CAS.Nay, Luiz, respect my principles and cease to torture me with vain entreaties.Henceforth my life is another's.
LUIZ.But stay--the present and the future--they are another's; but the past--that at least is ours, and none can take it from us.As we may revel in naught else, let us revel in that!
CAS.I don't think I grasp your meaning.
LUIZ.Yet it is logical enough.You say you cease to love me?
CAS.(demurely).I say I may not love you.
LUIZ.Ah, but you do not say you did not love me?
CAS.I loved you with a frenzy that words are powerless to express--and that but ten brief minutes since!
LUIZ.Exactly.My own--that is, until ten minutes since, my own--my lately loved, my recently adored--tell me that until, say a quarter of an hour ago, I was all in all to thee!
(Embracing her.)
CAS.I see your idea.It's ingenious, but don't do that.
(Releasing herself.)
LUIZ.There can be no harm in revelling in the past.
CAS.None whatever, but an embrace cannot be taken to act retrospectively.
LUIZ.Perhaps not!
CAS.We may recollect an embrace--I recollect many--but we must not repeat them.
LUIZ.Then let us recollect a few! (A moment's pause, as they recollect, then both heave a deep sigh.)LUIZ.Ah, Casilda, you were to me as the sun is to the earth!
CAS.A quarter of an hour ago?
LUIZ.About that.
CAS.And to think that, but for this miserable discovery, you would have been my own for life!
LUIZ.Through life to death--a quarter of an hour ago!
CAS.How greedily my thirsty ears would have drunk the golden melody of those sweet words a quarter--well, it's now about twenty minutes since.(Looking at her watch.)LUIZ.About that.In such a matter one cannot be too precise.
CAS.And now our love, so full of life, is but a silent, solemn memory!
LUIZ.Must it be so, Casilda?
CAS.Luiz, it must be so!
DUET--CASILDA and LUIZ.
LUIZ.There was a time--
A time for ever gone--ah, woe is me!
It was no crime To love but thee alone--ah, woe is me!
One heart, one life, one soul, One aim, one goal--Each in the other's thrall, Each all in all, ah, woe is me!
BOTH.Oh, bury, bury--let the grave close o'er The days that were--that never will be more!
Oh, bury, bury love that all condemn, And let the whirlwind mourn its requiem!
CAS.Dead as the last year's leaves--As gathered flowers--ah, woe is me!
Dead as the garnered sheaves, That love of ours--ah, woe is me!
Born but to fade and die When hope was high, Dead and as far away As yesterday!--ah, woe is me!
BOTH.Oh, bury, bury--let the grave close o'er, etc.
(Re-enter from the Ducal Palace the Duke and Duchess, followed by Don Alhambra del Bolero, the Grand Inquisitor.)DUKE.My child, allow me to present to you His Distinction Don Alhambra del Bolero, the Grand Inquisitor of Spain.It was His Distinction who so thoughtfully abstracted your infant husband and brought him to Venice.
DON AL.So this is the little lady who is so unexpectedly called upon to assume the functions of Royalty! And a very nice little lady, too!
DUKE.Jimp, isn't she?
DON AL.Distinctly jimp.Allow me! (Offers his hand.She turns away scornfully.) Naughty temper!
DUKE.You must make some allowance.Her Majesty's head is a little turned by her access of dignity.
DON AL.I could have wished that Her Majesty's access of dignity had turned it in this direction.
DUCH.Unfortunately, if I am not mistaken, there appears to be some little doubt as to His Majesty's whereabouts.
CAS.(aside).A doubt as to his whereabouts? Then we may yet be saved!
DON AL.A doubt? Oh dear, no--no doubt at all! He is here, in Venice, plying the modest but picturesque calling of a gondolier.I can give you his address--I see him every day! In the entire annals of our history there is absolutely no circumstance so entirely free from all manner of doubt of any kind whatever! Listen, and I'll tell you all about it.
SONG--DON ALHAMBRA
(with DUKE, DUCHESS, CASILDA, and LUIZ).
I stole the Prince, and I brought him here, And left him gaily prattling With a highly respectable gondolier, Who promised the Royal babe to rear, And teach him the trade of a timoneer With his own beloved bratling.
Both of the babes were strong and stout, And, considering all things, clever.
Of that there is no manner of doubt--
No probable, possible shadow of doubt--
No possible doubt whatever.
ALL.No possible doubt whatever.
But owing, I'm much disposed to fear, To his terrible taste for tippling, That highly respectable gondolier Could never declare with a mind sincere Which of the two was his offspring dear, And which the Royal stripling!
Which was which he could never make out Despite his best endeavour.
Of that there is no manner of doubt--
No probable, possible shadow of doubt--
No possible doubt whatever.
ALL.No possible doubt whatever.
Time sped, and when at the end of a year I sought that infant cherished, That highly respectable gondolier Was lying a corpse on his humble bier--I dropped a Grand Inquisitor's tear--That gondolier had perished.
A taste for drink, combined with gout, Had doubled him up for ever.
Of that there is no manner of doubt--
No probable, possible shadow of doubt--
No possible doubt whatever.
ALL.No possible doubt whatever.
The children followed his old career--
(This statement can't be parried)
Of a highly respectable gondolier:
Well, one of the two (who will soon be here)--But which of the two is not quite clear--Is the Royal Prince you married!
Search in and out and round about, And you'll discover never A tale so free from every doubt--All probable, possible shadow of doubt--All possible doubt whatever!
ALL.A tale free from every doubt, etc.
CAS.Then do you mean to say that I am married to one of two gondoliers, but it is impossible to say which?
DON AL.Without any doubt of any kind whatever.But be reassured: the nurse to whom your husband was entrusted is the mother of the musical young man who is such a past-master of that delicately modulated instrument (indicating the drum).She can, no doubt, establish the King's identity beyond all question.
LUIZ.Heavens, how did he know that?