+Don F.+ Ah, Julio! how fond a creature is the man That founds his bliss upon a woman's firmness! Even that Elvira, when I thought myself Securest in my happiness, nothing wanting To make her mine, but those exterior forms, Without which men of honour, that pretend In way of marriage, would be loth to find Greater concession, where the love is greatest; As I was sitting with her, late at night, By usual admittance to her chamber, As two whose hearts in wedlock-bands were join'd, And seem'd above all other care, but how Best to disguise things to a wayward father, Till time and art might compass his consent; A sudden noise was heard in th' inner room, Belonging to her chamber: she starts up In manifest disorder, and runs in, Desiring me to stay till she had seen What caus'd it. I, impatient, follow, As fearing for her, had it been her father: My head no sooner was within the room, But straight I spied, behind a curtain shrinking, A goodly gallant, but not known to me. +Don J.+ Heavens, what can this be? +Don F.+ You will not think that there, and at that hour, I stay'd to ask his name. He ready as I To make his sword th' expresser of his mind, We soon determin'd what we sought: I hurt But slightly in the arm; he fell as slain, Run through the body: what Elvira did, My rage allow'd me not to mark: but straight I got away, more wounded to the heart Than he I left for dead. +Don J.+ Prodigious accident! where can it end? +Don F.+ I got safe home where, carefully conceal'd, I sought by Fabio's diligence to learn Who my slain rival was, and what became Of my unhappy mistress, and what course Don Pedro de Mendoça took to right The honour of his house. +Don J.+ You long'd not more To know it then, than I do now. +Don F.+ All could be learn'd was this: that my rival, Whom I thought dead, was likely to recover, And that he was a stranger lately come Up to the court, to follow some pretensions: His name he either learn'd not perfectly, Or did not well retain. As for Elvira, That none knew where she was; and that Don Pedro Had set a stop to prosecution In any public way, with what reserves Was not yet known. +Don J.+ More and more intricate.