excepting Sarpi.

Don Fregose
And what of your own marriage?

Faustine
My lord, I can think of nothing at present except the coming banquet;
you shall have my answer this evening. (Fontanares appears.) (Aside)
Oh, there he comes! (To Fregose) If you love me, leave me a while.

Don Fregose
Alone with him?

Faustine
Yes, so I desire.

Don Fregose
After all he loves no one but his Marie Lothundiaz. (Exit.)

SCENE THIRTEENTH

Faustine and Fontanares.

Fontanares
The palace of the king of Spain is not more splendid than yours,
senora, and you here display all the pomp of royalty.

Faustine
Listen to me, dear Fontanares.

Fontanares
Dear! Ah! senora, you have taught me to distrust such words as that!

Faustine
She, whom you have so cruelly insulted, will now reveal herself to
you. A terrible disaster threatens you. Sarpi has persistently worked
against you and in doing so has carried out the orders of an
irresistible power, and this banquet will be for you, unless I
intervene, the scene of a Judas' kiss. I have been told, in
confidence, that on your departure from this house, perhaps without
these very walls, you will be arrested, flung into prison, and your
trial will begin--never to end. Is it possible that you can put into
proper condition in one night the vessel which otherwise will be
forfeited to you? As regards your work, you know how impossible it is
to begin it over again. I wish to save you, you and your glory, you
and your fortune.

Fontanares
You save me? And how?

Faustine
Avalores has placed at my disposal one of his ships, Monipodio has
given me his best smugglers for a cruise; let us start for Venice. The
republic will make you a patrician and will give you ten times as much
gold as Spain has promised. (Aside) Why is it they do not arrive?

Fontanares
And what of Marie? If we are to take her with us, I will believe in
you.

Faustine
Your thoughts are of her at the very moment when the choice between
life and death is to be made. If you delay, we may be lost.

Fontanares
We? Senora?

SCENE FOURTEENTH

The same persons. Guards rush in at every door. A magistrate appears.
Sarpi.

Sarpi
Do your duty!

The Magistrate (to Fontanares)
In the name of the king, I arrest you.

Fontanares
The hour of death has come at last! Yet happily I carry my secret with
me to God, and love shall be my winding sheet.