Aust. What slanderous tongue dare thus profane your virtue?
Madam, I know you well; and, by my order,
Each day, each hour, of your unspotted life,
Might give as fair a lesson to the world,
As churchmen's tongues can preach, or saints could practise.
Countess. He charges me with all—Thou, poor Hortensia!
What guilt, prepost'rous guilt, is thine to answer!
Adel. In mercy, wound not thus your daughter's soul.
Aust. A villain or a madman might say this.
Countess. What shall I call him? He, who was my husband;