Let it be done in secret. I would not----
Why do you gaze on me?

LERMA.
Your bloodshot eyes,
I mark, that beg repose. Dare I remind
My liege of an inestimable life,
And of your subjects, who with pale dismay
Would in such features read of restless nights?
But two brief hours of morning sleep would----

KING (with troubled look).
Shall I find sleep within the Escurial?
Let the king sleep, and he may lose his crown,
The husband, his wife's heart. But no! not so;
This is but slander. Was it not a woman
Whispered the crime to me? Woman, thy name
Is calumny? The deed I'll hold unproved,
Until a man confirms the fatal truth!

[To the pages, who in the meanwhile have awaked.

Summon Duke Alva!
[Pages go.

Count, come nearer to me.

[Fixes a searching look on the COUNT.

Is all this true? Oh for omniscience now,