_Dom._ Ay, and O lady! O lady too!--I redouble my oath, I had never seen him. Well, this noble colonel, like a true gentleman, was for taking the weaker part, you may be sure; whereupon this Gomez flew upon him like a dragon, got him down, the devil being strong in him, and gave him bastinado upon bastinado, and buffet upon buffet, which the poor meek colonel, being prostrate, suffered with a most Christian patience. _Gom._ Who? he meek? I'm sure I quake at the very thought of him; why, he's as fierce as Rhodomont; he made assault and battery upon my person, beat me into all the colours of the rainbow; and every word this abominable priest has uttered is as false as the Alcoran. But if you want a thorough-paced liar, that will swear through thick and thin, commend me to a friar. _Enter_ LORENZO, _who comes behind the Company, and stands at his Fathers back unseen, over-against_ GOMEZ. _Lor._ How now! What's here to do? my cause a trying, as I live, and that before my own father.--Now fourscore take him for an old bawdy magistrate, that stands like the picture of madam Justice, with a pair of scales in his hand, to weigh lechery by ounces! [_Aside._ _Alph._ Well--but all this while, who is this colonel Hernando? _Gom._ He's the first begotten of Beelzebub, with a face as terrible as Demogorgon. [LORENZO _peeps over_ ALPHONSO'S _Head, and stares at_ GOMEZ. No! I lie, I lie. He's a very proper handsome fellow! well proportioned, and clean shaped, with a face like a cherubin. _Ped._ What, backward and forward, Gomez! dost thou hunt counter? _Alph._ Had this colonel any former design upon your wife? for, if that be proved, you shall have justice. _Gom._ [_Aside._] Now I dare speak,--let him look as dreadfully as he will.--I say, sir, and I will prove it, that he had a lewd design upon her body, and attempted to corrupt her honesty. [LORENZO _lifts up his fist clenched at him._ I confess my wife was as willing--as himself; and, I believe, 'twas she corrupted him; for I have known him formerly a very civil and modest person. _Elv._ You see, sir, he contradicts himself at every word; he's plainly mad. _Alph._ Speak boldly, man! and say what thou wilt stand by: did he strike thee? _Gom._ I will speak boldly; he struck me on the face before my own threshold, that the very walls cried shame to him. [LORENZO _holds up again._ 'Tis true, I gave him provocation, for the man's as peaceable a gentleman as any is in all Spain. _Dom._ Now the truth comes out, in spite of him. _Ped._ I believe the friar has bewitched him. _Alph._ For my part, I see no wrong that has been offered him.