Mar. But when you were an outcast? - Heaven is
just;
Your piety would not miss its due reward;
The little orphan then would be your succour,
And do good service, though she knew it not.
Her. I turned me from the dwellings of my fathers,
Where none but those who trampled on my rights
Seemed to remember me. To the wide world
I bore her, in my arms; her looks won pity;
She was my raven in the wilderness,
And brought me food. Have I not cause to love her?
Mar. Yes.
Her.
More than ever parent loved a child?
I will not murmur, merciful God!
I will not murmur; blasted as I have been,
Thou hast left me ears to hear my daughter's voice,
And arms to fold her to my heart. Submissively
Thee I adore, and find my rest in faith.
Osw. Herbert!-confusion! (aside.) Here it is,
my friend,
[Presents the Horn.
A charming beverage for you to carouse,
This bitter night.
Ha! Oswald! ten bright crosses
I would have given, not many minutes gone,
To have heard your voice.
Did not admit of stronger evidence;
Fallen should I be indeed-
Murder perhaps asleep, blind, old, alone,
Betrayed, in darkness! Here to strike the blow
Away! away!-
[Flings away his sword.
Nay, I have done with you:
We'll lead him to the convent. He shall live,
And she shall love him. With unquestioned title
Your couch, I fear, good Baron, He shall be seated in his barony,
Has been but comfortless; and yet that place,
When the tempestuous wind first drove us hither,
Felt warm as a wren's nest. You'd better turn
And under covert rest till break of day,
Or till the storm abate.
(To MARMADUKE aside.) He has restored you.
No doubt you have been nobly entertained?
But soft! - how came he forth? The night-mare con-
science
Has driven him out of harbour?
You have guessed right.
Her.
And we too chant the praise of his good deeds.
I now perceive we do mistake our masters,
And most despise the men who best can teach us.
Henceforth it shall be said that bad men only
Are brave: Clifford is brave; and that old man
Is brave.
[Taking MARMADUKE's sword and giving it to him.
To Clifford's arms he would have led
His victim- haply to this desolate house.
Mar. (advancing to the dungeon.) It must be
ended!-
Softly; do not rouse him;
The trees renew their murmur: He will deny it to the lust. He lies
Within the vault, a spear's length to the left.
Come, let us house together.
[OSWALD conducts him to the dungeon.
Had I not
Osw. (returns.)
Esteemed you worthy to conduct the affair
To its most fit conclusion, do you think
I would so long have struggled with my nature,
And smothered all that's man in me? - away!-
[Looking towards the dungeon.
This man's the property of him who best
Can feel his crimes. I have resigned a privilege;
It now becomes my duty to resume it.
Mar. Touch not a finger-
Osw.
What then must be done?
Mar. Which way soe'er I turn, I am perplexed.
Osw. Now, on my life, I grieve for you. The misery
Of doubt is insupportable. Pity, the facts
[MARMADUKE descends to the dungeon. (Alone.) The villains rose in mutiny to destroy me; I could have quelled the cowards, but this stripling Must needs step in, and save my life. The look With which he gave the boon- I see it now! The same that tempted me to loathe the gift.For this old venerable grey-beard faith "T is his own fault if he hath got a face Which doth play tricks with them that look on it: "T was this that put it in my thoughts that counte
To thank me for this service. Rainbow arches,
Highways of dreaming passion have too long,
Young as he is, diverted wish and hope
From the unpretending ground we mortals tread; -
Then shatter the delusion, break it up
And set him free. What follows? I have learned
That things will work to ends the slaves o' the world
Do never dream of. I have been what he-
This boy when he comes forth with bloody hands-
Might envy, and am now, but he shall know
What I am now - [Goes and listens at the dungeon.
Praying or parleying? -tut!
Mar. Though but a glimpse, it sent me to my prayers.
Osw. Is he alive?
Mar.
What mean you? who alive?
Osw. Herbert! since you will have it, Baron Herbert;
He who will gain his Seignory when Idonea
Hath become Clifford's harlot is he living?
Mar. The old man in that dungeon is alive.
Osw. Henceforth, then, will I never in camp or field
Obey you more. Your weakness, to the Band,
Shall be proclaimed: brave men, they all shall hear it.
Enter female Beggar with two or three of her com- You a protector of humanity!
Mar.
And when I felt your hand upon my arm
And spake to you, why did you give no answer?
Feared you to waken him? he must have been
In a deep sleep. I whispered to him thrice.
There are the strangest echoes in that place!
