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Hyp.
Vict.

So soon?

I found him

Sitting at supper by the tavern door,

And, from a pitcher that he held aloft

His whole arm's length, drinking the blood-red wine.
Hyp. What news from Court?

Vict.

He brought this letter only. [Reads.

O cursed perfidy! Why did I let

That lying tongue deceive me! Preciosa,
Sweet Preciosa! how art thou avenged!

Hyp. What news is this, that makes thy cheek turn pale,
And thy hand tremble?

Vict.

O, most infamous!

The Count of Lara is a worthless villain!

Hyp. That is no news, forsooth.

Vict.

He strove in vain

To steal from me the jewel of my soul,
The love of Preciosa. Not succeeding,
He swore to be revenged; and set on foot
A plot to ruin her, which has succeeded.
She has been hissed and hooted from the stage,
Her reputation stained by slanderous lies
Too foul to speak of; and, once more a beggar,
She roams a wanderer over God's green earth,
Housing with Gipsies!

Hyp
To renew again
The Age of Gold, and make the shepherd swains
Desperate with love, like Gaspar Gil's Diana.
Redit et Virgo!

Vict.

Dear Hypolito,

How have I wronged that meek, confiding heart!
I will go seek for her; and with my tears

Wash out the wrong I've done her!

Hyp.

Act not that folly o'er again.

Vict.

O beware!

Ay, folly,

Delusion, madness, call it what thou wilt,

I will confess my weakness,-I still love her!
Still fondly love her!

[blocks in formation]

Who are these Gipsies in the neighbourhood?
Padre. Beltran Cruzado and his crew.

Vict.

Kind Heaven,

I thank thee! She is found! is found again!

Hyp. And have they with them a pale, beautiful girl, Called Preciosa ?

[blocks in formation]

Hyp.

Yes, moved with hunger,

He is half-famished with this long day's journey.
Padre. Then, pray you, come this way.

The supper

waits.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-A post-house on the road to Segovia, not far from the village of Guadarrama. Enter CHISPA, cracking a whip, and singing the cachucha.]

Chis. Halloo! Don Fulano! Let us have horses, and quickly. Alas, poor Chispa! what a dog's life dost thou lead! I thought, when I left my old master Victorian, the student, to serve my new master, Don Carlos, the gentleman, that I, too, should lead the life of a gentleman; should go to bed early, and get up late. For when the abbot plays cards, what can you expect of the friars? But, in running away from the thunder, I have run into the lightning. Here I am in hot chase after my master and his Gipsy girl. And a good beginning of the week it is, as he said who was hanged on Monday morning.

[Enter DON CARLOS.]

Carlos. Are not the horses ready yet?

Ho!

Chis. I should think not, for the hostler seems to be asleep. within there! Horses! horses! horses! [He knocks at the gate with his whip, and enter MOSQUITO, putting on his jacket.]

Mos. Pray, have a little patience. I'm not a musket.

Chis. Health and pistareens! I'm glad to see you come on dancing, padre! Pray, what's the news?

Mos. You cannot have fresh horses; because there are none.

Chis. Cachiporra! Throw that bone to another dog. Do I look your aunt?

like

Mos. No; she has a beard.

Chis. Go to! Go to!

Mos. Are you from Madrid?

Chis. Yes; and going to Estramadura. Get us horses.

Mos. What's the news at Court?

Chis. Why, the latest news is, that I am going to set up a coach, and I have already bought the whip.

[Strikes him round the legs.]

Mos. Oh! oh! you hurt me!

Carlos. Enough of this folly. Let us have horses. [Gives money to MOSQUITO.] It is almost dark; and we are in haste. But tell me, has a band of Gipsies passed this way of late?

Mos. Yes; and they are still in the neighbourhood.

Carlos. And where ?

Mos. Across the fields yonder, in the woods near Guadarrama.

[Exit.

Carlos. Now this is lucky. We will visit the Gipsy camp.
Chis. Are you not afraid of the evil eye? Have you a stag's horn

with you?

Carlos. Fear not. We will pass the night at the village.

