ROVANI (who has placed himself directly in front of SOPHERA, and has been looking for some time significantly in her face).

So, gentle maid, your martial visitor
Retreats right speedily. How fortunate,
To meet so opportunely at the gate

A prudent friend, to tell him what, perhaps, May save his bones, although it damp his pleasure!

Nay, smile not: I commend thee in good earnest. Thou art a prudent maid, endow'd with virtues That suit thy station. This is ample praise.

SOPHERA.

Ample; and spoken too with meaning tones.
What face is this thou wear'st of sly significance?
Go to thou dup'st thyself with too much
shrewdness;

And canst not see what plainly lies before thee,
Because thou aim'st at seeing more. I'll in,
And bear Tortona's greeting to my Lord
And to his Countess.

ROVANI.

Do; and give it all

The message and its postscript: words of audience, And those of gentle whisper following after. Let nothing be forgotten.

SOPHERA.

Nothing shall.

Good day, and Heaven curtail thee of thy wits To make thee wiser! [Exit into the gate, and followed by LUDOVIQUO, &c. &c.

ROVANI (alone).

Ay, ay! a very woman! pleased and flatter'd
With the stale flatt'ry of a practised coxcomb,
Though plainly sueing for another's favour.
A very, very woman! - As I guess'd,
Some secret intercourse hath been in train,
Although how far in blameful act advanced

I know not. Now, 't is cross'd and interrupted. So will I e'en believe, and fret no more.

What good have I in living free from wedlock, If I for husband's honour thus take thought? Better it were to wear the horns myself, Knowing it not, than fret for other men. [Exit.

Ha! with a priest! conferring with a priest!

Have they been long together?

LUDOVIQUO.

Full an hour.

GARCIO.

And does she oft such ghostly counsel take?

Has she of late?

LUDOVIQUO.

My Lord?

GARCIO.

O, nothing! nothing!

Stare not as if I meant to question thee:

I had no more to say. (Motioning him away.) [Exit LUDOVIQuo.

(Alone.) At such a time retired with her con

fessor !

What! hath her lord's return caused in her mind
Such sudden need of ghostly counsel ?-Strange!
Something hath been amiss: if not in act,
She is, I fear, in will and fancy tainted.

ROVANI enters behind him unperceived.

ROVANI.

Nay, pure or tainted, leave the fancy free.
Of her concerns who may cognisance take?
Although cowl'd priests beneath their jurisdiction
Pretend to hold her, be not thou so strict.

GARCIO.

Thou know'st, then, that my wife is with her

priest.

I knew it not.

ROVANI.

She is a pious dame:

She seems she is a very pious dame.

GARCIO.

Nay, speak thy mind! thou need'st not hesitate. We have been fellow-soldiers nine long years: Thou ne'er wert wont to weigh thy words with

me.

What dost thou think? There is some cause for

this.

ROVANI.

Women are full of strange and fitful humours.

GARCIO.

Not so; it is not that. - Yet, were she false,
Methinks her shame-flush'd face would turn aside,
Nor look on me so oft and earnestly

As I have seen her gaze.
In act she is not false.

It cannot be !

But if her heart,

Where every kind and dear affection dwelt,
If it be changed - (stamping on the ground)
Some fiend hath been at work,

Some cursed agent hath been tamp'ring with her. (Pacing to and fro in violent agitation.)

ROVANI.

Be not so wretched for a doubtful ill,

Which, if it be at all

GARCIO.

A doubtful ill!

Oh, if my head but ached, or fev'rish sleep,
Or the more potent secret cause forced from me
One groan or sigh, what tones of kind alarm!
And the soft pressure of her gentle hand
In mute affliction, till I smiled again!
Here, on my bursting heart I feel it still,
Though cold and changed she be.

(After a gloomy pause.) Perhaps some awful and mysterious power

Within these fated precincts doth for me
Love to aversion turn.

ROVANI.

What dost thou mean by a mysterious power?
And but ev'n now methought I heard thee name
A potent secret cause.-Thou hast been wont
Freely to make me sharer of thy thoughts-
Of all thy secret wishes.

GARCIO.

So I have:

Nought for thy good to hear or mine to utter, Have I conceal'd from thee.-I hear a noise.

No; I hear nothing.

ROVANI.

GARCIO.

But my ear is quick;

Too quick, perhaps, in fancying sounds that are

not.