And reverend grey Threescore is but a voucher, That Thirty told us true.

ZANGA.

My noble lord,

I mourn your fate: But are no hopes surviving?

CARLOS.

No hopes. Alvarez has a heart of steel: 'Tis fixt; 'tis past; 'tis absolute despair.

ZANGA.

You wanted not to have your heart made tender By your own pains, to feel a friend's distress.

CARLOS.

I understand you well. Alonzo loves;

I pity him.

ZANGA.

I dare be sworn you do:

Yet he has other thoughts.

CARLOS.

What canst thou mean?

ZANGA.

Indeed he has; and fears to ask a favour,
A stranger from a stranger might request;
What costs you Nothing, yet is All to him:
Nay, what indeed will to your glory add,
For nothing more than wishing your friend well.

CARLOS.

I pray be plain: his happiness is mine.

ZANGA.

He loves to death; but so reveres his friend,
He cant persuade his heart to wed the maid,

Without your leave, and that he fears to ask
In perfect tenderness: I urg'd him to it,
Knowing the deadly sickness of his heart,
Your overflowing goodness to your friend,
Your wisdom, and despair yourself to wed her;
I wrung a promise from him he would try;
And now I come a mutual friend to both,
Without his privacy, to let you know it,
And to prepare you kindly to receive him.

CARLOS.

Ha! if he weds, I am undone indeed:
Not Don Alvarez' self can then relieve me.

ZANGA.

Alas! my lord, you know his heart is steel: 'Tis fixt! 'tis past! 'tis absolute despair.

CARLOS.

O cruel heav'n! and is it not enough
That I must never, never see her more?

Say, is it not enough that I must die;
But must I be tormented in the grave?

Ask my consent!-Must I then give her to him?
Lead to his nuptial sheets the blushing maid?
O! Leonora ! never, never, never!

ZANGA. [Aside.]

A storm of plagues upon him! He refuses.

CARLOS.

What! wed her?—and to day?

ZANGA.

To day, or never!

To-morrow may some wealthier lover bring,

And then Alonzo is thrown out like you;

Then whom shall he condemn for his misfortune? Carlos is an Alvarez to his love.

Or worse! Alas! and can there be a worse?
A worse there is! nor can my nature bear it.

ZANGA.

You have convinc'd me 'tis a dreadful task.
I find, Alonzo's quitting her this morning,
For Carlos' sake, in tenderness to you,
Betray'd me to believe it less severe

Than I perceive it is.

CARLOS.

Thou dost upbraid me.

ZANGA.

No, my good lord; but since you can't comply,

'Tis my misfortune that I mention'd it;

For had I not, Alonzo would indeed

Have dy'd, as now; but not by your decree.

CARLOS.

By my decree! Do I decree his death?

I do

-Shall I then lead her to his arms?

O! which side shall I take? be stabb'd? or-stab? 'Tis equal death, a choice of agonies.

Ah! no! all other agonies are ease

To one-O Leonora !-Never, never!
Go, Zanga, go; defer the dreadful trial,

Tho' but a day; something perchance may happen
To soften all to friendship, and to love:
Go; stop my friend; let me not see him now;
But save us from an interview of death.

ZANGA.

My lord, I'm bound in duty to obey you.
If I not bring him, may Alonzo prosper!

CARLOS.

[Aside.

[Exit Zanga.

What is this world?-Thy school, O misery!

Our only lesson is to learn to suffer;

And he who knows not that, was born for nothing.
Tho' deep my pangs, and heavy at my heart,
My comfort is, each moment takes away

A grain at least from the dead load that's on me,
And gives a nearer prospect of the grave.
But put it most severely-should I live————
Live long-Alas! there is no length in time;
Not in thy time, O man! What's fourscore years?
Nay, what indeed the age of time itself,
Since cut from out eternity's wide round?

Away then. To a mind resolv'd and wise,

There is an impotence in misery,

Which makes me smile, when all its shafts are in me. Yet Leonora-She can make time long;

Its nature alter, as she alter'd mine:

While in the lustre of her charms I lay,

Whole summer suns roll'd unperceiv'd away;

I

years for days, and days for moments told, And was surpriz'd to hear that I grew old;

Now fate does rigidly its dues regain,

And ev'ry moment is an age of pain.

As he is going out, Enter ZANGA, and ALONZO, Zanga stops CARLOS.

ZANGA.

Is this Don Carlos? This the boasted friend?
How can you turn your back upon his sadness?
Look on him; and then leave him, if you can.
Whose sorrows thus depress him? Not his own:
This moment he could wed without your leave.

CARLOS.

I cannot yield, nor can I bear his griefs.
Alonzo!

O Carlos!

[Going to him, and taking his hand.

ALONZO.

CARLOS.

Pray, forbear.

ALONZO.

Art thou undone, and shall Alonzo smile?

Alonzo! who perhaps in some degree
Contributed to cause thy dreadful fate?
I was deputed guardian of thy love;