SCENE VIII.
Reading edition
The same; also Blanca, who has broken open the door.
B.: (Addressing Sancho.) You lie! You do not abhor me!
V.: Blanca!
S.: (Pointing at Blanca.) Look at her—! look at her—! She was there—! (Indicating his inner apartments, where she was.) And when, soon, you die at my hand, Viceroy of Mexico, you will have suffered two deaths!
V.: (To Blanca.) And is it true——?
B.: Sancho! Save me from this dishonor!
S.: (Paying no attention to her; to the Viceroy.) When finally a father meets——
V.: (Trying to stop Sancho’s mouth.) Silence, cursed wretch, silence——!
S.: Blanca; this is not your guardian, he is—your father!
V.: Ah——!
B.: My father! (The viceroy and Blanca stand as if stupefied.)
S.: (Contemplating them.) And how much a father’s heart must suffer in presenting himself with this sacred title for the first time, to a daughter’s heart. She cannot let him kiss her brow—no, she cannot.
B.: (Supplicatingly.) Sancho!
S.: He cannot feel his eyes wet with tears of joy—but only with tears of vengeance! How much she must suffer and how much he!
V.: Infamy.
S.: Infamy, no! because her suffering is multiplied a hundred-fold in yours.
V.: (Drawing his sword.) Blanca, you die!
B.: (Shrinking, horrified.) Ah!
S.: (Throwing himself upon the viceroy.) Do not touch her; look at her—she is innocent! Love has robbed me of my prey. I love her so much that my love conquered my vengeance. (Joy appears on the face of the viceroy.) But do not rejoice, Viceroy. You who rob women of their honor, and assassinate old men, do not rejoice. Only God and you and I know that she is pure. I have not dared to outrage her by a single glance; but, tomorrow——
V.: Ah!
S.: Tomorrow the whole court shall know that she’s your daughter.
V.: No!
S.: And that she passed the night here. (Pointing to the inner rooms.)
V.: Thou shalt die.
S.: My squire knows it——
V.: (Drawing his sword.) Enough!—blood!—what thirst so frightful——!
S.: (Unsheathing.) ’Tis less than mine!
B.: Señors, hold! Sancho, is this possible?
S.: Her voice again—again the cry of her love here in my heart! Withdraw your glance from me Blanca, since at its influence my heart fails and the coward steel trembles in my hand.
B.: Sancho! enough!
S.: Hear it——! Hear it, my father! She asks it——! Have pity on me, since, now that the hour has come for avenging thee, the pardon struggles to issue from my lips! My father, pardon!
V.: Your father, you have said! Who was your father? What is your name?
S.: My name is Juan de Paredes.
V.: You—you are the son of Don Diego and Doña Mencia?
S.: Why do you remind me of it? Why do you summon before me their bloody spirits? Yes, I am—I am he, whom you have robbed of all.
V.: You, who dishonored her!
S.: Yes.
V.: It seems as if Satan possesses you and hell inspires your words!
B.: What does he say?
S.: What do you say?
V.: Unhappy being, know that those secret amours with Doña Mencia bore fruit and that fruit is——
S.: She! oh cursed love! She is my sister——! Oh, almighty God!
* * * *