_Leonora._ [_To_ BERT.] I blame not you, my lord; my father's will, Your own deserts, and all my people's voice, Have placed you in the view of sovereign power. But I would learn the cause, why Torrismond, Within my palace-walls, within my hearing, Almost within my sight,--affronts a prince, Who shortly shall command him. _Bert._ He thinks you owe him more than you can pay; And looks as he were lord of human kind. _Enter_ TORRISMOND, ALPHONSO, PEDRO. TORRISMOND _bows low, then looks earnestly on the Queen, and keeps at Distance._ _Teresa._ Madam, the general.-- _Leo._ Let me view him well. My father sent him early to the frontiers; I have not often seen him; if I did, He passed unmarked by my unheeding eyes:-- But where's the fierceness, the disdainful pride, The haughty port, the fiery arrogance?-- By all these marks, this is not, sure, the man. _Bert._ Yet this is he, who filled your court with tumult, Whose fierce demeanour, and whose insolence, The patience of a god could not support. _Leo._ Name his offence, my lord, and he shall have Immediate punishment. _Bert._ 'Tis of so high a nature, should I speak it, That my presumption then would equal his. _Leo._ Some one among you speak. _Ped._ Now my tongue itches. [_Aside._ _Leo._ All dumb! On your allegiance, Torrismond, By all your hopes, I do command you, speak. _Tor._ [_Kneeling._] O seek not to convince me of a crime, Which I can ne'er repent, nor can you pardon; Or, if you needs will know it, think, oh think, That he who, thus commanded, dares to speak, Unless commanded, would have died in silence. But you adjured me, madam, by my hopes! Hopes I have none, for I am all despair; Friends I have none, for friendship follows favour; Desert I've none, for what I did was duty:-- Oh that it were!--that it were duty all! _Leo._ Why do you pause? proceed. _Tor._ As one, condemned to leap a precipice, Who sees before his eyes the depth below, Stops short, and looks about for some kind shrub To break his dreadful fall.--so I-- But whither am I going? If to death, He looks so lovely sweet in beauty's pomp, He draws me to his dart.--I dare no more. _Bert._ He's mad, beyond the cure of hellebore. Whips, darkness, dungeons, for this insolence. _Tor._ Mad as I am, yet I know when to bear. _Leo._ You're both too bold.--You, Torrismond, withdraw, I'll teach you all what's owing to your queen.-- For you, my lord,-- The priest to-morrow was to join our hands; I'll try if I can live a day without you.-- So both of you depart, and live in peace. _Alph._ Who knows which way she points? Doubling and turning like an hunted hare;-- Find out the meaning of her mind who can. _Pedr._ Who ever found a woman's? backward and forward, The whole sex in every word. In my conscience, when she was getting, her mother was thinking of a riddle. [_Exeunt all but the Queen and_ TERESA. _Leo._ Haste, my Teresa, haste, and call him back.