Enter Teresa.
Teresa. When first I entered this pure spot, forebodings
Press'd heavy on my heart: but as I knelt,
Such calm unwonted bliss possess'd my spirit,
A trance so cloudless, that those sounds, hard by,
Of trampling uproar fell upon mine ear 5
As alien and unnoticed as the rain-storm
Beats on the roof of some fair banquet-room,
While sweetest melodies are warbling——
Enter Valdez.
Valdez. Ye pitying saints, forgive a father's blindness,
And extricate us from this net of peril! 10
Teresa. Who wakes anew my fears, and speaks of peril?
Valdez. O best Teresa, wisely wert thou prompted!
This was no feat of mortal agency!
That picture—Oh, that picture tells me all!
With a flash of light it came, in flames it vanished, 15
Self-kindled, self-consum'd: bright as thy life,
Sudden and unexpected as thy fate,
Alvar! My son! My son!—The Inquisitor—
Teresa. Torture me not! But Alvar—Oh of Alvar?
Valdez. How often would he plead for these Morescoes! [20]
The brood accurst! remorseless, coward murderers!
Teresa. So? so?—I comprehend you—He is——
Valdez. He is no more!