CXXXVIII.

By this time Don Alfonso was arrived,

With torches, friends, and servants in great number; The major part of them had long been wived,

And therefore paused not to disturb the slumber

Of any wicked woman, who contrived

By stealth her husband's temples to encumber:
Examples of this kind are so contagious,
Were one not punish'd, all would be outrageous.

CXXXIX.

I can't tell how, or why, or what suspicion

Could enter into Don Alfonso's head;

But for a cavalier of his condition

It surely was exceedingly ill-bred,
Without a word of previous admonition,

To hold a levee round his lady's bed,
And summon lackeys, arm'd with fire and sword,
To prove himself the thing he most abhorr❜d.

CXL.

Poor Donna Julia! starting as from sleep,
(Mind-that I do not say-she had not slept)
Began at once to scream, and yawn, and weep;
Her maid Antonia, who was an adept,
Contrived to fling the bed-clothes in a heap,

As if she had just now from out them crept :
I can't tell why she should take all this trouble
To prove her mistress had been sleeping double.

CXLI.

But Julia mistress, and Antonia maid,

Appear'd like two poor harmless women, who

Of goblins, but still more of men afraid,

Had thought one man might be deterr'd by two, And therefore side by side were gently laid,

Until the hours of absence should run through,

And truant husband should return, and say,

My dear, I was the first who came away.'

CXLII.

Now Julia found at length a voice, and cried,

"In heaven's name, Don Alfonso, what d'ye mean? "Has madness seized you? would that I had died "Ere such a monster's victim I had been! "What may this midnight violence betide,

"A sudden fit of drunkenness or spleen?

"Dare you suspect me, whom the thought would kill? "Search, then, the room!"-Alfonso said, "I will."

CXLIII.

He search'd, they search'd, and rummaged every where, Closet and clothes'-press, chest and window-seat,

And found much linen, lace, and several pair

Of stockings, slippers, brushes, combs, complete, With other articles of ladies fair,

To keep them beautiful, or leave them neat: Arras they prick'd and curtains with their swords, And wounded several shutters, and some boards.

CXLIV.

Under the bed they search'd, and there they found

No matter what-it was not that they sought; They open'd windows, gazing if the ground

Had signs or footmarks, but the earth said nought; And then they stared each others' faces round: "Tis odd, not one of all these seekers thought,

And seems to me almost a sort of blunder,

Of looking in the bed as well as under.

CXLV.

During this inquisition Julia's tongue

Was not asleep-“Yes, search and search,” she cried, "Insult on insult heap, and wrong on wrong!

"It was for this that I became a bride!

"For this in silence I have suffer'd long
"A husband like Alfonso at my side;
"But now I'll bear no more, nor here remain,
"If there be law, or lawyers, in all Spain.

CXLVI

"Yes, Don Alfonso! husband now no more, "If ever you indeed deserved the name,

"Is 't worthy of your years?-you have threescore, Fifty, or sixty-it is all the same—

"Is 't wise or fitting causeless to explore

"For facts against a virtuous woman's fame? "Ungrateful, perjured, barbarous Don Alfonso, "How dare you think your lady would go on so?

CXLVII.

"Is it for this I have disdain'd to hold

"The common privileges of my sex?

"That I have chosen a confessor so old
"And deaf, that any other it would vex,
"And never once he has had cause to scold,

"But found my very innocence perplex
"So much, he always doubted I was married-
"How sorry you will be when I've miscarried!