_King._ Speak on, and let not shame Oppress thy words; for to the judge and priest Alike confession’s voice should boldly come. _Leonora._ I was deceived. He went and left me sad To mourn his absence; for of them he is Who leave behind their knightly, nobler parts, When they themselves are long since fled and gone. Again he came, his voice more sweetly tuned, More syren-like, than ever. I heard the voice, Nor knew its hidden fraud. O, would that Heaven Had made us, in its highest justice, deaf, Since tongues so false it gave to men! He lured, He lured me as the fowler lures the bird And snares in meshes hid beneath the grass. I struggled, but in vain; for Love, heaven’s child, Has power the mightiest fortress to subdue. He pledged his knightly word,--in writing pledged it,-- Trusting that afterwards, in Portugal, The debt and all might safely be denied;-- As if the heavens were narrower than the earth, And justice not supreme. In short, my lord, He went; and, proud and vain, the banners bore That my submission marked, not my defeat; For where love is, there comes no victory. His spoils he carried to his native land, As if they had been torn in heathen war From Africa; such as in Arcila, In earliest youth, thyself with glory won; Or such as now, from shores remote, thy ships Bring home,--dark slaves, to darker slavery. No written word of his came back to me. My honor wept its obsequies, and built its tomb With Love’s extinguished torches. Soon, the prince, Thy son, was wed with our Infanta fair,-- God grant it for a blessing to both realms!-- And with her, as ambassador, my sire To Lisbon came, and I with him. But here-- Even here--his promises that knight denies, And so disheartens and despises me, That, if your Grace no remedy can find, The end of all must be the end of life,-- So heavy is my misery. _King._ That scroll? Thou hast it? _Leonora._ Surely. It were an error Not to be repaired, if I had lost it. _King._ It cannot be but I should know the hand, If he who wrote it in my household serve. _Leonora._ This is the scroll, my lord.