ELV. We did not think he was so near us. Here he comes.




SCENE II.--DONNA ELVIRA, DON ALVAREZ, ELIZA.


ELV. Your return surprises me. What tidings do you bring? Is Don
Alphonso coming, and when may we expect him?

ALV. Yes, Madam; the time has arrived when your brother, brought up in
Castile, will get his own again. Hitherto, the cautious Don Louis, to
whom the late King, on his death-bed, entrusted the care of Don
Alphonso, has concealed his rank from every one, in order to save him
from the fury of the traitor Mauregat. Though the miserable but
successful tyrant has often inquired after him, under pretence of
restoring him to the throne, yet Don Louis, who is full of prudence,
would never trust to Mauregat's pretended feelings for justice, with
which he tried to allure him. But as the people became enraged at the
violence which a usurper would have offered you, generous old Don Louis
thought it time to try what could be done after twenty years'
expectation. He has sounded Leon; his faithful emissaries have sought to
influence the minds of great and small. Whilst Castile was arming ten
thousand men to restore that Prince so wished for by his people, Don
Louis caused a report to be noised abroad that the renowned Don Alphonso
was coming, but that he would not produce him save at the head of an
army, and completely ready to launch the avenging thunderbolts at the
vile usurper's head. Leon is besieged, and Don Silvio himself commands
the auxiliary forces, with which his father aids you.