so, I am most assured.

_Ser._ If it be true, then everything is false.
It cannot, cannot be. Have I not lavish'd
All I could bestow, myself and mine,
Rejected all, to live within his arms,
To breathe one breath with him, and dwell in ecstasy
Upon his words. Oh no! he is not false
You must belie him.

_Bep._ Nay, I would I did:
I wonder not your doting heart rejects
Such monstrous treachery. Yet it is true,
And true as curs'd. The Donna Isidora
By her charms has won him; and his feign'd death
Was but a stratagem to shake you off.
As you last night asserted, Perez fell;
Don Felix, swearing vengeance, seeks Don Gaspar.

_Ser._ (_after a pause_). Who is this Isidora?

_Bep._ A lovely creature in her early bloom,
The noble blood of Guzman in her veins,
A rival worthy of your beauty, madam,
And therefore one most dangerous.

_Ser._ Would that I had her here. My heart is now
So full of anger, malice, and fierce hate,
With all those direful and envenom'd passions
By which the breasts of demons are infected;
If I but even look'd upon her face,
My scorching breath would wither up her charms
Like adder's poison. Would I had her here!

_Bep._ Yet blame her not. She's good and beautiful:
Report doth much commend her early worth
And ever active charity.

_Ser._ Were she not so, I yet might have retain'd
My truant love. Each virtue that she hath
With me's a vice--each charm, deformity.
They are my foes, array'd against my power,
And I must hate them, as they've vanquish'd me.

_Bep._ But _my_ hate should fall on Gaspar, lady.

_Ser._ That's not so easy; the strong tide of love,
Though check'd, still flows against the adverse hate.
In their opposing strife, my troubled breast
Heaves as the elements in wild commotion.

_Bep._ It must not last. I've much to tell you yet
Of this base man. When you have heard it all,
A rapid flood of rage shall sweep its course,
Lash'd by the storm raised in your much-wrong'd soul,
O'erwhelming all remorse, to Gaspar's ruin.

_Ser._ Direct me, Heav'n! Come to my chamber, Beppa,
I must unrobe me. When my swollen heart
Can throb more freely, I will hear your tale.
Come on, good Beppa. [_Exeunt._

_Scene III._

_Street in Seville._

_Enter Antonio._

_Ant._ This is a strange world! What a simpleton is this Don Felix!
First he buys my secret at a heavy price, and then, after two minutes'
deliberation, declares that he will make no use of it, but that I must
deliver the mess