Scene Four
Zoraya, Enrique
Zoraya. (To Enrique) Your heart beats!—You have been running?
Enrique. Yes!
Zoraya. They have pursued you?
Enrique. (Removing his mantle) No!
Zoraya. And on the road, did you see no one?
Enrique. Not one person! (He places on the stool his mantle, his hat and his sword.) I did not come by way of the bridge, but by the path up the hillside after crossing the river in a boat.
Zoraya. (Seated on the cushions) In daylight! What imprudence! And instead of coming last night when I waited so anxiously for you!
Enrique. I, too, have had occasion to think of that!—When I left you at dawn the day before yesterday I saw standing at the end of the bridge a man whom I knew had no ordinary reason for being there at that hour. I passed him quickly, covering myself closely with my cloak. He followed me, but I reached my residence after throwing him off my trail in an alley.
Zoraya. He followed you?—You are certain?
Enrique. Absolutely certain. It was to baffle him that I forced myself to remain away from you last night and the night before and that I crossed the river in a boat, below the Mirador.
Zoraya. Yes! (Rising) Oh! it is clear now! It is well for you that they watched only at night.
Enrique. And why?
Zoraya. The men watched there behind those fig trees. (He goes toward the terrace.) No!—they have gone away, thinking it useless to watch for you in the daytime.
Enrique. How many?
Zoraya. Three. One of them seemed to be the chief.
Enrique. Did he have a small, grizzly beard?
Zoraya. Yes.
Enrique. (Eagerly) It was he who spied upon me. I believe I recognize him! (Seats himself at right on the fountain basin.) It is Cardenos, one of my father’s old soldiers, but now an agent of the Holy Office and a religious bigot!
Zoraya. (At his right, standing) Then! he has recognized you!
Enrique. I doubt it. He would hardly wait one day. He knows only that you are receiving some unknown person in the night. If I were suspected they would prowl round my house and I have seen nothing of them—At least, whatever there is in this, we must be on guard.
Zoraya. Oh, yes!
Enrique. And for the sake of prudence give up seeing each other.
Zoraya. For several days—surely.
Enrique. Say—some weeks.
Zoraya. (Protesting) Several weeks?
Enrique. It is the only way to stop them from spying upon us.
Zoraya. Several weeks!—without seeing each other?
Enrique. My Zoraya, you must resign yourself to it.
Zoraya. Resign myself!—Oh, resignation is easy for you! Our love is not the only affair of your life!—But I!—I cannot conquer my loneliness after you depart with the thought that you will return when the first star flowers in the heavens. I shall no more, during the great heat of the day, dream of the night’s divine joys, which live again in thoughts of you. I shall feel lonely enough in this house during the coolness of evening when alone I shall hear the soft wind in the branches, the songs of my birds, the purling of my streams—then all that charms me at other times will bring in your absence only sorrow and tears!—Those two nights without you, how long they seemed!—and you speak of weeks!—several weeks, you say. “Where is he? What is he doing? Does he think of me? If he should never return!” (Enrique makes a quick movement.) Ah! perhaps that is what you wish to say and dare not tell me!
Enrique. I!
Zoraya. If you fear those men?—If you wish to see me no more?
Enrique. (Protesting) You believe me cowardly!—When I have risked myself in plain day to see you for an instant!
Zoraya. That is true!—But you seem so preoccupied, so troubled—
Enrique. Like yourself—by this danger.
Zoraya. Yes, but I am more tender than you—While you—they say that your heart is always far away—far away from me!—Look at me!—I want you to look at me!—Quickly!—without taking time to invent a lie! (She turns Enrique’s face toward her.) Your gaze seems to tell me that your love has been stolen from me!
Enrique. Ah! My charmer! What a long time until then!—Since the hour when we first met, they have followed me everywhere, those eyes, there—they call to me day and night!—Ramiro had said to me, “Take care, my lord, that the magician does not throw over you some kind of a love charm!”
