somerset; please you to be acquainted with her and give me your opinion: she is but seventeen: there's a periwinkle! I had a gemini before I went to travel, and I am bound in conscience, if you think fit, to see her well provided for

Car. With whips,-I'll have her skin flay'd off. Luys. Her skin flay'd off! dost thou know, mortal man, what thou hast said? I tell thee, Don, nothing can come near her in the shape of an officer; she is a very basilisk, and will kill them with her eyes threescore yards pointblank: but you may talk, and do your pleasure with her, for I came o' purpose to bring her to your lodging; if you love me, do but see her; it shall cost you nothing, you shall be my friend; hang money!

Car. Thus will my state consume; vexation! What shall I do? when you have slept, Luys, I'll tell you more.-Attend him to his chamber, And make his door fast.

Luys. You will consider on't?

Upon those terms I will go sleep a twinkling. [Exeunt Servant and LUYS. Car. And will not all this take away my senses?

My son is lost too! this is all a curse For my ambition and my avarice.

Car. Wife to Francisco, now his father's heir! That's some allay, if it be true; she writes

Don Pedro was contracted to Estefania, who supplied her person in the coach-'twas not Jacinta was ravish'd. Then Don Pedro was not noble, after he had made faith, to intangle my Jacinta.-Hum! say they shall be welcome. Ser. They are present, sir.

[Exit.

Enter FRANCISCO and JACINTA.

Car. I am not yet collected, but if this Paper be justified, I receive you both.Peruse those wonders, Alsimira.

Jac. Sir,

Though by the tie of nature you may challenge All duty, this is done so like a father,

It exceeds all your care.

Fran. Let this confirm;

I bring a fortune not to be despis'd,

But were I master of the world, I should
At price of all my wealth, think this a treasure
Purchas'd too cheap.

Car. My blessing and my prayers; I'm new created,

And bow to that great Providence: all joy Spread through your souls! this is not much

Car. I would you had remember'd
How much your honour was engag'd before,
By contract, to another, when you mock'd
The innocent Jacinta, now not mine.

Ped. Who hath traduc'd my fame, or mention'd

me

Ped. Conspiracy!
Estef. When this is read, Don Carlos,
You will imagine he has wrong'd your daughter.
Car. Is this your hand, Count Pedro ?
Ped. Mine? 'tis counterfeit,

Upon my honour; and I thus dissolve
Thy insolent claim. [Tears the paper in pieces.

Of every picaro and ladron-every rogue and thief. 2 atesa-highness.

say

I have lain with her, and that she's with child by me?

Car. That would stain both your fames. Away, and welcome

1 justify-prove.

When thou return'st, and she confirm'd.

Luys. I'll confirm her, or confound somebody: No more; I am awake. This is Don Pedro, I'll talk with him first.-Will you justify' The widow is a widow still, and sweet, For all your contract? that you have not been My rival, as they say, after the flesh, And that you did not know I had a mind, Or not a mind, to do the deed of matrimony? Ped. Not I, upon my honour.

Luys. You are witness.Now to Alberto.

Car. Manage the business temperately. Luys. Let me alone to be temperate; if I do not cozen somebody, let me never drink sack again. [Exit. Car. What think you of Jacinta now, my lord?

Ped. As of the saint I pay my chief devotions to.

Enter FERNANDO with his sword drawn.

Fer. I come to seek one that I late call'd brother,

But he hath forfeited that name, and Justice,
Weary of such a prodigy in nature,

Hath arm'd me thus in her revenge.-Don Carlos,
Obscure him not, no darkness can protect him;
My sword shall forage every room like lightning,
No cave but it shall visit, and through ribs
Of steel compel my passage to his heart,
Although I meet him in his mistress' arms,
The lover's sanctuary, I dare force Francisco,
And with my sword cut the embrace that chains
him,

Rather than he shall glory in my ruins, And revel out those honours with her he Took from my blood.

Re-enter FRANCISCO with a parchment in his hand.

Fran. It shall not need, Fernando.

Ped. Hum! here is like to be a bloody business;

I'll not disturb them.

[Exit.

