no, no, no!

KING (_laughing_).

I see your weakness happily abates.

(_Catching sight of _GARCERAN.)

Ah, Garceran! Behold, she's but a child!

GARCERAN. A spoiled child, surely!

KING. Yes, they all are that.
It suits her well!

GARCERAN. According to one's tastes!

KING. See, Garceran! I feel how wrong I am;
And yet I know there needeth but a nod,
A simple word, to make it all dissolve--This
dream--into the nothing that it is.
And so I suffer it because I've need,
In this confusion which myself have caused.
How is the army?

GARCERAN. As you long have known,
The enemy is arming.

KING. So shall we.
A few days more, and I shall put away
This toying from me, and forevermore;
Then time and counsel shall be found again.

GARCERAN. Mayhap the counsel, but the time slips by!

KING. With deeds we shall regain the ground that's lost.

RACHEL. I hear them speaking; and I know of what--Of
And not be lonesome in this concourse loud.
I see you come not. No, they hold you back.

[_Weeping._]

Not any comfort give they me, nor joy.
They hold me here, apart, in slavery.
Would I were home again in father's house,
Where every one is at my beck and call,
Instead of here,--the outcast of contempt.

KING. Go thou to her!

GARCERAN. What? Shall I?

KING. Go, I say!

RACHEL. Sit down by me, but nearer, nearer--so!
Once more I say, I love you, Garceran.
You are, indeed, a knight without a flaw,
Not merely knight in name, as they it learn--
Those iron, proud Castilians--from their foes,
The Moors.--But these Castilians imitate
In manner borrowed, therefore rough and crude,
What those, with delicate and clever art,
Are wont to practise as a native gift.
Give me your hand. Just see, how soft it is!
And yet you wield a sword as well as they.
But you're at home in boudoirs, too, and know
The pleasing manners of a gentler life.
From Dona Clara cometh not this ring?
She's far too pale for rosy-cheeked love,