Scene Six
The same, without Afrida
Zoraya. Ah! the horrible old woman!——
Ximénès. An insult is not a reply!—She affirms; you deny. The accusation stands. And the Tribunal judges. (To Gil Andrès) Bring the other. (They make come forward Manuela, who is weak and trembling with fright) You, also, you have confessed it!—You have gone to the witches’ revels?
Manuela. Only once, Your Eminence—Only once! Mercy!
Ximénès. That is once too often!
Manuela. I was so unfortunate!—My employer drove me from his home when he discovered that I was to become a mother—for he was the father of the child. I was too weak to work in the fields and no one would keep me because my poor baby, which I nourished with my thin milk, was so hungry that It cried all of the time!—Ah! I have never known anything but shame and misery!—I have prayed fervently to God—He has done nothing for me—Then—Ah! my benevolent lords!—(She falls upon her knees on the steps before Ximénès and weeps) Have pity!—I have harmed no one!—And I am punished enough now!
Ximénès. (Severely) What else?
Manuela. Then—a gypsy woman, who saw me on my knees before a cross on the road where I had been begging, said to me: “You are foolish enough to address that object, which helps only the happy ones of this world! Charity for the poor comes only from the Other One!—Come! go home with me and you will see for yourself. He loves the jolly girls and will give you an apron full of gold!”
Ximénès. And you went to the home of the Other One?