Be then no longer surprised if my troubled soul with impatience awaits their bridal; thou seest that my happiness [lit. repose] this day depends upon it. If love lives by hope, it perishes with it; it is a fire which becomes extinguished for want of fuel; and, in spite of the severity of my sad lot, if Chimène ever has Rodrigo for a husband, my hope is dead and my spirit, is healed. Meanwhile, I endure an incredible torture; even up to this bridal. Rodrigo is dear to me; I strive to lose him, and I lose him with regret, and hence my secret anxiety derives its origin. I see with sorrow that love compels me to utter sighs for that [object] which [as a princess] I must disdain. I feel my spirit divided into two portions; if my courage is high, my heart is inflamed [with love]. This bridal is fatal to me, I fear it, and [yet] I desire it; I dare to hope from it only an incomplete joy; my honor and my love have for me such attractions, that I [shall] die whether it be accomplished, or whether it be not accomplished.

Leonora. Dear lady, after that I have nothing more to say, except that, with you, I sigh for your misfortunes; I blamed you a short time since, now I pity you. But since in a misfortune (i.e. an ill-timed love) so sweet and so painful, your noble spirit (lit. virtue) contends against both its charm and its strength, and repulses its assault and regrets its allurements, it will restore calmness to your agitated feelings. Hope then every (good result) from it, and from the assistance of time; hope everything from heaven; it is too just (lit. it has too much justice) to leave virtue in such a long continued torture.

Infanta. My sweetest hope is to lose hope.

(The Page re-enters.)

Page. By your commands, Chimène comes to see you.

Infanta (to Leonora). Go and converse with her in that gallery (yonder).

Leonora. Do you wish to continue in dreamland?

Infanta. No, I wish, only, in spite of my grief, to compose myself (lit. to put my features a little more at leisure). I follow you.

(Leonora goes out along with the Page.)

Scene III.—The INFANTA (alone).

Just heaven, from which I await my relief, put, at last, some limit to the misfortune which is overcoming (lit. possesses) me; secure my repose, secure my honor. In the happiness of others I seek my own. This bridal is equally important to three (parties); render its completion more prompt, or my soul more enduring. To unite these two lovers with a marriage-tie is to break all my chains and to end all my sorrows. But I tarry a little too long; let us go to meet Chimène, and, by conversation, to relieve our grief.

Scene IV.—COUNT DE GORMAS and DON DIEGO (meeting).

Count. At last you have gained it (or, prevailed), and the favor of a King raises you to a rank which was due only to myself; he makes you Governor of the Prince of Castile.

Don Diego. This mark of distinction with which he distinguishes (lit. which he puts into) my family shows to all that he is just, and causes it to be sufficiently understood, that he knows how to recompense bygone services.

Count. However great kings may be, they are only men (lit. they are that which we are); they can make mistakes like other men, and this choice serves as a proof to all courtiers that they know how to (or, can) badly recompense present services.

Don Diego. Let us speak no more of a choice at which your mind becomes exasperated. Favor may have been able to do as much as merit; but we owe this respect to absolute power, to question nothing when a king has wished it.