438 CLAVIGO : A TRAGEDT. 



dize, which is at last thrown to a purchaser after he has almost vexed you to 

 death, by his mean offers and Jewish chaffering. No ! he shall not have 

 ray suffrage, even if Maria's heart speak for him. Return, indeed ! why 

 return now then ? Has not he waited till your brave brother interposed, 

 whose vengeance he must dread, to come like a schoolboy and crave par- 

 don ? Ha ! he is as dastardly as he is contemptible ! 



Guil. You talk like a Spaniard; but, as if you did not know the Spaniard. 

 We are, at this moment, in greater danger than you are all aware of. 



Mar. Dear Guilbert ! 



Guil. I honour our brother's enterprising soul ; I tacitly beheld his heroic 

 conduct, wished all might end well, wished Maria could resolve to give 

 Clavigo her hand, for (smiling) her heart is his still. 



Mar. You are cruel ! 



Sop Hear him, I intreat you, hear him ! 



Guil. Your brother has forced a declaration from him which will vindi- 

 cate you in the eyes of the world, and ruin us. 



Buen. How ? 



Mar. OGod! 



Guilb. He has written it in the hopes of moving you. Should he fail, 

 he will do his utmost to nullify the paper ; he can do it, and he will. 

 Your brother intends to print and disseminate it upon his return from 

 Aranjuez. I fear, if you persist, he will never return. 



Sop. Dear Guilbert 1 



Mar. I am undone ! 



Guilb. Clavigo will not suffer the paper to appear, if you reject his 

 offer ; he is a man of honour he will meet your brother, and one of them 

 will fall ; whether your brother conquer or die, he is lost. A foreigner 

 in Spain ! the murderer of this favourite courtier ! Sister, it is very well 

 to think and feel nobly ; but to destroy yourself and your family 



Mar. Advise me, Sophia help me ! 



Guilb. And you, Buenco, refute me. 



Buen. He will not venture he will fear the danger; else he would 

 never have written, nor offered Maria his hand. 



Guilb. So much the worse; he will find hundreds ready to lend as- 

 sistance hundreds to waylay our brother, and take his life. Ha ! Buenco, 

 are you so green ? A courtier without an assassin in pay ? 



Buen. The king is great and good. 



Guilb. Up, then ! make your way through all the intervening obstruc- 

 . tions, the sentry, etiquette, and all the forms by which his courtiers have 

 separated him from his people, and save us! Who comes? 



Enter Clavigo. 



Clav. I must ! I must ! (Maria shrieks, and falls into Sophia's arms.) 



Sop. Cruel man ! what a situation have you thrown us into ! (Guilbert 

 and Buenco go towards him.) 



Clav. Yes, 'tis she ! 'tis she ! and I am Clavigo. Hear me, dearest, if 

 you will not look upon me. At the time Guilbert so kindly received me in 

 his house a poor insignificant boy, when I felt an irresistible passion for 

 you, was it duty ? Or was it not rather an inherent sympathy of dispo- 

 sition, a secret impulse of the soul, which inspired you also with a mutual 

 love ? so that I flattered myself I might one day call you mine ? 

 And now am 1 not the same as ever? why should I not presume to hope? 

 why not implore ? would you not again take to your heart a friend, a lover, 

 whom you had long deemed lost, if he unexpectedly returned from a perilous, 

 unfortunate voyage, and laid his preserved life at your feet? And have I 

 been traversing less stormy seas? are not our passions with which we live 

 in eternal strife, terrible, unconquerable as those billows, which cast away 

 the unhappy wretch far from his native land ! Maria ! Maria ! how could 



