Enter Victoria, r.
Vict. My children then are saved! [In transport.]
Laura. [Apart.] Oh, Florio, 'tis as thou saidst—Carlos was a villain, and deceived me.—Why this strange air? Ah, I see the cause—you think me ruined, and will abandon me. Yes, I see it in thy averted face; thou dar'st not meet my eyes. If I misjudge thee, speak!
Vict. Laura, I cannot speak.—You little guess the emotions of heart.—Heaven knows, I pity you!
Laura. Pity! Oh, villain! and has thy love already snatched the form of pity? Base, deceitful——
Car. [Without.] Stand off; loose your weak hold; I'm come for vengeance!
Enter Carlos, l.
Where is this youth? Where is the blooming rival, for whom I have been betrayed? Hold me not, base woman! In vain the stripling flies me; for, by Heaven, my sword shall in his bosom write its master's wrongs!
[Victoria first goes towards the Flat, then returns, takes off her hat, and drops on one knee.
Vict. Strike, strike it here! Plunge it deep into that bosom, already wounded by a thousand stabs, keener and more painful than your sword can give. Here lives all the gnawing anguish of love betrayed; here live the pangs of disappointed hopes, hopes sanctified by holiest vows, which have been written in the book of Heaven.——Hah! he sinks.—[She flies to him.]—Oh! my Carlos! beloved! my husband! forgive my too severe reproaches; thou art dear, yet dear as ever, to Victoria's heart!