As the lovely slave expressed no objection to receive her countryman: "I go," resumed the Dey, "to send him to you: may he, by the information he conveys, serve to relieve you of your troubles!" He left her as he spoke; and as he went out, meeting the Toledan, said to him in a low voice: "Enter! and when you have communicated what I desire, come to my cabinet and inform me of the result."
Zarata entered as he was directed, closed the door, and bowed before the favoured slave, who returned his salute, without either particularly observing the other. When, however, their eyes at last met, a cry of surprise and joy escaped them both: "Oh Heaven!" exclaimed the Toledan, approaching the captive, "is it not a vision that deceives mine eyes? Can it be the Donna Theodora whom I see?" "Ah! Don Juan," ere he had uttered these words, cried the lady he addressed, "is it indeed yourself who speaks to me?" "Yes, madam," replied the Toledan, while he fell upon his knee and tenderly kissed her hand, "it is Don Juan. Let these tears, that my eyes, rejoiced to behold you again, cannot restrain; let this transport, that you alone can excite in the heart of him who kneels before you, witness for my presence! I murmur no longer against my destiny, since it conducts me to you--Alas! what does my ecstacy inspire? I forget that you are in chains. By what unhappy chance do I find you here? How have you escaped from the frantic passion of Alvaro? Ah, what horror fills my soul to mention his very name! How do I tremble to learn the fate for which Heaven reserved you, when it abandoned you to his perfidy!"
[Illustration: Don Juan kisses Donna Theodora's hand]
"Heaven," replied the Donna Theodora, "has avenged me on Alvaro Ponza. Had I but time to relate to you----" "Time!" interrupted Don Juan,--"you have plenty, and to spare. The Dey himself permitted me to see you, and, what may well surprise you, alone. Profit by the happy moments which his confidence affords, and inform me of all that has happened to you since you were carried off by Alvaro." "And who, then, told you that it was by him I was taken away?" inquired Donna Theodora. "Alas! madam, I know it but too well," replied the Toledan. He then shortly narrated the manner in which he had become acquainted with Alvaro's design, and had witnessed its execution; how Mendoza and himself had followed him in the hope of preserving her from his violence, or to revenge it; and of their unfortunate, but for this meeting, encounter with the pirates, and its consequence.