ut decent
the cannon should be drawn down upon me before I yield.

_Elv._ What a terrible similitude have you made, colonel, to shew that
you are inclining to the wars? I could answer you with another in my
profession: Suppose you were in want of money, would you not be glad
to take a sum upon content in a sealed bag, without peeping?--but,
however, I will not stand with you for a sample. [_Lifts up her veil._

_Lor._ What eyes were there! how keen their glances! you do well to
keep them veiled; they are too sharp to be trusted out of the
scabbard.

_Elv._ Perhaps now, you may accuse my forwardness; but this day of
jubilee is the only time of freedom I have had; and there is nothing
so extravagant as a prisoner, when he gets loose a little, and is
immediately to return into his fetters.

_Lor._ To confess freely to you, madam, I was never in love with less
than your whole sex before; but now I have seen you, I am in the
direct road of languishing and sighing; and, if love goes on as it
begins, for aught I know, by to-morrow morning you may hear of me in
rhyme and sonnet. I tell you truly, I do not like these symptoms in
myself. Perhaps I may go shufflingly at first; for I was never before
walked in trammels; yet, I shall drudge and moil at constancy, till I
have worn off the hitching in my pace.

_Elv._ Oh, sir, there are arts to reclaim the wildest men, as there
are to make spaniels fetch and carry: chide them often, and feed them
seldom. Now I know your temper, you may thank yourself, if you are
kept to hard meat. You are in for years, if you make love to me.

_Lor._ I hate a formal obligation with an _Anno Domini_ at end on't;
there may be an evil meaning in the word years, called matrimony.

_Elv._ I can easily rid you of that fear: I wish I could rid myself as
easily of the bondage.

_Lor._ Then you are married?

_Elv._ If a covetous, and a jealous, and an old man be a husband.

_Lor._ Three as good qualities for my purpose as I could wish: now
love be praised!

_Enter_ ELVIRA'S _Duenna, and whispers to her._

_Elv._ [_Aside._] If I get not home before my husband, I shall be
ruined. [_To him._] I dare not stay to tell you where.
Farewell!--Could I once more-- [_Exit._

_Lor._ This is unconscionable dealing; to be made a slave, and know
not whose livery I wear. Who have we yonder?

_Enter_ GOMEZ.

By that shambling in his walk, it should be my rich old banker, Go