+Don Z.+ There's no dishonour in a wise retreat From disadvantages, to meet again One's enemy upon a fairer score. [_+Chichon+ pushing his master before him out of door._ +Chi.+ [_Aside to his master._] There 'tis; advance, sir, I'll make good the rear. [_Exit +Don Zancho+ and +Chichon+._ +Don J.+ Ho! who's without? bring lights. [_He stamps._] They annot hear us, The room is so remote from all the rest.-- What a confusion's this! Recall, Fernando, Your usual temper, and let's leave this place, And that unhappy maid unto its darkness, To hide her blushes, since her shame it cannot. [_Exit +Don Julio+ groping, and drawing +Don Fernando+ with him._ +Elv.+ [_Alone._] Darkness and horror welcome, since the gods Live in the dark themselves; for had they light Of what's done here below, they would afford Some ray to shine on injur'd innocence, And not, instead thereof, thus multiply Obscuring clouds upon it, such as the sun, Should he with all his beams illuminate Men's understandings, scarce could dissipate. I now begin to pardon thee, Fernando, Since what thou hast heard in this enchanted place Carries conviction in 't against my firmness, Above the pow'r of nature to suspend My condemnation: unless wrong'd virtue might Expect in thee a justice so refin'd, As ne'er was found in man to womankind. 'Tis now, I must confess, the lost Elvira Fit only for a cloister, where, secure In her own spotless mind, she may defy All censures, and without impiety Reproach her fate even to the deity. [_Exit, groping her way._ FOOTNOTES: [14] [The proverb is, Everything hath an end, and a pudding hath two.] [15] [The wife of Brutus.] [16] [_i.e._, A fool. See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 38.] ACT V. _Enter +Don Julio+ talking to himself, and at another door +Fernando+ who, perceiving it, stands close._ +Don J.+ Bless'd be the gods that yet my honour's safe Amidst such strange perplexities, from which Fortune and wit (I think) together join'd, With all their strength, could hardly an issue find. To temper, comfort, or to serve my friend What argument? what means? how to assist Don Pedro in his aims, and to comply With what I owe the duke, I see as little; And less conceive, how to behave myself, As ought a gentleman towards a lady, With whose protection he hath charg'd himself, And brought her to his house on that assurance; Whom to expose cannot consist with honour, However she may have expos'd her own; And (least of all) how to repair to Blanca The injury I have done her, whose high spirit, I fear, will be implacable. O heavens! What a condition's mine?