Anselmo, hidden behind some tapestries where he had concealedhimself, beheld and was amazed at all, and already felt that what hehad seen and heard was a sufficient answer to even greater suspicions;and he would have been now well pleased if the proof afforded byLothario's coming were dispensed with, as he feared some suddenmishap; but as he was on the point of showing himself and coming forthto embrace and undeceive his wife he paused as he saw Leonelareturning, leading Lothario. Camilla when she saw him, drawing along line in front of her on the floor with the dagger, said to him,"Lothario, pay attention to what I say to thee: if by any chancethou darest to cross this line thou seest, or even approach it, theinstant I see thee attempt it that same instant will I pierce my bosomwith this dagger that I hold in my hand; and before thou answerestme a word desire thee to listen to a few from me, and afterwardsthou shalt reply as may please thee. First, I desire thee to tellme, Lothario, if thou knowest my husband Anselmo, and in what lightthou regardest him; and secondly I desire to know if thou knowest metoo. Answer me this, without embarrassment or reflecting deeply whatthou wilt answer, for they are no riddles I put to thee."
Lothario was not so dull but that from the first moment when Camilladirected him to make Anselmo hide himself he understood what sheintended to do, and therefore he fell in with her idea so readilyand promptly that between them they made the imposture look moretrue than truth; so he answered her thus: "I did not think, fairCamilla, that thou wert calling me to ask questions so remote from theobject with which I come; but if it is to defer the promised rewardthou art doing so, thou mightst have put it off still longer, forthe longing for happiness gives the more distress the nearer comes thehope of gaining it; but lest thou shouldst say that I do not answerthy questions, I say that I know thy husband Anselmo, and that we haveknown each other from our earliest years; I will not speak of whatthou too knowest, of our friendship, that I may not compel myself totestify against the wrong that love, the mighty excuse for greatererrors, makes me inflict upon him. Thee I know and hold in the sameestimation as he does, for were it not so I had not for a lesser prizeacted in opposition to what I owe to my station and the holy laws oftrue friendship, now broken and violated by me through that powerfulenemy, love."
"If thou dost confess that," returned Camilla, "mortal enemy ofall that rightly deserves to be loved, with what face dost thou dareto come before one whom thou knowest to be the mirror wherein he isreflected on whom thou shouldst look to see how unworthily thou him?But, woe is me, I now comprehend what has made thee give so littleheed to what thou owest to thyself; it must have been some freedomof mine, for I will not call it immodesty, as it did not proceedfrom any deliberate intention, but from some heedlessness such aswomen are guilty of through inadvertence when they think they haveno occasion for reserve. But tell me, traitor, when did I by word orsign give a reply to thy prayers that could awaken in thee a shadow ofhope of attaining thy base wishes? When were not thy professions oflove sternly and scornfully rejected and rebuked? When were thyfrequent pledges and still more frequent gifts believed or accepted?But as I am persuaded that no one can long persevere in the attempt towin love unsustained by some hope, I am willing to attribute to myselfthe blame of thy assurance, for no doubt some thoughtlessness ofmine has all this time fostered thy hopes; and therefore will I punishmyself and inflict upon myself the penalty thy guilt deserves. Andthat thou mayest see that being so relentless to myself I cannotpossibly be otherwise to thee, I have summoned thee to be a witness ofthe sacrifice I mean to offer to the injured honour of my honouredhusband, wronged by thee with all the assiduity thou wert capableof, and by me too through want of caution in avoiding everyoccasion, if I have given any, of encouraging and sanctioning thy basedesigns. Once more I say the suspicion in my mind that some imprudenceof mine has engendered these lawless thoughts in thee, is whatcauses me most distress and what I desire most to punish with my ownhands, for were any other instrument of punishment employed my errormight become perhaps more widely known; but before I do so, in mydeath I mean to inflict death, and take with me one that will fullysatisfy my longing for the revenge I hope for and have; for I shallsee, wheresoever it may be that I go, the penalty awarded byinflexible, unswerving justice on him who has placed me in aposition so desperate."
As she uttered these words, with incredible energy and swiftness sheflew upon Lothario with the naked dagger, so manifestly bent onburying it in his breast that he was almost uncertain whether thesedemonstrations were real or feigned, for he was obliged to haverecourse to all his skill and strength to prevent her from strikinghim; and with such reality did she act this strange farce andmystification that, to give it a colour of truth, she determined tostain it with her own blood; for perceiving, or pretending, that shecould not wound Lothario, she said, "Fate, it seems, will not grant myjust desire complete satisfaction, but it will not be able to keepme from satisfying it partially at least;" and making an effort tofree the hand with the dagger which Lothario held in his grasp, shereleased it, and directing the point to a place where it could notinflict a deep wound, she plunged it into her left side high upclose to the shoulder, and then allowed herself to fall to theground as if in a faint.
