CARLOS.
Let me remind thee of those golden hours—
Let me remind thee of thy love, sweet maid—
That love which I so basely have offended!
Oh, let me now appear to thee again
As once I was—and as thy heart portrayed me.
Yet once again, once only, place my image,
As in days past, before thy tender soul,
And to that idol make a sacrifice
Thou canst not make to me.
EBOLI.
Oh, Carlos, cease!
Too cruelly thou sportest with my feelings!
CARLOS.
Be nobler than thy sex! Forgive an insult!
Do what no woman e'er has done before thee,
And what no woman, after thee, can equal.
I ask of thee an unexampled favor.
Grant me—upon my knees I ask of thee
Grant me two moments with the queen, my mother!
[He casts himself at her feet.
SCENE XVI.
The former. MARQUIS POSA rushes in; behind him two
Officers of the Queen's Guard.
MARQUIS (breathless and agitated, rushing between CARLOS and
the PRINCESS).
Say, what has he confessed? Believe him not!
CARLOS (still on his knees, with loud voice).
By all that's holy——
MARQUIS (interrupting him with vehemence).
He is mad! He raves!
Oh, listen to him not!
CARLOS (louder and more urgent).
It is a question
Of life and death; conduct me to her straight.