The Cid Part 5

_Don Rodrigo._ No, no. This beloved one, whom I [could] so displease, cannot have too wrathful a desire for my punishment; and I avoid a hundred deaths which are going to crush me if, by dying sooner, I can redouble it [i.e. that wrath].

_Elvira._ Chimene is at the palace, bathed in tears, and will return but too well accompanied. Rodrigo, fly! for mercy's sake relieve me from my uneasiness! What might not people say if they saw you here? Do you wish that some slanderer, to crown her misery, should accuse her of tolerating here the slayer of her father? She will return; she is coming--I see her; at least, for the sake of _her_ honor, Rodrigo, conceal thyself! [_Rodrigo conceals himself._]

Scene II.--DON SANCHO, CHIMeNE, and ELVIRA.

_Don Sancho._ Yes, lady, you require a victim [or revenge] steeped in blood [_lit._ for you there is need of bleeding victims]; your wrath is just and your tears legitimate, and I do not attempt, by dint of speaking, either to soothe you or to console you. But, if I may be capable of serving you, employ my sword to punish the guilty [one], employ my love to revenge this death; under your commands my arm will be [only] too strong.

_Chimene._ Unhappy that I am!

_Don Sancho._ I implore you, accept my services.

_Chimene._ I should offend the King, who has promised me justice.

_Don Sancho._ You know that justice [_lit._ it] proceeds with such slowness, that very often crime escapes in consequence of its delay, its slow and doubtful course causes us to lose too many tears. Permit that a cavalier may avenge you by [force of] arms; that method is more certain and more prompt in punishing.

_Chimene._ It is the last remedy; and if it is necessary to have recourse to it, and your pity for my misfortunes still continues, you shall then be free to avenge my injury.

_Don Sancho._ It is the sole happiness to which my soul aspires; and, being able to hope for it, I depart too well contented.

Scene III.--CHIMeNE and ELVIRA.

_Chimene._ At last I see myself free, and I can, without constraint, show thee the extent of my keen sorrows; I can give vent to my sad sighs; I can unbosom to thee my soul and all my griefs. My father is dead, Elvira; and the first sword with which Rodrigo armed himself has cut his thread of life. Weep, weep, mine eyes, and dissolve yourselves into tears! The one half of my life [i.e. Rodrigo] has laid the other [half, i.e. my father] in the grave, and compels me to revenge, after this fatal blow, that which I have no more [i.e. my father] on that which still remains to me [i.e. Rodrigo].

_Elvira._ Calm yourself, dear lady.

_Chimene._ Ah! how unsuitably, in a misfortune so great, thou speakest of calmness. By what means can my sorrow ever be appeased, if I cannot hate the hand which has caused it? And what ought I to hope for but a never-ending anguish if I follow up a crime, still loving the criminal.

_Elvira._ He deprives you of a father, and you still love him?

_Chimene._ It is too little to say love, Elvira; I adore him! My pa.s.sion opposes itself to my resentment; in mine enemy I find my lover, and I feel that in spite of all my rage Rodrigo is still contending against my sire in my heart. He attacks it, he besieges it; it yields, it defends itself; at one time strong, at one time weak, at another triumphant. But in this severe struggle between wrath and love, he rends my heart without shaking my resolution, and although my love may have power over me, I do not consult it [_or_, hesitate] to follow my duty. I speed on [_lit._ run] without halting [_or_, weighing the consequences] where my honor compels me. Rodrigo is very dear to me; the interest I feel in him grieves me; my heart takes his part, but, in spite of its struggles, I know what I am [i.e. a daughter], and that my father is dead.

_Elvira._ Do you think of pursuing [_or_, persecuting] him?

_Chimene._ Ah! cruel thought! and cruel pursuit to which I see myself compelled. I demand his head [_or_, life] and I dread to obtain it; my death will follow his, and [yet] I wish to punish him!

_Elvira._ Abandon, abandon, dear lady, a design so tragic, and do not impose on yourself such a tyrannical law.

_Chimene._ What! my father being dead and almost in my arms--shall his blood cry for revenge and I not obtain it? My heart, shamefully led away by other spells, would believe that it owed him only ineffectual tears.

And can I endure that an insidious love, beneath a dastardly apathy, should extinguish my resolution [_lit._ beneath a cowardly silence extinguish my honor]?