Osw. Tut! let them gabble till the day of doom.
Mar. Scarcely, by groping, had I reached the spot,
When round my wrist I felt a cord drawn tight,
As if the blind man's dog were pulling at it.
Osw. But after that?
Avenger you of outraged innocence!
Mar. "T was dark-dark as the grave; yet did I see,
Saw him- his face turned toward me; and I tell thee
Idonea's filial countenance was there
To baffle me - it put me to my prayers.
Upwards I cast my eyes, and, through a crevice,
Beheld a star twinkling above my head,
And, by the living God, I could not do it.
[Sinks exhausted. Osw. (to himself.) Now may I perish if this turn do more
Than make me change my course.
(To MARMADUKE.)
My words were rashly spoken; I recal them:
I feel my error; shedding blood
Is a most serious thing.
Thou too art deep in guilt.
We have indeed
Been most presumptuous. There is guilt in this,
Else could so strong a mind have ever known
These trepidations? Plain it is that Heaven
Has marked out this foul wretch as one whose crimes
Must never come before a mortal judgment-seat,
Or be chastised by mortal instruments.
Mar. A thought that's worth a thousand worlds! [Goes toward the dungeon. I grieve That, in my zeal, I have caused you so much pain. Mar. Think not of that! 't is over- we are safe. Osw. (as if to himself, yet speaking aloud.) The truth is hideous, but how stifle it?
The least of which would beat out a man's brains;
Or you might drive your head against that wall.
No! this is not the place to hear the tale:
It should be told you pinioned in your bed,
Or on some vast and solitary plain
Blown to you from a trumpet.
Mar.
Why talk thus?
Whate'er the monster brooding in your breast
I care not: fear I have none, and cannot fear
[The sound of a horn is heard. That horn again - "T is some one of our troop; What do they here? Listen! Osw.
Should he resolve to taint her soul by means
What! dogged like thieves! Which bathe the limbs in sweat to think of them;
Should he, by tales which would draw tears from iron,
Work on her nature, and so turn compassion
Enter WALLACE and LACY, &c.
Lacy. You are found at last, thanks to the vagrant And gratitude to ministers of vice, troop
And make the spotless spirit of filial love Prime mover in a plot to damn his victim
Osw. (looking at WALLACE.) That subtle grey- Both soul and body
But at the surfaces of things; we hear
Of towns in flames, fields ravaged, young and old
Driven out in troops to want and nakedness;
Then grasp our swords and rush upon a cure
That flatters us, because it asks not thought:
The deeper malady is better hid;
The world is poisoned at the heart.
Lacy.
What mean you!
Wal. (whose eye has been fixed suspiciously upon
OSWALD.) Ay, what is it you mean?
Harkee, my friends; —
[Appearing gay.
Were there a man who, being weak and helpless
And most forlorn, should bribe a mother, pressed
By penury to yield him up her daughter,
A little infant, and instruct the babe,
Prattling upon his knee, to call him father
Osw. (coming forward.)
Or own we baby spirits? Genuine courage
Is not an accidental quality,
A thing dependent for its casual birth
On opposition and impediment.
Wisdom, if Justice speak the word, beats down
The giant's strength; and, at the voice of Justice,
Spares not the worm. The giant and the worm —
She weighs them in one scale. The wiles of woman,
And craft of age, seducing reason, first
Made weakness a protection, and obscured
The moral shapes of things. His tender cries
And helpless innocence-do they protect
The infant lamb? and shall the infirmities,
Which have enabled this enormous culprit
To perpetrate his crimes, serve as a sanctuary
To cover him from punishment? Shame! - Justice,
Admitting no resistance, bends alike
The feeble and the strong. She needs not here
Her bonds and chains, which make the mighty feeble.
— We recognise in this old man a victim
Prepared already for the sacrifice.
Lacy. By heaven, his words are reason!
Osw.
Yes, my friends,
His countenance is meek and venerable;
And, by the Mass, to see him at his prayers!—
I am of flesh and blood, and may I perish
When my heart does not ache to think of it!-
Poor victim! not a virtue under heaven
But what was made an engine to ensnare thee;
But yet I trust, Idonea, thou art safe.
Lacy. Idonea!
Wal.
How! what? your Idonea? [To MARMADUER
"Tis nobly thought;
His death will be a monument for ages.
SCENE, a desolate Moor.
OSWALD (alone.)
Osw. Carry him to the camp! Yes, to the camp.
O, Wisdom! a most wise resolve! and then,
That half a word should blow it to the winds!
