, sir, and I will prove it, that he had a lewd design upon
her body, and attempted to corrupt her honesty.
[LORENZO _lifts up his fist clenched at him._
I confess my wife was as willing--as himself; and, I believe, 'twas
she corrupted him; for I have known him formerly a very civil and
modest person.

_Elv._ You see, sir, he contradicts himself at every word; he's
plainly mad.

_Alph._ Speak boldly, man! and say what thou wilt stand by: did he
strike thee?

_Gom._ I will speak boldly; he struck me on the face before my own
threshold, that the very walls cried shame to him.
[LORENZO _holds up again._
'Tis true, I gave him provocation, for the man's as peaceable a
gentleman as any is in all Spain.

_Dom._ Now the truth comes out, in spite of him.

_Ped._ I believe the friar has bewitched him.

_Alph._ For my part, I see no wrong that has been offered him.

_Gom._ How? no wrong? why, he ravished me, with the help of two
soldiers, carried me away _vi et armis,_ and would put me into a
plot against government. [LORENZO _holds up again._
I confess, I never could endure the government, because it was
tyrannical; but my sides and shoulders are black and blue, as I can
strip and show the marks of them. [LORENZO _again._
But that might happen, too, by a fall that I got yesterday upon the
pebbles. [_All laugh._

_Dom._ Fresh straw, and a dark chamber; a most manifest judgment!
there never comes better of railing against the church.

_Gom._ Why, what will you have me say? I think you'll make me mad:
truth has been at my tongue's end this half hour, and I have not power
to bring it out, for fear of this bloody-minded colonel.

_Alph._ What colonel?

_Gom._ Why, my colonel--I mean my wife's colonel, that appears there
to me like my _malus genius_, terrifies me.

_Alph._ [_Turning._] Now you are mad indeed, Gomez; this is my son
Lorenzo.

_Gom._ How? your son Lorenzo! it is impossible.

_Alph._ As true as your wife Elvira is my daughter.

_Lor._ What, have I taken all this pains about a sister?

_Gom._ No, you have taken some about me; I am sure, if you are her
brother, my sides can show the tokens of our alliance.

_Alph._ to _Lor._ You know I put your sister into a nunnery, with a
strict command not to see you, for fear you should have wrought upon
her to ha