Following Antonia's motions here and there, 1275 With much suspicion in his attitude; For reputations he had little care; So that a suit or action were made good, Small pity had he for the young and fair, And ne'er believed in negatives, till these 1280 Were proved by competent false witnesses. 161 But Don Alfonso stood with downcast looks, And, truth to say, he made a foolish figure; When, after searching in five hundred nooks, And treating a young wife with so much rigour, 1285 He gain'd no point, except some self-rebukes, Added to those his lady with such vigour Had pour'd upon him for the last half-hour, Quick, thick, and heavy?as a thunder-shower. 162 At first he tried to hammer an excuse, 1290 To which the sole reply was tears, and sobs,
7. Servants, so named for the followers Achilles Aeneid, whose loyalty to Aeneas has become pro- led to the Trojan War. verbial. 8. The fidus Achates ('faithful Achates') ofVirgil's
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68 8 / GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
1295And indications of hysterics, whose Prologue is always certain throes, and throbs, Gasps, and whatever else the owners choose:? Alfonso saw his wife, and thought of Job's;9 He saw too, in perspective, her relations, And then he tried to muster all his patience. 163 1300He stood in act to speak, or rather stammer, But sage Antonia cut him short before The anvil of his speech received the hammer, With 'Pray sir, leave the room, and say no more, Or madam dies.'?Alfonso mutter'd 'D?n her,' But nothing else, the time of words was o'er; He cast a rueful look or two, and did, He knew not wherefore, that which he was bid. 164 1305 With him retired his 'posse comitatus,'' The attorney last, who linger'd near the door, Reluctantly, still tarrying there as late as Antonia let him?not a little sore 1310At this most strange and unexplain'd 'hiatus' In Don Alfonso's facts, which just now wore An awkward look; as he resolved the case The door was fasten'd in his legal face. 165 No sooner was it bolted, than?Oh shame! Oh sin! Oh sorrow! and Oh womankind! 13151320 How can you do such things and keep your fame, Unless this world, and t'other too, be blind? Nothing so dear as an unfilch'd good name! But to proceed?for there is more behind: With much heart-felt reluctance be it said, Young Juan slipp'd, half-smother'd, from the bed. 166 1325He had been hid?I don't pretend to say How, nor can I indeed describe the where? Young, slender, and pack'd easily, he lay, No doubt, in little compass, round or square; But pity him I neither must nor may His suffocation by that pretty pair; 'Twere better, sure, to die so, than be shut With maudlin Clarence in his Malmsey butt.2 $ $ $
9. Job's wife advised her afflicted husband to 'curse God, and die,' He replied, 'Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh' (Job 2.9? 10).
1. The complete form of the modern word posse (posse comitatus means literally 'power of the county' [Latin], i.e., the body of citizens summoned by a sheriff to preserve order in the county).
2. Clarence, brother of Edward IV and of the future Richard III, was reputed to have been assassinated by being drowned in a cask ('butt') of malmsey, a sweet and aromatic wine.
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DON JUAN, CANTO 1 / 689
169
What's to be done? Alfonso will be back
The moment he has sent his fools away.
Antonia's skill was put upon the rack,
But no device could be brought into play?
And how to parry the renew'd attack?
Besides, it wanted but few hours of day:
Antonia puzzled; Julia did not speak,
But press'd her bloodless lip to Juan's cheek.
170
He turn'd his lip to hers, and with his hand
Call'd back the tangles of her wandering hair;
Even then their love they could not all command,
And half forgot their danger and despair:
Antonia's patience now was at a stand?
'Come, come,'tis no time now for fooling there,'
She whisper'd, in great wrath?'I must deposit
This pretty gentleman within the closet.'
173 1380Now, Don Alfonso entering, but alone, Closed the oration of the trusty maid: She loiter'd, and he told her to be gone, An order somewhat sullenly obey'd; However, present remedy was none, And no great good seem'd answer'd if she staid: Regarding both with slow and sidelong view, She snuff'd the candle, curtsied, and withdrew. 174 13851390 Alfonso paused a minute?then begun Some strange excuses for his late proceeding; He would not justify what he had done, To say the best, it was extreme ill-breeding; But there were ample reasons for it, none Of which he specified in this his pleading: His speech was a fine sample, on the whole, Of rhetoric, which the learn'd call 'rigmarole.'
180
Alfonso closed his speech, and begg'd her pardon,
Which Julia half withheld, and then half granted,
1435 And laid conditions, he thought, very hard on,
Denying several little things he wanted:
