Char. Husband!
Asef. Yes, my lord.
And dearer than—You have a wife?
Char. No, lady.
Asef. O, then you can not know! But you have loved?
Char. I love.
Asef. A lover—not a husband. Ah!
Add to thy love a thousand dearer loves
And take their sum a thousand times a thousand,
’T will be the smallest part divisible
Of my dear love for Rafael! You ’ll save him?
Char. Yes—I will save him. Do you trust me?
Asef. Trust you?
As I would Heaven! (Kisses his hands and goes out, right)
Char. Gone! Aseffa! Gone?
No, never gone! Her kisses here! O lips
That swept like drifting roses o’er my hands—
Both hands,—sweet equity! Still are they warm
As they were dipped in summer, though her touch
Was maiden light nor robbed him of a jot
Who should have all. Her husband—’t was a word
She used to slay me with!... Even in sorrow
She is more fair than any other fair
Met on a holiday. But when she smiled
She seemed like Fortune giving away a world.
So gracious was her splendor. Thou art revenged,
O little demon god so long my scorn!
Would I had given my heart by piecemeal out
Since I was ten than to have lost it so,
For going all at once it takes my life
And I must lose my life or follow it.
Ah, love should come like waves unto a shore,
Soft creeping up and back and up again.
Till taught to stand receptive we are firm
When the last, highest wave envelops us.
... May God restore me!... O her beauty burns
As she were limned by lightning on the night!
Her eyes are torches that Eternity
Lends life to read her dreams! Her cheek
Is June within a bud! Her veins have caught
The falling sun that in them strives to rise
To a new dawn!... And I must save him—save him!
This unknown man that holds the flaming sword
Above my paradise!... If this decree
Is signed she will be widowed ... (Stops in horror)
I am mad!...
... She will be free ... Away, sweet hell, whose face
Is masked like heaven!... Let solid earth be air,
The air be lead, light change to dark, and dark
Be as the sun, ’t will be no miracle
When murder finds a welcome in my heart!
(Enter Maximilian, Bazaine, Miramon, Dupin, Berzabal, Ruiz, Estrada, Ignacio)