g with the blood of Rodrigo! Traitor,
dost thou dare to show thyself before mine eyes, after having taken from
me that [being] whom I love the best? Declare thyself my love, and thou
hast no more to fear. My father is satisfied; cease to restrain thyself.
The same [death] stroke has placed my honor in safety, my soul in
despair, and my passion at liberty!

_Don Sancho._ With a mind more calmly collected----

_Chimene._ Dost thou still speak to me, detestable assassin of a hero
whom I adore? Go; you fell upon him treacherously. A warrior so valiant
would never have sunk beneath such an assailant! Hope nothing from me.
Thou hast not served me; and believing that thou wert avenging me, thou
hast deprived me of life.

_Don Sancho._ Strange delusion, which, far from listening to me----

_Chimene._ Wilt thou that I should listen to thee while boasting of his
death?--that I should patiently hear with what haughty pride thou wilt
describe his misfortune, my own crime, and thy prowess?

Scene VI.--DON FERNANDO, DON DIEGO, DON ARIAS, DON SANCHO, DON ALONZO,
CHIMENE, and ELVIRA.

_Chimene._ Sire, there is no further need to dissemble that which all my
struggles have not been able to conceal from you. I loved, you knew it;
but, to avenge my father, I even wished to sacrifice so dear a being [as
Rodrigo]. Sire, your majesty may have seen how I have made love yield to
duty. At last, Rodrigo is dead; and his death has converted me from an
unrelenting foe into an afflicted lover. I owed this revenge to him who
gave me existence; and to my love I now owe these tears. Don Sancho has
destroyed me in undertaking my defence; and I am the reward of the arm
which destroys me. Sire, if compassion can influence a king, for mercy's
sake revoke a law so severe. As the reward of a victory by which I lose
that which I love, I leave him my possessions; let him leave me to
myself, that in a sacred cloister I may weep continually, even to my
last sigh, for my father and my lover.

_Don Diego._ In brief, she loves, sire, and no longer believes it a
crime to acknowledge with her own lips a lawful affection.

_Don Fernando._ Chimene, be undeceived [_lit._ come out from thine
error]; thy lover is not dead, and the vanquished Don Sancho has given
thee a false report.

_Don Sancho._ Sire, a little too much eagerness, in spite of me, has
misled her; I came from the combat to tell her the result. This noble
warrior of whom her heart is enamored,