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A barrier placed, which all my feeble strength
Could not o'erleap, therefore I have consented.

ANTONIO.

Consented! O to what hast thou consented?

To more than the rejecting of my love,
Which thy ambitious sister, since the day
That raised her, as the wife of Don Henriquez
To greatness, which she knows not how to bear,
Regards as too presumptuous. Thou art silent.
To more than this hast thou consented, Mencia?

MENCIA.

Question me not; I cannot tell thee now;

Yet thou shouldst know. I have, alas! I have,
O'ercome by prayers, and wearied with contention,
Consented to bestow my luckless hand
On one who tried, but could not win my heart,
And I am bound———

ANTONIO.

Thou art not! no, thou art not!

MENCIA.

Alas, I am! and so will hold myself.

ANTONIO.

Thou shalt not! Hold'st thou sacred every tie

But those that bind thee to thy earliest friend;
To him who was thy playmate and thy guard;
Who through thy native woods ran by thy side;