Act II, Scene 3

[A Room in GIL PEREZ’S House.]

[Enter ISABEL and CASILDA.]

ISAB.
Casilda, now the flaming sun has set,
See to the doors; and you and Ines there
Sing to me—’twill beguile my melancholy.
No merry song, however; something sad
As my own fancies. (They sing within.)
Hark! what noise is that?
One calling at the door at such an hour!—
Again!—Bid Pedro see—
Why, what is it that makes me tremble so?
From head to foot—

[Enter PEDRO hurriedly.]

PED.
O madam!

ISAB.
Well?

PED.
O madam—
Opening the door—only to ask—a man
All muffled up ran by me——(Aside.) ’Tis all right.

[Enter GIL PEREZ, cloakt.]

ISAB.
Who’s this?

GIL.
(discovering himself) I, Isabel.

ISAB.
Oh heavens!

GIL.
Well, sister.
What troubles you?

PED.
Oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord!

(Hides.)

ISAB.
O Gil, how have you dared to venture here,
Your very life at stake!

GIL.
Small risk to one
Whom your ill doings have half kill’d already.

ISAB.
I do not understand you—

GIL.
You need not:
I come not to explain, but to avenge;
And, mark my words, what I have come to do,
I’ll do.

ISAB.
Alas! is it my fault then, brother,
That traitors of their gold can make them wings
To fly into my house?

GIL.
Be not afraid;
I shall not judge of you or any one
Unheard, as others seem to judge of me.
What is the matter?

ISAB.
Nay, I only know
You are accused of aiding, how I know not,
In Don Diego’s death—on evidence,
As ’tis believed, the Judge (who now is here,
Inflamed by Donna Leonor) declares
Sufficient to convict you of your life
And property—Alas, alas, my brother!

GIL.
You shall away with me; for ’tis not well
To leave you here alone and unprotected.
But I must see first what this Judge has got
To say against me.

ISAB.
But how get at it?

GIL.
Why from the fountain-head. But, by the Lord,
If I must fly or die for ’t,
I’ll not do so for nothing, I’ll begin
My vengeance on this rascal.

(Pulling out PEDRO.)

PED.
Oh begin
On some one else and sum up all on me!

GIL.
How come you here?

PED.
Oh, I will tell the truth
And nothing but the truth.

GIL.
Well!

PED.
Being assured
That you were coming hither—

GIL.
Well?

PED.
I came
Before.

GIL.
And why, when—

PED.
That by doing so
You should not see my face, (which you declared,
Seeing again, you’d kill me,) but my back,
Which as you never swore at—

GIL.
(striking him) Villain, die!

PED.
(falling as dead) Oh! I am slain!

GIL.
Come, Isabel ’tis I
Must bear you on my shoulders through the flames
That rise all round.

[Exeunt GIL and ISABEL.]

PED.
(rising) Oh, angel of sham death,
How much I owe your out-spread wings to-day,
Under whose shadow—Yo escaparè.

[Exit.]