Valdez (looking forward). Hush! 'tis Monviedro.

Teresa. The Inquisitor! on what new scent of blood?

Enter Monviedro with Alhadra.

Monviedro. Peace and the truth be with you! Good my Lord, [105]
My present need is with your son.
We have hit the time. Here comes he! Yes, 'tis he.
[Enter from the opposite side Don Ordonio.
My Lord Ordonio, this Moresco woman
(Alhadra is her name) asks audience of you.

Ordonio. Hail, reverend father! what may be the business? [110]

Monviedro. My lord, on strong suspicion of relapse
[[827]] To his false creed, so recently abjured,
The secret servants of the Inquisition
Have seized her husband, and at my command
To the supreme tribunal would have led him, [115]
But that he made appeal to you, my lord,
As surety for his soundness in the faith.
Though lessoned by experience what small trust
The asseverations of these Moors deserve,
Yet still the deference to Ordonio's name, 120
Nor less the wish to prove, with what high honour
The Holy Church regards her faithful soldiers,
Thus far prevailed with me that——

Ordonio. Reverend father,
I am much beholden to your high opinion,
Which so o'erprizes my light services. [Then to Alhadra. 125
I would that I could serve you; but in truth
Your face is new to me.

Monviedro. My mind foretold me
That such would be the event. In truth, Lord Valdez,
'Twas little probable, that Don Ordonio,
That your illustrious son, who fought so bravely [130]
Some four years since to quell these rebel Moors,
Should prove the patron of this infidel!
The warranter of a Moresco's faith!
Now I return.

Alhadra. My Lord, my husband's name [135]
Is Isidore. (Ordonio starts.) You may remember it:
Three years ago, three years this very week,
You left him at Almeria.

Monviedro. Palpably false!
This very week, three years ago, my lord,
(You needs must recollect it by your wound) [140]
You were at sea, and there engaged the pirates,
The murderers doubtless of your brother Alvar!
What, is he ill, my Lord? how strange he looks!