ELV. If Heaven seconds my wishes, Madam, you shall have no cause to
repine.




SCENE V.--DON ALPHONSO (_believed to be Don Silvio_), DONNA ELVIRA,
DONNA INEZ.

ELV. Before you say a word, my Lord, I earnestly beg that you will deign
to hear me for a moment. Fame has already informed us of the marvellous
deeds you have performed. I wonder to see, as all do, how quickly and
successfully you have changed our lot. I know very well that such an
eminent service can never be sufficiently rewarded, and that nothing
ought to be refused to you for that never-to-be-forgotten deed which
replaces my brother on the throne of his ancestors. But whatever his
grateful heart may offer you, make a generous use of your advantages,
and do not employ your glorious action, my Lord, to make me bend under
an imperious yoke; nor let your love--for you know who is the object of
my passion--persist in triumphing over a well-founded refusal; let not
my brother, to whom they are going to present me, begin his reign by an
act of tyranny over his sister. Leon has other rewards which for the
nonce, may do more honour to your lofty valour. A heart which you can
obtain only by compulsion, would be too mean a reward for your courage.
Can a man be ever really satisfied when, by coercion, he obtains what he
loves? It is a melancholy advantage; a generous-minded lover refuses to
be happy upon such conditions. He will not owe anything to that pressure
which relatives think they have a right to employ; he is ever too fond
of the maiden he loves, to suffer her to be sacrificed as a victim, even