Zoraya. Ramiro is a silly fellow. There has been neither a magician nor magic. “Life,” said my father, “is a combat, where, like flights of arrows, contrary minds strive among themselves for a victory, which finally rests with the fallen.” I desired ardently to be loved by you. You did not know how to defend yourself. I have shot my arrow into your heart—in that lies all of my sorcery.
Enrique. And why did you so fervently desire me to love you?
Zoraya. (Passing Enrique, to the left) First, because of cowardice, my dear lord!—to extort from you my pardon—and later on, if I conquered you, to flee from Toledo!
Enrique. Ingrate!
Zoraya. (Sitting) It is bold of me to tell you now—and next—for bravado, malice and revenge!
Enrique. Revenge?
Zoraya. Yes, yes, revenge! I wanted to have the pleasure of humiliating in you the Spaniard, the Christian, the conqueror of my people, the enemy of my race, which you declare impure! I wanted to make you renounce your faith like the heroes of that book of love (she points to the book on the table), “Celastine,” which you have given me to read—like Calixte, who said to his dear Melibee: “I am no more Christian or pagan. I am Melibee! I believe in no one but Melibee, I adore no one but Melibee!” And, after all!—after all!—I wanted to be loved—for the sake of love! Leaning against you, nearly in your arms, as I am now, with your cheek brushing my cheek—I felt little by little the chaste coldness of my widowhood, which Aisha always glorified, melting like snow in the glowing warmth of our clasped hands, in the burning breath from our hot lips—This fever of love which I believe will never be cured has crept stealthily into my blood. I am like one intoxicated. And when you say to me: “Go away, you are free!” I shall take with me in leaving the hope, the dear hope, that you will come to me very soon on some dark night and demand a ransom for my freedom. Ah! my adored conqueror, you are well avenged! She who would rule is no more than an humble slave at your feet, subdued and tender as a tamed gazelle! (Sounds of the distant bells. Enrique starts. Zoraya does not move.) What disturbs you?
Enrique. Those bells!
Zoraya. Well, they are ringing. What is that to us?
Enrique. It means that they are calling me and that it is time for us to part.
Zoraya. (Rising) So soon? What for? You may remain here until the hour of the siesta when the streets are deserted.
Enrique. Oh, no! That is impossible! (He rises.)
Zoraya. Impossible!
Enrique. There is to be a great feast in the palace and a great ceremony in the cathedral. All of my men are under arms and I must be at their head. I have scarcely time to return to the city in the same way that I came.
Zoraya. By boat?
Enrique. Yes. (He takes up his hat, mantle and sword.)
Zoraya. And if they should watch for you on the other side of the river?
Enrique. Do not dream of that!—Fear nothing!
Zoraya. Oh! I fear everything just now, those men—and for you!
Enrique. For me?
Zoraya. Yes! Yes! For either of us, who knows? Last night I had a menacing dream! You entered by that door! I ran to you! You were nothing but a shadow, a vapor which dissolved in my arms!
Enrique. What folly!—A dream!
Zoraya. All dreams are not lies! If this one should be true, what then?—Do assure me that you are not going away to forsake me!
Enrique. Oh!
Zoraya. For another!
Enrique. Hush! Hush!
Zoraya. I would kill you first!—No, no! Do not believe that! Pardon me for saying that—I have suffered so much during these last two days. And such bad omens! When do we meet again?
Enrique. God knows when! So soon as we can without danger.
Zoraya. Here?
Enrique. Oh, no!
Zoraya. Where then?
Enrique. I shall advise you.
Zoraya. (In his arms) And how shall I know?
Enrique. That will be arranged!—And, until I come, my dear love, believe nothing, do you hear!—nothing, only in my love for you! (The bells begin to ring again.)
Zoraya. Ah! those bells which always take you from my arms!
Enrique. I hope to see you soon!
Zoraya. Watch carefully during your return to the city.
Enrique. Yes, yes!
She gazes at him until he disappears through the doorway.