Fontanares Farewell! I am ready to die. Marie Did you not make a solemn promise to the King of Spain, yes, to all the world? (Speaks low to Fontanares) Oh! seize your triumph; after that we can die! Fontanares I will accept, if only you refuse to be his. Marie Father, fulfill your promise. Faustine I have triumphed. Lothundiaz (in a low voice to Fontanares) You contemptible seducer! (Aloud) Here I give you ten thousand sequins. (In a low voice) Atrocious wretch! (Aloud) My daughter's income for one year. (In a low voice) May the plague choke you! (Aloud) Upon the presentation of this check, Senor Avaloros will count out to you ten thousand sequins. Fontanares But does the viceroy consent to this arrangement? Sarpi You have publicly accused the viceroy of Catalonia of belying the promises of the king; here is his answer: (he draws forth a document) By this ordinance, he puts a stay on the lawsuits of all your creditors, and grants you a year to complete your experiment. Fontanares I am ready to do so. Lothundiaz He has made up his mind! Come, my daughter; they are expecting us at the Dominican convent, and the viceroy has promised to honor us with his presence at the ceremony. Marie So soon? (Exeunt the whole party.) Faustine (to Paquita) Run, Paquita, and bring me word when the ceremony is ended, and they are man and wife. SCENE SIXTEENTH Faustine and Fontanares. Faustine (aside) There he stands, like a man pausing on the brink of a precipice to which tigers have pursued him. (Aloud) Why are you not as great as your creative thought? Is there but one woman in the world? Fontanares What! Do you think that a man can pluck from his heart a love like mine, as easily as he draws the sword from his scabbard? Faustine I can well conceive that a woman should love you and do you service. But, according to your idea, love is self-abdication. All that the greatest men have ever wished for: glory, honor, fortune, and more than that, a triumphant dominion which genius alone can establish --this you have gained, conquering a world as Caesar, Lucullus and Luther conquered before you! And yet, you have put between yourself and this splendid existence an obstacle, which is none other than a love worthy of some student of Alcala. By birth you are a giant, and of your own will you are dwindling into a dwarf. But a man of genius can always find, among women, one woman especially created for him. And such a woman, while in the eyes of men she is a queen, for him is but a servant, adapting herself with marvelous suppleness to the chances of life, cheerful in suffering and as far-sighted in misfortune as in prosperity; above all, indulgent to his caprices and knowing well the world and its perilous changes; in a word, capable of occupying a seat in his triumphal car after having helped it up the steepest grades-- Fontanares You have drawn her portrait. Faustine Whose? Fontanares Marie's!