may have in store for us, I will rather die than be yours! I trust these
two proposals may satisfy you; now choose which of the two pleases you.

GARC. Righteous Heaven! Was there ever anything more artful and
treacherous? Could hellish malice produce any perfidy so black? Could it
have invented a more severe and merciless way to embarrass a lover? Ah!
ungrateful woman, you know well how to take advantage of my great
weakness, even against myself, and to employ for your own purposes that
excessive, astonishing, and fatal love which you inspired.

[Footnote: The phrase "Ah! ungrateful woman" until "inspired" is also
found in the _Misanthrope_, Act iv., Scene 3 (see Vol. II).]

Because you have been taken by surprise, and cannot find an excuse, you
cunningly offer to forgive me. You pretend to be good-natured, and
invent some trick to divert the consequences of my vengeance; you wish
to ward off the blow that threatens a wretch, by craftily entangling me
with your offer. Yes, your artifices would fain avert an explanation
which must condemn you; pretending to be completely innocent, you will
give convincing proof of it only upon such conditions as you think and
most fervently trust I will never accept; but you are mistaken if you
think to surprise me. Yes, yes, I am resolved to see how you can defend
yourself; by what miracle you can justify the horrible sight I beheld,
and condemn my anger.

ELV. Consider that, by this choice, you engage yourself to abandon all
pretensions to the heart of Donna Elvira.

GARC. Be it so! I consent to everything; besides, in my present
condition, I have no longer any pretensions.