Valdez. O power of youth to feed on pleasant thoughts,
Spite of conviction! I am old and heartless! [60]
Yes, I am old—I have no pleasant fancies—
Hectic and unrefreshed with rest—

Teresa. My father!

Valdez. The sober truth is all too much for me!
I see no sail which brings not to my mind
The home-bound bark in which my son was captured 65
By the Algerine—to perish with his captors!

Teresa. Oh no! he did not!

Valdez. Captured in sight of land!
From yon hill point, nay, from our castle watch-tower
We might have seen——

Teresa. His capture, not his death.

Valdez. Alas! how aptly thou forget'st a tale 70
Thou ne'er didst wish to learn! my brave Ordonio
Saw both the pirate and his prize go down,
In the same storm that baffled his own valour,
And thus twice snatched a brother from his hopes:
Gallant Ordonio! O beloved Teresa, [75]
Would'st thou best prove thy faith to generous Alvar,
And most delight his spirit, go, make thou
[[826]] His brother happy, make his aged father
Sink to the grave in joy.

Teresa. For mercy's sake
Press me no more! I have no power to love him. 80
His proud forbidding eye, and his dark brow,
Chill me like dew-damps of the unwholesome night:
My love, a timorous and tender flower,
Closes beneath his touch.

Valdez. You wrong him, maiden!
You wrong him, by my soul! Nor was it well 85
To character by such unkindly phrases
The stir and workings of that love for you
Which he has toiled to smother. 'Twas not well,
Nor is it grateful in you to forget
His wounds and perilous voyages, and how [90]
With an heroic fearlessness of danger
He roam'd the coast of Afric for your Alvar.
It was not well—You have moved me even to tears.

Teresa. Oh pardon me, Lord Valdez! pardon me!
It was a foolish and ungrateful speech, 95
A most ungrateful speech! But I am hurried
Beyond myself, if I but hear of one
Who aims to rival Alvar. Were we not
Born in one day, like twins of the same parent?
Nursed in one cradle? Pardon me, my father! [100]
A six years' absence is a heavy thing,
Yet still the hope survives——