_Phil._ On your account I have been accessory to the ruin of my daughter.
_Phil._ Yes; the machine I contrived for you has fallen on my own head.
_Mar._ Fortunately my master's skull is reasonably thick.
_Cost._ I understand nothing of all this.
_Phil._ I will tell you plainly and distinctly the whole affair. Know then--
_Ric._ [_To Costanza._] What are you doing here?
_Cost._ Sir, you have never forbidden my coming here.
_Ric._ Well, now I forbid it. I know what you have come for; I know your love for the foreigner, and your schemes against my authority and your own honour.
_Phil._ [_To_ Riccardo, _with asperity._] You know nothing. If you knew as much as I do, you would not speak so.
_Ric._ I speak so in consequence of what you told me this morning, and no light matter it is; enough to make me forbid my daughter's coming to your house.
_Mar._ Are you afraid they will marry her against your wishes?
_Mar._ Listen to me: if she does not marry my master, there is nobody else here for her to marry.
_Ric._ Where is the Frenchman--the officer?
_Mar._ Know, then, the officer has presumed to marry my young mistress.
_Cost._ This is the wrong I apprehended. Ah, my father, resent the insult they have offered to me! They have made use of me to accomplish their designs; they have flattered me to expose me to ridicule; and the injury I have received is an insult to our family.
_Ric._ Yes, I will resent the insult they have offered to me. You I will send to a convent; and Monsieur Philibert makes amends for his offence by his own shame.
_Phil._ [_Aside._] Quite right--I deserve yet more.
_Cost._ [_Aside._] Wretched me! to what am I brought by my passion, my wretchedness, and disobedience!
_Phil._ My dear friend, excuse my impatient manner. I acknowledge the injustice I have done you, and Heaven punishes me rightly for my improper intentions. Ah, Monsieur Riccardo, I have lost my daughter!--I contrived my own disgrace!
_Ric._ Lost! she is only married--not entirely lost.
_Phil._ I fear I shall never see her again. Who knows but that monster has already carried her away? I gave him five hundred guineas to carry away my heart--my daughter--my only daughter--my love--my only love! Ah, could I embrace her once more! I wish to know if she is gone; I want to see her again. If she is gone, I will kill myself with my own hand. [_Going, meets his daughter._]