ROSAURA. Thee to see wakes such dismay, Thee to hear I so admire, That I'm powerless to inquire, That I know not what to say: Only this, that I to-day, Guided by a wiser will, Have here come to cure my ill, Here consoled my grief to see, If a wretch consoled can be Seeing one more wretched still. Of a sage, who roamed dejected, Poor, and wretched, it is said, That one day, his wants being fed By the herbs which he collected, "Is there one" (he thus reflected) "Poorer than I am to-day?" Turning round him to survey, He his answer got, detecting A still poorer sage collecting Even the leaves he threw away. Thus complaining to excess, Mourning fate, my life I led, And when thoughtlessly I said To myself, "Does earth possess One more steeped in wretchedness?" I in thee the answer find. Since revolving in my mind, I perceive that all my pains To become thy joyful gains Thou hast gathered and entwined. And if haply some slight solace By these pains may be imparted,* Hear attentively the story Of my life's supreme disasters. I am .... [footnote] *The metre changes here to the vocal "asonante" in "a--e", and continues to the end of the Fourth Scene. * * * * * SCENE III. CLOTALDO, Soldiers, SIGISMUND, ROSAURA, CLARIN. CLOTALDO [within]. Warders of this tower, Who, or sleeping or faint-hearted, Give an entrance to two persons Who herein have burst a passage . . . . ROSAURA. New confusion now I suffer. SIGISMUND. 'Tis Clotaldo, who here guards me; Are not yet my miseries ended? CLOTALDO [within]. Hasten hither, quick! be active! And before they can defend them, Kill them on the spot, or capture! [Voices within.] Treason! CLARIN. Watchguards of this tower, Who politely let us pass here, Since you have the choice of killing Or of capturing, choose the latter. [Enter CLOTALDO and Soldiers; he with a pistol, and all with their faces covered.] CLOTALDO [aside to the Soldiers]. Keep your faces all well covered, For it is a vital matter That we should be known by no one, While I question these two stragglers. CLARIN. Are there masqueraders here? CLOTALDO. Ye who in your ignorant rashness Have passed through the bounds and limits Of this interdicted valley, 'Gainst the edict of the King, Who has publicly commanded None should dare descry the wonder That among these rocks is guarded, Yield at once your arms and lives, Or this pistol, this cold aspic Formed of steel, the penetrating Poison of two balls will scatter, The report and fire of which Will the air astound and startle. SIGISMUND. Ere you wound them, ere you hurt them, Will my life, O tyrant master, Be the miserable victim Of these wretched chains that clasp me; Since in them, I vow to God, I will tear myself to fragments With my hands, and with my teeth, In these rocks here, in these caverns, Ere I yield to their misfortunes, Or lament their sad disaster.