Enter Ruy-Gomez.
Ruy-Gom. Thus unaccompanied I subtly range
The solitary paths of dark revenge:
The fearful deer in herds to coverts run,
While beasts of prey affect to roam alone.
D. of Eboli. Ah! my dear lord, how do you spend your hours?
You little think what my poor heart endures;
Whilst, with your absence tortured, I in vain
Pant after joys I ne'er can hope to gain.
Ruy-Gom. You cannot my unkindness sure upbraid;
You should forgive those faults yourself have made.
Remember you the task you gave?
D. of Eboli. 'Tis true;
Your pardon, for I do remember now. [Sighs.
If I forgot, 'twas love had all my mind;
And 'tis no sin, I hope, to be too kind.
Ruy-Gom. How happy am I in a faithful wife!
O thou most precious blessing of my life!
D. of Eboli. Does then success attend upon your toil?
I long to see you revel in the spoil.
Ruy-Gom. What strictest diligence could do, I've done,
To incense an angry father 'gainst his son.
I to advantage told him all that's past,
Described with art each amorous glance they cast:
So that this night he shunned the marriage-bed,
Which through the court has various murmurs spread.
Enter the King, attended by the Marquis of Posa.
See where he comes with fury in his eyes:
Kind Heaven, but grant the storm may higher rise!
If't grow too loud, I'll lurk in some dark cell,
And laugh to hear my magic work so well.