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look onward! Oh!

       If I faint? If this inhuman den should be

       At once my deathbed and my burial vault?

      [Faintly screams as ALVAR emerges from the recess.

      Alvar (rushes towards her, and catches her as she is falling).

       O gracious heaven! it is, it is Teresa!

       Shall I reveal myself? The sudden shock 50

       Of rapture will blow out this spark of life,

       And joy complete what terror has begun.

       O ye impetuous beatings here, be still!

       Teresa, best beloved! pale, pale, and cold!

       Her pulse doth flutter! Teresa! my Teresa! 55

      Teresa (recovering). I heard a voice; but often in my dreams

       I hear that voice! and wake and try — and try —

       To hear it waking! but I never could —

       And ‘tis so now — even so! Well! he is dead —

       Murdered perhaps! and I am faint, and feel 60

       As if it were no painful thing to die!

      Alvar. Believe it not, sweet maid! Believe it not,

       Belovéd woman! ‘Twas a low imposture

       Framed by a guilty wretch.

      Teresa. Ha! Who art thou?

      Alvar. Suborned by his brother —

      Teresa. Didst thou murder him? 65

       And dost thou now repent? Poor troubled man,

       I do forgive thee, and may Heaven forgive thee!

      Alvar. Ordonio — he —

      Teresa. If thou didst murder him —

       His spirit ever at the throne of God

       Asks mercy for thee: prays for mercy for thee, 70

       With tears in Heaven!

      Alvar. Alvar was not murdered.

       Be calm! Be calm, sweet maid!

      Teresa. Nay, nay, but tell me! [A pause.

       O ‘tis lost again!

       This dull confuséd pain — [A pause.

       Mysterious man!

       Methinks I can not fear thee: for thine eye 75

       Doth swim with love and pity — Well! Ordonio —

       Oh my foreboding heart! And he suborned thee,

       And thou didst spare his life? Blessings shower on thee,

       As many as the drops twice counted o’er

       In the fond faithful heart of his Teresa! 80

      Alvar. I can endure no more. The Moorish sorcerer

       Exists but in the stain upon his face.

       That picture —

      Teresa. Ha! speak on!

      Alvar. Beloved Teresa!

       It told but half the truth. O let this portrait

       Tell all — that Alvar lives — that he is here! 85

       Thy much deceived but ever faithful Alvar.

      [Takes her portrait from his neck, and gives it her.

      Teresa (receiving the portrait). The same — it is the same! Ah!

       Who art thou?

       Nay, I will call thee, Alvar! [She falls on his neck.

      Alvar. O joy unutterable!

       But hark! a sound as of removing bars

       At the dungeon’s outer door. A brief, brief while 90

       Conceal thyself, my love! It is Ordonio.

       For the honour of our race, for our dear father;

       O for himself too (he is still my brother)

       Let me recall him to his nobler nature,

       That he may wake as from a dream of murder! 95

       O let me reconcile him to himself,

       Open the sacred source of penitent tears,

       And be once more his own beloved Alvar.

      Teresa. O my all virtuous love! I fear to leave thee

       With that obdurate man.

      Alvar. Thou dost not leave me! 100

       But a brief while retire into the darkness:

       O that my joy could spread its sunshine round thee!

      Teresa. The sound of thy voice shall be my music!

       Alvar! my Alvar! am I sure I hold thee?

       Is it no dream? thee in my arms, my Alvar! [Exit. 105

      [A noise at the Dungeon door. It opens, and ORDONIO

       enters, with a goblet in his hand.

      Ordonio. Hail, potent wizard! in my gayer mood

       I poured forth a libation to old Pluto,

       And as I brimmed the bowl, I thought on thee.

       Thou hast conspired against my life and honour,

       Hast tricked me foully; yet I hate thee not. 110

       Why should I hate thee? this same world of ours,

       ‘Tis but a pool amid a storm of rain,

       And we the air-bladders that course up and down,

       And joust and tilt in merry tournament;

       And when one bubble runs foul of another, 115

       The weaker needs must break.

      Alvar. I see thy heart!

       There is a frightful glitter in thine eye

       Which doth betray thee. Inly-tortured man,

       This is the revelry of a drunken anguish,

       Which fain would scoff away the pang of guilt, 120

       And quell each human feeling.

      Ordonio. Feeling! feeling!

       The death of a man — the breaking of a bubble —

       ‘Tis true I cannot sob for such misfortunes;

       But faintness, cold and hunger — curses on me

       If willingly I e’er inflicted them! 125

       Come, take the beverage; this chill place demands it.

      [ORDONIO proffers the goblet.

      Alvar. Yon insect on the wall,

       Which moves this way and that its hundred limbs,

       Were it a toy of mere mechanic craft,

       It were an infinitely curious thing! 130

       But it has life, Ordonio! life, enjoyment!

       And by the power of its miraculous will

       Wields all the complex movements of its frame

       Unerringly to pleasurable ends!

       Saw I that insect on this goblet’s brim 135

       I would remove it with an anxious pity!

      Ordonio. What meanest thou?

      Alvar. There’s poison in the wine.

      Ordonio. Thou hast guessed right; there’s poison in the wine.

       There’s poison in’t — which of us two shall drink it?

       For one of us must die!

      Alvar. Whom dost thou think me? 140

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