Act III, Scene 7

[Same as SCENE III.]

[Enter VIOLANTE and Elvira at a side door.]

ELV.
Consider, madam.

VIOL.
No!

ELV.
But think—

VIOL.
I tell you it must be done.

ELV.
They will accuse your father.

VIOL.
Let them; I tell you it must be done, and now; I ask’d you not for advice, but to obey me. Unlock the door.

ELV.
Oh how I tremble! Hark!

VIOL.
A moment! They must not find him passing out—the attempt and not the deed confounding us. Listen!

ELV.
(listening at a side door) I can hear nothing distinct, only a confused murmur of voices.

VIOL.
Let me—hush!—Hark! they are approaching!

[Enter MENDO.]

MEN.
Anguish, oh! anguish!

VIOL.
My father!

MEN.
Ay, indeed,
And a most wretched one.

VIOL.
What is it, sir?
Tell me at once.

MEN.
I know not. Oh, ’tis false!
I know too well, and you must know it too.
My daughter, the poor prisoner who lies there
Is my own son, not Blanca’s, not Urrea’s,
But my own son, your brother, Violante!

VIOL.
My brother!

MEN.
Ay, your brother, my own son,
Whom we must save!

VIOL.
Alas, sir, I was here
On the same errand, ere I knew—but hark!
All’s quiet now. (A groan within.)

MEN.
Listen! What groan was that?

VIOL.
My hand shakes so, I cannot—

LOPE.
(within) Mercy, O God!

MEN.
The key, the key!—but hark! they call again
At either door; we must unlock.

(They unlock the side doors.—Enter through one BLANCA and BEATRICE, through the other URREA and VICENTE.)

URR.
Don Mendo,
The King desires me from your mouth to learn
His sentence on my son.

BLAN.
Oh, Violante!

MEN.
From me! from me! to whom the King as yet
Has not deliver’d it.—
But what is this? Oh, God!

(The centre door opens and DON LOPE is discovered, garrotted, with a paper in his hand, and lights at each side.)

URR.
A sight to turn
Rancour into remorse.

MEN.
In his cold hand
He holds a scroll, the sentence, it may be,
The King referr’d you to. Read it, Urrea;
I cannot. Oh, my son, the chastisement
That I alone have merited has come
Upon us both, and doubled the remorse
That I must feel—and stifle!

URR.
(reading) “He that reviles and strikes whom he believes
His father, let him die for ’t; and let those
Who have disgraced a noble name, or join’d
An ill imposture, see his doom; and show
Three judgments summ’d up in a single blow.”