Isidore. You are disturbed, my lord!
Ordonio (starts). A gust of the soul! i'faith it overset me.
O 'twas all folly—all! idle as laughter! 135
Now, Isidore! I swear that thou shalt aid me.
Isidore (in a low voice). I'll perish first!
Ordonio. What dost thou mutter of?
Isidore. Some of your servants know me, I am certain.
Ordonio. There's some sense in that scruple; but we'll mask you.
Isidore. They'll know my gait: but stay! last night I watched 140
A stranger near the ruin in the wood,
Who as it seemed was gathering herbs and wild flowers.
I had followed him at distance, seen him scale
Its western wall, and by an easier entrance
Stole after him unnoticed. There I marked, [145]
That mid the chequer work of light and shade
With curious choice he plucked no other flowers,
But those on which the moonlight fell: and once
I heard him muttering o'er the plant. A wizard—
Some gaunt slave prowling here for dark employment. 150
Ordonio. Doubtless you question'd him?
Isidore. 'Twas my intention,
Having first traced him homeward to his haunt.
But lo! the stern Dominican, whose spies
Lurk every where, already (as it seemed)
Had given commission to his apt familiar 155
To seek and sound the Moor; who now returning,
Was by this trusty agent stopped midway.
I, dreading fresh suspicion if found near him
In that lone place, again concealed myself:
Yet within hearing. So the Moor was question'd, [160]
And in your name, as lord of this domain,
Proudly he answered, 'Say to the Lord Ordonio,
He that can bring the dead to life again!'
Ordonio. A strange reply!