_Elvira._ Dear lady, believe me, you would be excusable in having less wrath against an object so beloved, against a lover so dear; you have done enough, you have seen the King; do not urge on the result [of that interview]. Do not persist in this morbid [_lit._ strange] humor.

_Chimene._ My honor is at stake; I must avenge myself; and, however the desires of love may beguile us, all excuse [for not doing one's duty] is disgraceful to [i.e. in the estimation of] n.o.ble-minded souls.

_Elvira._ But you love Rodrigo--he cannot offend you.

_Chimene._ I confess it.

_Elvira._ After all, what then do you intend to do?

_Chimene._ To preserve my honor and to end my sorrow; to pursue him, to destroy him, and to die after him.

Scene IV.--DON RODRIGO, CHIMeNE, and ELVIRA.

_Don Rodrigo._ Well then, without giving you the trouble of pursuing me, secure for yourself the honor of preventing me from living.

_Chimene._ Elvira, where are we, and what do I see? Rodrigo in my house!

Rodrigo before me!

_Don Rodrigo._ Spare not my blood; enjoy [_lit._ taste], without resistance, the pleasure of my destruction and of your vengeance.

_Chimene._ Alas!

_Don Rodrigo._ Listen to me.

_Chimene._ I am dying.

_Don Rodrigo._ One moment.

_Chimene._ Go, let me die!

_Don Rodrigo._ Four words only; afterwards reply to me only with this sword!

_Chimene._ What! still imbrued with the blood of my father!

_Don Rodrigo._ My Chimene.

_Chimene._ Remove from my sight this hateful object, which brings as a reproach before mine eyes thy crime and thy existence.

_Don Rodrigo._ Look on it rather to excite thy hatred, to increase thy wrath and to hasten my doom.

_Chimene._ It is dyed with my [father's] blood!

_Don Rodrigo._ Plunge it in mine, and cause it thus to lose the death-stain of thine own.

_Chimene._ Ah! what cruelty, which all in one day slays the father by the sword [itself], and the daughter by the sight of it! Remove this object, I cannot endure it; thou wished me to listen to thee, and thou causest me to die!

_Don Rodrigo._ I do what thou wishest, but without abandoning the desire of ending by thy hands my lamentable life; for, in fine, do not expect [even] from my affection a dastardly repentance of a justifiable [_lit._ good] action. The irreparable effect of a too hasty excitement dishonored my father and covered me with shame. Thou knowest how a blow affects a man of courage. I shared in the insult, I sought out its author, I saw him, I avenged my honor and my father; I would do it again if I had it to do. Not that, indeed, my pa.s.sion did not long struggle for thee against my father and myself; judge of its power--under such an insult, I was able to deliberate whether I should take vengeance for it!

Compelled to displease thee or to endure an affront, I thought that in its turn my arm was too prompt [to strike]; I accused myself of too much impetuosity, and thy loveliness, without doubt, would have turned the scale [_or_, prevailed overall] had I not opposed to thy strongest attractions the [thought] that a man without honor would not merit thee; that, in spite of this share which I had in thy affections, she who loved me n.o.ble would hate me shamed; that to listen to thy love, to obey its voice, would be to render myself unworthy of it and to condemn thy choice. I tell thee still, and although I sigh at it, even to my last sigh I will a.s.suredly repeat it, I have committed an offence against thee, and I was driven to [_or_, bound to commit] it to efface my shame and to merit thee; but discharged [from my duty] as regards honor, and discharged [from duty] towards my father, it is now to thee that I come to give satisfaction--it is to offer to thee my blood that thou seest me in this place. I did my duty [_lit._ that which I ought to have done]

then, I still do it now. I know that a slain [_lit._ dead] father arms thee against my offence; I have not wished to rob thee of thy victim; sacrifice with courage to the blood he has lost he who const.i.tutes his glory in having shed it.

_Chimene._ Ah, Rodrigo, it is true, although thine enemy, I cannot blame thee for having shunned disgrace; and in whatever manner my griefs burst forth I do not accuse [thee], I [only] lament my misfortunes. I know what honor after such an insult demanded with ardor of a generous courage; thou hast only done the duty of a man of honor, but also in doing that [duty] thou hast taught me mine. Thy fatal valor has instructed me by thy victory--it has avenged thy father and maintained thy glory. The same care concerns me, and I have to add to my infliction [_lit._ to afflict me] my fame to sustain and my father to avenge. Alas!