THE DYNASTS
ACT II
Yet I do passably keep troth with you,
And fond you with fair regularity;—
A week beside you, and a week away.
Such is not schemed without some risk and strain,—
And you agreed Josefa should be mine,
And, too, Thereza, without jealousy !
(A noise is heard without.) Ah, what means that ?
He jumps up from her side and crosses the room to the window, where he lifts the curtain cautiously. The Queen follows him with a scared look.
QUEEN A riot can it be ?
GODOY
Let me put these out ere they notice them; They think me at the Royal Palace yonder.
He hastily extinguishes the candles except one taper, which he places in a recess, so that the room is in shade. He then draws back the curtains, and she joins him at the window, where, enclosing her with his arm, he and she look out together.
In front of the house a guard of hussars is stationed, beyond them spreading the Plaza or Square. On the other side rises in the lamplight the white front of the Royal Palace. On the flank of the Palace is a wall enclosing gardens, bowered alleys, and orange groves, and in the wall a small door.
A mixed multitude of soldiery and populace fills the space in front of the King's Palace, and they shout and address each other vehemently. During a lull in their vociferations is heard the peaceful purl of the Tagus over a cascade in the Palace grounds.
QUEEN
Lingering, we've risked too long our chance of flight! The Paris Terror will repeat it here. Not for myself I fear. No, no ; for thee !
(She clings to him.)
If they should hurt you, it would murder me By heart-bleedings and stabs intolerable !
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