The ambition and selfish passion of these two men are enlisted against her.

Perez is determined to marry her; her father is determined to sweep Macias out of the path of his own political advancement.

The intrigue devised between the two is perfectly successful.

Macias is enticed away; Elvira, forced to believe that she is deserted and betrayed, is half driven, half entrapped, into a marriage with Perez; and Macias, returning to claim her against a hundred obstacles, meets the wedding party on their way back to the palace of the Duke.

The rest of the play represented, of course, the struggle between the contending forces thus developed.