_First Gip._ (_playing._) Down with your John-Dorados, my pigeon. Down with your John-Dorados, and let us make an end. _Gipsies at the forge sing._ Loud sang the Spanish cavalier, And thus his ditty ran; God send the gipsy lassie here, And not the gipsy man. _First Gip._ (_playing._) There you are in your morocco! _Second Gip._ One more game. The alcalde’s doves against the Padre Cura’s new moon. _First Gip._ Have at you, Chirelin. _Gipsies at the forge sing._ At midnight, when the moon began To show her silver flame, There came to him no gipsy man, The gipsy lassie came. (_Enter Beltran Cruzado._) _Cruz._ Come hither, Murcigalleros and Rostilleros; leave work, leave play; listen to your orders for the night. (_Speaking to the right._) You will get you to the village, mark you, by the Cross of Espalmado. _Gip._ Aye! _Cruz._ (_to the left._) And you, by the pole with the hermit’s head upon it. _Gip._ Aye! _Cruz._ As soon as you see the planets are out, in with you, and be busy with the ten commandments, under the sly, and Saint Martin asleep. D’ye hear? _Gip._ Aye! _Cruz._ Keep your lanterns open, and if you see a goblin or a papagage, take to your trampers. Vineyards and Dancing John is the word. Am I comprehended? _Gip._ Aye! aye! _Cruz._ Away, then! (_Exeunt severally. Cruzado walks up the stage, and disappears among the trees. Enter Preciosa._) _Pre._ How strangely gleams through the gigantic trees The red light of the forge! Wild, beckoning shadows Stalk through the forest, ever and anon Rising and bending with the bickering flame, Then flitting into darkness! So within me Strange hopes and fears do beckon to each other, My brightest hopes giving dark fears a being As the light does the shadow. Wo is me! How still it is about me, and how lonely! All holy angels keep me in this hour; Spirit of her, who bore me, look upon me; Mother of God, the glorified, protect me; Christ and the saints, be merciful unto me! (_Enter Victorian and Hypolito behind._) _Vic._ ’Tis she! Behold how beautiful she stands Under the tent-like trees! _Hyp._ A woodland nymph! _Vic._ I pray thee, stand aside. Leave me. _Hyp._ Be wary. Do not betray thyself too soon. _Vic._ (_disguising his voice._) Hist! gipsy! _Pre._ (_aside, with emotion._) That voice!—that voice! O speak—O speak again! Who is it that calls? _Vic._ A friend. _Pre._ (_aside._) ’Tis he! ’Tis he! Now, heart, be strong! I must dissemble here. False friend or true? _Vic._ A true friend to the true. Fear not; come hither. So; can you tell fortunes? _Pre._ Not in the dark. Come nearer to the fire. Give me your hand. It is not cross’d, I see. _Vic._ (_putting a piece of gold in her hand._) There is the cross. _Pre._ Is’t silver? _Vic._ No, ’tis gold.