she prayed before she fell asleep!

BEATRICE [_springing up_]. So, you are come--your dagger in
your hand?
Your lips compressed and blanched, and your hair
Tumbled wildly all about your eyes,
Like a river-god's? O love, you frighten me!
And you are trembling. Tell me what this means.

LARA. Oh! nothing, nothing--I did think to write
A note to Juan, to Signor Juan, my friend
(Your cousin and my honorable friend);
But finding neither ink nor paper here,
I thought to scratch it with my dagger's point
Upon your bosom, Madam! That is all.

BEATRICE. You've lost your senses!

LARA. Madam, no, I've found 'em!

BEATRICE. Then lose them quickly, and be what you were.

LARA. I was a fool, a dupe--a happy dupe.
You should have kept me in my ignorance;
For wisdom makes us wretched, king and clown.
Countess of Lara, you are false to me!

BEATRICE. Now, by the saints--

LARA. Now, by the saints, you are!

BEATRICE. Upon my honor--

LARA. On your honor? fie!
Swear by the ocean's feathery froth, for that
Is not so light a substance.

BEATRICE. Hear me, love!

LARA. Lie to that marble Io! I am sick
To the heart with lying.

BEATRICE. You've the ear-ache, sir,
Got with too much believing.

LARA. Beatrice,
I came to kill you.

BEATRICE. Kiss me, Count, you mean!

LARA. If killing you be kissing you, why yes.

BEATRICE. Ho! come not near me with such threatening looks,
Stand back there, if you love me, or have loved!

[_As_ LARA _advances_, BEATRICE _retreats to the table and rings a small
hand-bell._ MIRIAM, _in the dress of a page, enters from behind the
screen and steps between them_.

LARA [_starting back_]. The Page? now, curse him! What? no! Miriam?
Hold! 'twas at twilight, in the villa-garden,
At dusk, too, on the road to Mantua;
But here the light falls on you, man or maid!
Stop now; my brain's bewildered. Stand you there,
And let me touch you with incredulous hands!
Wait t