_Valdez._ Wild talk, my son! But thy excess of feeling---- 105 Almost I fear it hath unhinged his brain. _Ordonio (Teresa reappears and advances slowly)._ Say, I had laid a body in the sun! Well! in a month there swarm forth from the corse A thousand, nay, ten thousand sentient beings In place of that one man.--Say, I had kill'd him! 110 [_TERESA stops listening._ Yet who shall tell me, that each one and all Of these ten thousand lives is not as happy, As that one life, which being push'd aside, Made room for these unnumbered---- _Valdez._ O mere madness! [_TERESA moves hastily forwards, and places herself directly before ORDONIO._ _Ordonio._ Teresa? or the phantom of Teresa? 115 _Teresa._ Alas! the phantom only, if in truth The substance of her being, her life's life, Have ta'en its flight through Alvar's death-wound-- [_A pause._ Where-- (Even coward murder grants the dead a grave) O tell me, Valdez!--answer me, Ordonio! 120 Where lies the corse of my betrothéd husband? _Ordonio._ There, where Ordonio likewise would fain lie! In the sleep-compelling earth, in unpierc'd darkness![856:1] For while we live-- An inward day that never, never sets, 125 Glares round the soul, and mocks the closing eyelids! Over his rocky grave the fir-grove sighs A lulling ceaseless dirge! 'Tis well with him. [_Strides off towards the altar, but returns as VALDEZ is speaking._ _Teresa._ The rock! the fir-grove! [_To VALDEZ._ Did'st thou hear him say it? Hush! I will ask him! _Valdez._ Urge him not--not now! 130 This we beheld. Nor he nor I know more, Than what the magic imagery revealed. The assassin, who pressed foremost of the three---- _Ordonio._ A tender-hearted, scrupulous, grateful villain, Whom I will strangle! _Valdez._ While his two companions---- 135 _Ordonio._ Dead! dead already! what care we for the dead? _Valdez (to Teresa)._ Pity him! soothe him! disenchant his spirit! These supernatural shews, this strange disclosure, And this too fond affection, which still broods O'er Alvar's fate, and still burns to avenge it-- 140 These, struggling with his hopeless love for you, Distemper him, and give reality To the creatures of his fancy.