Car. As you are brothers, by your father's dust That should sleep quiet in his urn, by her Dear name that gave you life, that now prays for you,

Chide this unnatural fury.

Fran. What demands

Fernando?

Fer. My inheritance, wrought from me
By thy sly creeping to supplant my birth,
And cheat our father's easy soul, unworthily
Betraying to his anger, for thy lust

Of wealth, the love and promise of two hearts;
Poor Felisardo and Fernando now
Wither at soul, and, robb'd by thee of that
Should cherish virtue, like to rifled pilgrims
Met on the way, and having told their story,
And dropp'd their even tears for both their loss,
Wander from one another.

Fran. "Tis not, sure,

Fernando, but his passion, that obeys not
The counsel of his reason, would accuse me;
And if my father now (since spirits lose not
Intelligence, but more active when they have
Shook off their chains of flesh) would leave his

dwelling,

If you dare violate, I dare possess you
With all my title to your land.
Car. How is that?

Will you resign the interest to such
A fair estate, and wrong my daughter, sir?
Fran. Let him receive it at his peril.

[Gives the parchment to FERNANDO, who reads it. Fer. Ha!

Fran. It was my father's act, not mine; he trembled

To hear his curse alive, what horror will
His conscience feel when he shall spurn his dust
And call the reverend shade from his bless'd seat,
To this bad world again, to walk and fright him?
Car. I am abused..

Fer. Can this be more than dream?

Fran. Sir, you may cancel it, but think withal How you can answer him that's dead, when he Shall charge your timorous soul for this contempt

To nature and religion, to break His last bequest and breath, that seal'd your blessings!

Car. These are fine fancies.

Fer. Here, and may it prosper,

[Gives back the parchment to FRANCISCO. Where my good father meant it; I'm o'ercome. Forgive me, and enjoy it; I may find Some earth that is not thine, where I may die, And take up a dark chamber: love Jacinta, And, while seek out where to be forgotten, Live happy, and divide the spring between you. [Going.

Enter RAMYRES, FELISARDA, and THEODORO behind.

Fran. So, so; all's well again.

Ram. [coming forward with the rest.]-Fernando, stay!

Fer. Ha! my father and Felisarda?
Car. Don Ramyres and my niece?

Fer. Are they both dead? [FERNANDO kneels. I dare kneel too; they do converse.-Don Carlos, Do not you know that shape? 'tis wondrous like Your niece.

Car. And that your father; ha?

Fer. How long hath Felisarda been a sad
Companion to the shades? I did not think
To find thee in this pale society
Of ghosts so soon.

Fel. I am alive, Fernando,

And Don Ramyres still thy living father.
Fran. You may believe it, sir. I was o' the
counsel.
[Exit.

Fer. It is a joy will tempt me wish to live
Here, without more ambition to change
For blessings of the other world; and is
My father willing that we both should live?
Car. Men thought you dead.
Ram. It lay within

The knowledge of Francisco, and some few,
By this device to advance my younger son
To a marriage with Jacinta, sir, and try
Fernando's piety and his mistress' virtue;
Which I have found worth him, and my accept-

ance.

With her I give thee what thy birth did chalReceive thy Felisarda.

[lenge:

Fer. 'Tis a joy

So flowing, it drowns all my faculties;
My soul will not contain, I fear, but lose,
And leave me in this ecstasy.

Car. I am cheated.

Ram. Not so; what dower you add above that fortune

Re-enter LUYS.

Luys. Sir, for the credit of your wisdom, talk not;

The man, you see, 's alive, and married too,
With my consent. Alas, I ow'd him money;
That widow has paid all; I must be honest,
I had no heart to leave you so unsatisfied,
These sums must go for other debts.-
My debts do clog my conscience, and are better
When they are timely paid, sir, than let run
With their long teeth to bite your state here-
after;

And if, when I am free, you dare but trust me-
Car. Was ever father cheated thus? Come
hither;
How dar'st thou be so impudent?

Luys. I cannot help it, sir; unless you die
Or give me better means, I shall make bold
With these devices; you are my father, sir,
And I am bound-

Car. To cozen me?

Luys. All must be mine, and if

I pay myself a little before the day,