Chis. And sleep like the Squires of Hernan Daza, nine ander one blanket.

Carlos. I hope we may find the Preciosa among them.

Chis. Among the Squires?

Carlos. No; among the Gipsies, blockhead!

Chis. I hope we may; for we are giving ourselves trouble enough on her account. Don't you think so? However, there is no catching trout without wetting one's trousers.

horses.

Yonder come the

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.-The Gipsy camp in the forest. Night. Gipsies working at a forge. Others playing cards by the firelight.

GIPSIES [at the forge sing].

On the top of a mountain I stand,
With a crown of red gold in my hand,
Wild Moors come trooping over the lea,

O how from their fury shall I flee, flee, flee?

O how from their fury shall I flee?

1st Gipsy [playing]. Down with your John-Dorados, my pigeon. Down with your John-Dorados, and let us make an end.

GIPSIES [at the forge sing].

Loud sang the Spanish cavalier,
And thus his ditty ran:
God send the Gipsy lassie here,
And not the Gipsy man.

1st Gipsy [playing]. There you are in your morocco.

2nd Gipsy. One more game.

Padre Cura's new moon.

1st Gipsy. Have at you, Chirelin.

The Alcalde's doves against the

GIPSIES [at the forge sing].

At midnight, when the moon began
To show her silver flame,

There came to him no Gipsy man,
The Gipsy lassie came.

[Enter BELTRAN CRUZADO.]

Cruz. Come hither, Murcigalleros and Rastilleros; leave work, leave play; listen to your orders for the night. [Speaking to the right.] You will get you to the village, mark you, by the stone cross.

* The Gipsy words in this scene may be thus interpreted :--

John-Dorados, pieces of gold.

In your morocco, stripped.

Pigeon, a simpleton.

Doves, sheets.

Moon, a shirt.

Chirelin, a thief.

Hermit, highway robber.

Planets, candles.
Commandments, the fingers.

Saint Martin asleep, to rob a person asleep.
Lanterns, eyes.

Goblin, police officer.

Murcigalleros, those who steal at nightfall. Papagayo, a spy.

Rastilleros, footpads.

Vineyards and Dancing John, to take flight.

Gipsies. Ay!

Cruz. [to the left. And you, by the pole with the hermit's head upon it.

Gipsies. Ay!

Cruz. As soon as you see the planets are out, in with you, and be busy with the ten commandments, under the sly, and Saint Martin asleep. D'ye hear?

Gipsies. Ay!

66

Cruz. Keep your lanterns open, and, if you see a goblin or a papagayo, take to your trampers. 'Vineyards and Dancing John is the word. Am I comprehended?

Gipsies. Ay! ay!

Cruz. Away, then!

[Exeunt severally. CRUZADO walks up the stage and disappears among the trees.

Enter PRECIOSA.]

Pre. How strangely gleams through the gigantic trees
The red light of the forge! Wild, beckoning shadows
Stalk through the forest, ever and anon

Rising and bending with the flickering flame,
Then flitting into darkness! So within me

Strange hopes and fears do beckon to each other,
My brightest hopes giving dark fears a being
As the light does the shadow. Woe is me!
How still it is about me, and how lonely!

[blocks in formation]

Bart. From the rough ridges of the wild Sierra,
From caverns in the rocks, from hunger, thirst,
And fever! Like a wild wolf to the sheepfold,
Come I for thee, my lamb

Pre.
O touch me not!
The Count of Lara's blood is on thy hands!
The Count of Lara's curse is on thy soul!
Do not come near me! Pray, begone from here!
Thou art in danger! They have set a price
Upon thy head!"

Bart.

Ay, and I've wandered long

Among the mountains; and for many days

Have seen no human face, save the rough swine-herd's.

The wind and rain have been my sole companions.

I shouted to them from the rocks thy name,

And the loud echo sent it back to me,

Till I grew mad. I could not stay from thee,
And I am here! Betray me, if thou wilt.

[graphic]

"How strangely gleams through the gigantic trees

The red light of the forge!"

The Spanish Student.

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