Did all fantastic seem. But still her form
Was human; I touched and felt its substance,
And she had mortal fears, and, woman-like,
Shrunk back again with dainty modesty.
At last, like an illusion, all dissolved,
And, like a phantasm, melted quite away.
If, then, to my conjectures I give rein,
By heaven above, I neither know nor guess
What I must doubt or what I may believe.[654]
But the tricksy lady, who has fairly frolicked herself in love with the handsome young cavalier, is tempted too far by her brilliant successes, and, being at last detected in the presence of her astonished brothers, the intrigue, which is one of the most complicated and gay to be found on any theatre, ends with an explanation of her fairy humors and her marriage with Don Manuel.