Alb. Madam, I must confess a wrong, and dare Submit to let your anger punish me, For I despise myself, now I have lost My expectation; and if you please To think I had no malice in this act To you, you can propose no satisfaction I shall esteem a penance to repair you, As far as my poor life, if you'll direct it.

Estef. 'Tis nobly promis'd, sir. You shall redeem

In my thoughts what is past, if you be pleas'd
To make my stay no longer here; I have
No desperate aim to make Don Pedro yet
Know how to right [me], or make public what
Should bind his honour to perform.

Alb. Was not Luys, madam, entertain'd your servant?

Estef. I shall make known the story, if you

walk

But to Don Carlos' house.

Alb. You shall command me.

May be inclin'd to accept her, foil'd, or wounded Enter LUYs drunk.

In fame.

Als. Luys is here.

Car. Borachio! here's a spectacle! more affliction!

Where is your sister? what's become of Jacinta? Luys. My sister and Jacinta are gone together; I know all the business.

Als. Where is she?

Luys. She is very well; I know not where she is.

But Don Alberto is an honest gentleman,
And has by this time done the feat.

Car. Confusion!

[Exeunt.

1 slug-sluggish, slow.