SCENE VII.--DON GARCIA, DON LOPEZ.


LOP. My Lord, I have to communicate to you a secret that may justly
alarm your love.

GARC. Do not talk to me of secrets or alarms, whilst I am in such a
blissful rapture. After what has just taken place, I ought not to listen
to any suspicions. The unequalled kindness of a divine object ought to
shut my ears against all such idle reports. Do not say anything more.

LOP. My Lord, I shall do as you wish; my only care in this business was
for you. I thought that the secret I just discovered ought to be
communicated with all diligence; but since it is your pleasure I should
not mention it, I shall change the conversation, and inform you that
every family in Leon threw off the mask, as soon as the report spread
that the troops of Castile were approaching; the lower classes
especially show openly such an affection for their true King, that the
tyrant trembles for fear.

GARC. Castile, however, shall not gain the victory without our making an
attempt to share in the glory; our troops may also be able to terrify
Mauregat. But what secret would you communicate to me? Let us hear it?

LOP. My Lord, I have nothing to say.

[Footnote: Compare Iago's reticence in Shakespeare's _Othello_ (iii.