to set your Heart at rest,
Whose Pain I feel by something in my own.

_Clar._ The Gods reward your Bounty, fair _Cleonte_.

_Dor._ I, I, Madam, I beseech you make our Peace with my good Lady her
Mother, whatsoever becomes of the rest, for she'll e'en die with Grief--
[Weeps.
She had but two fair Pledges of her Nuptial Bed.
And both by cruel Fate are ravisht from her.
_Manuel_ a Child was lost,
And this; not holy Relicks were more strictly guarded,
Till false _Marcel_ betray'd me to debauch her. [Weeps aloud.

_Cleo._ Alas, had you a Brother once? [To _Clarinda_.

_Clar._ Madam, I might have had: but he was lost e'er I was born.

_Cleo._ Ah! would my _Silvio_ had been so. [Aside.
By what strange Accident, _Clarinda_?

_Dor._ Madam, I can inform you best.
[Puts herself between.

_Cleo._ Do then, _Dormida_.

_Dor._ Madam, you must know, my Lady _Octavia_, for that's her name, was
in her Youth the very Flower of Beauty and Vertue: Oh such a Face and
Shape! had you but seen her-- And tho I say it, Madam, I thought my self
too somebody then.

_Clar._ Thou art tedious: Madam, 'tis true my Mother had the Reputation
of both those Attractions, which gain'd her many Lovers: amongst the
rest, Don _Manuel_, and Don _Alonzo_, were most worthy her Esteem.

_Dor._ Ay, Madam, Don _Alonzo_, there was a Man for you, so obliging and
so bountiful-- Well, I'll give you Argument of both to me: for you must
know I was a Beauty then, and worth obliging.
[Puts herself between.
And he was the Man my Lady lov'd, tho Don _Manuel_ were the richer:
but to my own Story--

_Cleo._ Forward, _Clarinda_.

_Clar._ But as it most times happens,
We marry where our Parents like, not we;
My Mother was dispos'd of to Don _Manuel_.

_Dor._ Ay, Madam; but had you seen Don _Alonzo's_ Rage, and how my Lady
took this Disappointment-- But I who was very young, and very pretty,
as I told you before--

_Clar._ Forbear, Madam; 'tis true,
_Alonzo_ was so far transported,
That oft he did attempt to kill my Father;
But bravely tho, and still he was prevented:
But when at the Intreaties of my Mother,
The King confin'd my Father,
_Alonzo_ then study'd a new Revenge;
And thinking that my Father's Life depended
Upon a Son he had, scarce a Year old,
He did design to steal him; and one Evening,
When with the Nurse and Maid he took the Air,
This desperate Lover seiz'd the smiling Prize,
Wh