Leonela and Lothario stood amazed and astounded at thecatastrophe, and seeing Camilla stretched on the ground and bathedin her blood they were still uncertain as to the true nature of theact. Lothario, terrified and breathless, ran in haste to pluck out thedagger; but when he saw how slight the wound was he was relieved ofhis fears and once more admired the subtlety, coolness, and readywit of the fair Camilla; and the better to support the part he hadto play he began to utter profuse and doleful lamentations over herbody as if she were dead, invoking maledictions not only on himselfbut also on him who had been the means of placing him in such aposition: and knowing that his friend Anselmo heard him he spoke insuch a way as to make a listener feel much more pity for him thanfor Camilla, even though he supposed her dead. Leonela took her upin her arms and laid her on the bed, entreating Lothario to go inquest of some one to attend to her wound in secret, and at the sametime asking his advice and opinion as to what they should say toAnselmo about his lady's wound if he should chance to return before itwas healed. He replied they might say what they liked, for he wasnot in a state to give advice that would be of any use; all he couldtell her was to try and stanch the blood, as he was going where heshould never more be seen; and with every appearance of deep grief andsorrow he left the house; but when he found himself alone, and wherethere was nobody to see him, he crossed himself unceasingly, lost inwonder at the adroitness of Camilla and the consistent acting ofLeonela. He reflected how convinced Anselmo would be that he had asecond Portia for a wife, and he looked forward anxiously to meetinghim in order to rejoice together over falsehood and truth the mostcraftily veiled that could be imagined.
Leonela, as he told her, stanched her lady's blood, which was nomore than sufficed to support her deception; and washing the woundwith a little wine she bound it up to the best of her skill, talkingall the time she was tending her in a strain that, even if nothingelse had been said before, would have been enough to assure Anselmothat he had in Camilla a model of purity. To Leonela's words Camillaadded her own, calling herself cowardly and wanting in spirit, sinceshe had not enough at the time she had most need of it to ridherself of the life she so much loathed. She asked her attendant'sadvice as to whether or not she ought to inform her beloved husband ofall that had happened, but the other bade her say nothing about it, asshe would lay upon him the obligation of taking vengeance on Lothario,which he could not do but at great risk to himself; and it was theduty of a true wife not to give her husband provocation to quarrel,but, on the contrary, to remove it as far as possible from him.
Camilla replied that she believed she was right and that she wouldfollow her advice, but at any rate it would be well to consider howshe was to explain the wound to Anselmo, for he could not helpseeing it; to which Leonela answered that she did not know how to tella lie even in jest.
"How then can I know, my dear?" said Camilla, "for I should not dareto forge or keep up a falsehood if my life depended on it. If we canthink of no escape from this difficulty, it will be better to tell himthe plain truth than that he should find us out in an untrue story."
"Be not uneasy, senora," said Leonela; "between this and to-morrow Iwill think of what we must say to him, and perhaps the wound beingwhere it is it can be hidden from his sight, and Heaven will bepleased to aid us in a purpose so good and honourable. Composeyourself, senora, and endeavour to calm your excitement lest my lordfind you agitated; and leave the rest to my care and God's, who alwayssupports good intentions."
Anselmo had with the deepest attention listened to and seen playedout the tragedy of the death of his honour, which the performers actedwith such wonderfully effective truth that it seemed as if they hadbecome the realities of the parts they played. He longed for night andan opportunity of escaping from the house to go and see his goodfriend Lothario, and with him give vent to his joy over the preciouspearl he had gained in having established his wife's purity. Bothmistress and maid took care to give him time and opportunity to getaway, and taking advantage of it he made his escape, and at oncewent in quest of Lothario, and it would be impossible to describehow he embraced him when he found him, and the things he said to himin the joy of his heart, and the praises he bestowed upon Camilla; allwhich Lothario listened to without being able to show any pleasure,for he could not forget how deceived his friend was, and howdishonourably he had wronged him; and though Anselmo could see thatLothario was not glad, still he imagined it was only because he hadleft Camilla wounded and had been himself the cause of it; and soamong other things he told him not to be distressed about Camilla'saccident, for, as they had agreed to hide it from him, the wound wasevidently trifling; and that being so, he had no cause for fear, butshould henceforward be of good cheer and rejoice with him, seeing thatby his means and adroitness he found himself raised to the greatestheight of happiness that he could have ventured to hope for, anddesired no better pastime than making verses in praise of Camilla thatwould preserve her name for all time to come. Lothario commended hispurpose, and promised on his own part to aid him in raising a monumentso glorious.