Are you not
satisfied, and do not these generous endeavours place me under strong
obligations to you? Would you, my Lord, obstinately persist in swaying
my whole fate? Must I never receive even the slightest kindness unless
from you? Ah! amidst these misfortunes, which seem to be my fate, suffer
me to owe also something to another, and do not complain that another
arm acquired some glory, when you were absent.
ALPH. Yes, Madam, I ought to cease complaining; you are quite right when
you tell me so; we unjustly complain of one misfortune, when a much
greater threatens to afflict us. This succour from a rival is a cruel
mortification to me: but, alas! this is not the greatest of my
misfortunes; the blow, the severe blow which crushes me, is to see that
rival preferred to me. Yes, I but too plainly perceive that his greater
reputation was the reason that his love was preferred to mine; that
opportunity of serving you, the advantage he possessed of signalizing
his prowess, that brilliant exploit which he performed in saving you,
was nothing but the mere effect of being happy enough to please you, the
secret power of a wonderful astral influence which causes the object you
love to become famed. Thus all my efforts will be in vain.
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