ABBOT OF SAINT MAURICE. Alas! lost mortal! what with guests like these MANFRED. Pronounce-what is thy mission? SPIRIT. ABBOT OF SAINT MAURICE. Come! What art thou, unknown being! answer-speak! SPIRIT. The genius of this mortal.-Come! 'tis time. MANFRED. I am prepared for all things, but deny The power which summons me. Who sent thee here? SPIRIT. Thou'lt know anon-Come! come! MANFRED. I have commanded Things of an essence greater far than thine, SPIRIT. Mortal! thine hour is come-Away! I say. MANFRED. I knew and know my hour is come, but not -- SPIRIT. Then I must summon up my brethren.-Rise! (Other Spirits rise up.) ABBOT OF SAINT MAURICE. Avaunt! ye evil ones!-Avaunt! I say,- SPIRIT. Old man! We know ourselves, our mission, and thine order; MANFRED. I do defy ye, though I feel my soul SPIRIT. Reluctant mortal! Is this the Magian who would so pervade Almost our equal?-Can it be that thou MANFRED. life Thou false fiend, thou liest! My life is in its last hour,—that I know, And gave ye no supremacy; I stand Upon my strength-I do defy-denySpurn back, and scorn ye! Have made thee SPIRIT. But thy many crimes MANFRED. What are they to such as thee? Must crimes be punish'd but by other crimes, A torture which could nothing gain from thine : Is its own origin of ill and end— And its own place and time—its innate sense, When stripp'd of this mortality, derives Born from the knowledge of its own desert. Thou didst not tempt me, and thou could'st not tempt me; I have not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey But was my own destroyer, and will be My own hereafter.-Back, ye baffled fiends! (The demons disappear.) ABBOT OF SAINT MAURICE. Alas! how pale thou art-thy lips are white- MANFRED. "Tis over-my dull eyes can fix thee not; ABBOT OF SAINT MAURICE. Cold-cold-even to the heart- But yet one prayer-alas! how fares it with thee?- MANFRED. Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die. (MANFRED expires.) ABBOT OF SAINT MAURICE. He's gone-his soul hath ta'en its earthless flight- NOTES Note 1, page 66, line 4. -the sunbow's rays still arch The torrent with the many hues of heaven. This iris is formed by the rays of the sun over the lower part of the Alpine torrents: it is exactly like a rainbow, come down to pay a visit, and so close that you may walk into it :-this effect lasts till noon. Note 2, page 69, line 15. He who from out their fountain dwellings raised The philosopher Jamblicus. The story of the raising of Eros and Anteros may be found in his life, by Eunapius. It is well told. Note 3, page 73, line 19. -she replied In words of dubious import, but fulfill'd. The story of Pausanias, king of Sparta, (who commanded the Greeks at the battle of Platea, and afterwards perished for an attempt to betray the Lacedemonians) and Cleonice,' is told in Plutarch's life of Cimon; and in the Laconics of Pausanias the Sophist, in his description of Greece. Note 4, page 94, line 13. -the giant sons Of the embrace of angels. << That the Sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, » etc. « There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the Sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. » Genesis, ch. vj. verses 2 and 4. |