Carlos, I"ll keep my word; my boyhood"s vow I now as man renew. I will repay thee.

Some day, perchance, the hour may come----

CARLOS.

Now! now!

The hour has come; thou canst repay me all.

I have sore need of love. A fearful secret Burns in my breast; it must--it must be told.

In thy pale looks my death-doom will I read.

Listen; be petrified; but answer not.

I love--I love--my mother!

MARQUIS.

O my G.o.d!

CARLOS.

Nay, no forbearance! spare me not! Speak! speak!

Proclaim aloud, that on this earth"s great round There is no misery to compare with mine.

Speak! speak!--I know all--all that thou canst say The son doth love his mother. All the world"s Established usages, the course of nature, Rome"s fearful laws denounce my fatal pa.s.sion.

My suit conflicts with my own father"s rights, I feel it all, and yet I love. This path Leads on to madness, or the scaffold. I Love without hope, love guiltily, love madly, With anguish, and with peril of my life; I see, I see it all, and yet I love.

MARQUIS.

The queen--does she know of your pa.s.sion?

CARLOS.

Could I Reveal it to her? She is Philip"s wife-- She is the queen, and this is Spanish ground, Watched by a jealous father, hemmed around By ceremonial forms, how, how could I Approach her un.o.bserved? "Tis now eight months, Eight maddening months, since the king summoned me Home from my studies, since I have been doomed To look on her, adore her day by day, And all the while be silent as the grave!

Eight maddening months, Roderigo; think of this!

This fire has seethed and raged within my breast!

A thousand, thousand times, the dread confession Has mounted to my lips, yet evermore Shrunk, like a craven, back upon my heart.

O Roderigo! for a few brief moments Alone with her!

MARQUIS.

Ah! and your father, prince!

CARLOS.

Unhappy me! Remind me not of him.

Tell me of all the torturing pangs of conscience, But speak not, I implore you, of my father!

MARQUIS.

Then do you hate your father?

CARLOS.

No, oh, no!

I do not hate my father; but the fear That guilty creatures feel,--a shuddering dread,-- Comes o"er me ever at that terrible name.

Am I to blame, if slavish nurture crushed Love"s tender germ within my youthful heart?

Six years I"d numbered, ere the fearful man, They told me was my father, met mine eyes.

One morning "twas, when with a stroke I saw him Sign four death-warrants. After that I ne"er Beheld him, save when, for some childish fault, I was brought out for chastis.e.m.e.nt. O G.o.d!

I feel my heart grow bitter at the thought.

Let us away! away!

MARQUIS.

Nay, Carlos, nay, You must, you shall give all your sorrow vent, Let it have words! "twill ease your o"erfraught heart.

CARLOS.

Oft have I struggled with myself, and oft At midnight, when my guards were sunk in sleep, With floods of burning tears I"ve sunk before The image of the ever-blessed Virgin, And craved a filial heart, but all in vain.

I rose with prayer unheard. O Roderigo!

Unfold this wondrous mystery of heaven, Why of a thousand fathers only this Should fall to me--and why to him this son, Of many thousand better? Nature could not In her wide orb have found two opposites More diverse in their elements. How could She bind the two extremes of human kind-- Myself and him--in one so holy bond?

O dreadful fate! Why was it so decreed?

Why should two men, in all things else apart, Concur so fearfully in one desire?

Roderigo, here thou seest two hostile stars, That in the lapse of ages, only once, As they sweep onwards in their orbed course, Touch with a crash that shakes them to the centre, Then rush apart forever and forever.

MARQUIS.

I feel a dire foreboding.

CARLOS.

So do I.

Like h.e.l.l"s grim furies, dreams of dreadful shape Pursue me still. My better genius strives With the fell projects of a dark despair.

My wildered subtle spirit crawls through maze On maze of sophistries, until at length It gains a yawning precipice"s brink.

O Roderigo! should I e"er in him Forget the father--ah! thy deathlike look Tells me I"m understood--should I forget The father--what were then the king to me?

MARQUIS (after a pause).

One thing, my Carlos, let me beg of you!

Whate"er may be your plans, do nothing,--nothing,-- Without your friend"s advice. You promise this?

CARLOS.

All, all I promise that thy love can ask!

I throw myself entirely upon thee!

MARQUIS.

The king, I hear, is going to Madrid.

The time is short. If with the queen you would Converse in private, it is only here, Here in Aranjuez, it can be done.

The quiet of the place, the freer manners, All favor you.

CARLOS.

And such, too, was my hope; But it, alas! was vain.

MARQUIS.

Not wholly so.

I go to wait upon her. If she be The same in Spain she was in Henry"s court, She will be frank at least. And if I can Read any hope for Carlos in her looks-- Find her inclined to grant an interview-- Get her attendant ladies sent away----

CARLOS.

Most of them are my friends--especially The Countess Mondecar, whom I have gained By service to her son, my page.

MARQUIS.

"Tis well; Be you at hand, and ready to appear, Whene"er I give the signal, prince.

CARLOS.

I will,-- Be sure I will:--and all good speed attend thee!

MARQUIS.

I will not lose a moment; so, farewell.