_Pri._ (_observing the viceroy’s emotion_) Ah! my good lord, what a heart have you for friendship! happy, thrice happy he whose worth or whose misfortunes can inspire you with such interest and such zeal! (_The viceroy answers by a gesture of contemptuous impatience_) _Venoni_, in the habit of a novice, pale, wild, and haggard, enters, conducted by the servant, who retires. _Vice._ } _together._ { My friend! _Mar._ } { My son! (_hastening to receive him_) _Venoni._ (_embracing them with a melancholy smile_) I am permitted then to see you once more-- you, whom I have ever loved so truly-- you, the only ones who are still dear to me in the world! (_he sees Hortensia; his countenance becomes disturbed, and he shudders: then recovering himself, he bows humbly, but with a look of gloom, and addresses her in a lowered voice, with much respect_) noble lady, can you pardon this intrusion? I fear the sight of one so lost, so wretched-- _Hor._ (_embarrassed_) Venoni can never be unwelcome. I have not forgotten-- I never shall forget-- that there was a time when-- that had I not hoped to make my child adopt-- _Pri._ (_interrupting her hastily_) Dear lady, compose yourself: your extreme sensibility overpowers you. _Vice._ But answer me, Venoni; why is it that I see you in this habit? _Mar._ Wherefore renounce the world? wherefore adopt a resolution so desperate, so extreme? your country has a right to your services, and-- _Pri._ My noble lords, when the voice of religion calls an unfortunate to her bosom-- _Venoni._ The voice of religion! no, father, no! the voice which has called me, is the voice of despair, my friends. I have lost every thing, every thing! and what then have I to do with the world? they who would serve their country, must possess strength of mind and health of body: mine have both yielded to the pressure of calamity! they who would serve their country, must possess their reason in full force and clearness: my reason-- it is gone, quite gone! despairing passion has deranged all my ideas, has ruined all my faculties-- I now have left but one sentiment, one feeling, one instinct-- and that one is love! _Pri._ What say you my son? _Venoni._ (_passionately_) I say, that one is love! and I say the truth! father, I have engaged to renounce the world, to descend alive into the tomb; but I have not engaged to forget that I had, that I still have, a heart; that that heart is broken; that it burns, and will burn till it ceases to beat, with a passion which heaven cannot blame, since it was an angel who inspired it! I have told you, that her image would accompany me even to the altar’s foot; I have told you that I would give up the world, but would never give up her; her who exists no longer except in this sad heart, this heart, where she shall never cease to exist-- till I do! _Vice._ Dear unfortunate youth!