Alph. Speak boldly, man! and say what thou wilt stand by: did he strike thee?
Gom. I will speak boldly; he struck me on the face before my own threshold, that the very walls cried shame to him.
[Lorenzo holds up again.
'Tis true, I gave him provocation, for the man's as peaceable a gentleman as any is in all Spain.
Dom. Now the truth comes out, in spite of him.
Ped. I believe the friar has bewitched him.
Alph. For my part, I see no wrong that has been offered him.
Gom. How? no wrong? why, he ravished me, with the help of two soldiers, carried me away vi et 482 armis, and would put me into a plot against government.
[Lorenzo holds up again.
I confess, I never could endure the government, because it was tyrannical; but my sides and shoulders are black and blue, as I can strip and show the marks of them.
[LORENZO again.
But that might happen, too, by a fall that I got yesterday upon the pebbles.[All laugh.
Dom. Fresh straw, and a dark chamber; a most manifest judgment! there never comes better of railing against the church.
Gom. Why, what will you have me say? I think you'll make me mad: truth has been at my tongue's end this half hour, and I have not power to bring it out, for fear of this bloody-minded colonel.
Alph. What colonel?
Gom. Why, my colonel—I mean my wife's colonel, that appears there to me like my malus genius, terrifies me.