Ordonio (Teresa reappears and advances slowly). Say, I had laid a body in the sun!
Well! in a month there swarm forth from the corse
A thousand, nay, ten thousand sentient beings
In place of that one man.—Say, I had kill'd him! [110]
[Teresa stops listening.
Yet who shall tell me, that each one and all
Of these ten thousand lives is not as happy,
As that one life, which being push'd aside,
Made room for these unnumbered——
Valdez. O mere madness!
[Teresa moves hastily forwards, and places herself directly before Ordonio.
Ordonio. Teresa? or the phantom of Teresa? [115]
Teresa. Alas! the phantom only, if in truth
The substance of her being, her life's life,
Have ta'en its flight through Alvar's death-wound— [A pause.
Where—
(Even coward murder grants the dead a grave)
O tell me, Valdez!—answer me, Ordonio! [120]
Where lies the corse of my betrothéd husband?
Ordonio. There, where Ordonio likewise would fain lie!
In the sleep-compelling earth, in unpierc'd darkness![856:1]
For while we live—
An inward day that never, never sets, [125]
Glares round the soul, and mocks the closing eyelids!
Over his rocky grave the fir-grove sighs
A lulling ceaseless dirge! 'Tis well with him.
[Strides off towards the altar, but returns as Valdez is speaking.
Teresa. The rock! the fir-grove! [To Valdez.
Did'st thou hear him say it?
Hush! I will ask him!
Valdez. Urge him not—not now! [130]
This we beheld. Nor he nor I know more,
Than what the magic imagery revealed.
The assassin, who pressed foremost of the three——