This last device must end my work.- Methinks
It were a pleasant pastime to construct
A scale and table of belief-as thus-
Two columns, one for passion, one for proof;
Each rises as the other falls: and first,
Passion a unit and against us-proof—
Nay, we must travel in another path,
Or we're stuck fast for ever;- passion then,
Shall be a unit for us; proof-no, passion!
We'll not insult thy majesty by time,
Person, and place the where, the when, the how,
And all particulars that dull brains require
To constitute the spiritless shape of Fact,
They bow to, calling the idol, Demonstration.
A whipping to the moralists who preach
That misery is a sacred thing: for me,
I know no cheaper engine to degrade a man,
Nor any half so sure. This stripling's mind
Is shaken till the dregs float on the surface;
And, in the storm and anguish of the heart,
He talks of a transition in his soul
Mar. (to Lacy.) I thank you for that hint. He shall And dreams that he is happy. We dissect
Before the camp, and would that best and wisest
Of every country might be present. There,
His crime shall be proclaimed; and for the rest
It shall be done as wisdom shall decide:
Meanwhile, do you two hasten back and see
That all is well prepared.
Wal.
We will obey you.
(Aside.) But softly! we must look a little nearer.
Mar. Tell where you found us. At some future
time
I will explain the cause.
The senseless body, and why not the mind?
These are strange sights- the mind of man upturned,
Is in all natures a strange spectacle;
In some a hideous one-hem! shall I stop?
No. Thoughts and feelings will sink deep, but then
They have no substance. Pass but a few minutes,
And something shall be done which memory
May touch, whene'er her vassals are at work.
Enter MARMADUKE, from behind.
Osw. (turning to meet him.)
SCENE, the door of the Hostel, a group of Pilgrims as
before; IDONEA and the Host among them.
Host. Lady, you'll find your father at the convent
As I have told you: He left us yesterday
With two companions;, one of them, as seemed,
His most familiar friend. (Going.)
Of which I heard them speak, but that I fancy
Has been forgotten.
Idon. (to Host.) Farewell!
Host.
Ay, prove that when two peas
Osw. But hear the proofs
Mar.
Osw.
When I returned with water from the brook,
I overheard the villains
-every word
Like red-hot iron burnt into my heart.
Said one, "It is agreed on. The blind man
a Shall feign a sudden illness, and the girl,
Who on her journey must proceed alone,
Under pretence of violence, be seized.
She is," continued the detested slave,
"She is right willing-strange if she were not!-
They say, Lord Clifford is a savage man;
But, faith, to see him in his silken tunic.
Fitting his low voice to the minstrel's harp,
Gentle pilgrims, St. Cuthbert speed you on your holy errand. [Exeunt IDONEA and Pilgrims.
There's witchery in 't. I never knew a maid
That could withstand it. True," continued he,
"When we arranged the affair, she wept a little
(Not the less welcome to my lord for that)
And said, My father he will have it so.""
Mar. I am your hearer.
Osw.
This I caught, and more
That may not be retold to any ear.
The obstinate bolt of a small iron door
Detained them near the gateway of the castle.
By a dim lanterp's light I saw that wreaths
of flowers were in their hands, as if designed
For festive decoration; and they said,
With brutal laughter and most foul allusion,
That they should share the banquet with their lord
And his new favourite.
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How you would be disturbed by this dire news,
And therefore chose this solitary moor,
Here to impart the tale, of which, last night,
I strove to ease my mind, when our two comrades,
Commissioned by the band, burst in upon us.
Mar. Last night, when moved to lift the avenging steel,
I did believe all things were shadows - yea,
Living or dead all things were bodiless,
Or but the mutual mockeries of body,
Till that same star summoned me back again.
Now I could laugh till my ribs ached. O, fool!
To let a creed, built in the heart of things,
Dissolve before a twinkling atom ! — Oswald,
I could fetch lessons out of wiser schools
Than you have entered, were it worth the pains.
Young as I am I might go forth a teacher,
And you should see how deeply I could reason
Of love in all its shapes, beginnings, ends;
Of moral qualities in their diverse aspects;
Of actions, and their laws and tendencies.
Osw. You take it as it merits
Mar.
SCENE changes to another part of the Moor at a short distance-HERBERT is discovered seated on a stone. Her. A sound of laughter, too!-'t is well-I feared. The stranger had some pitiable sorrow
Pressing upon his solitary heart.
Hush! 't is the feeble and earth-loving wind
That creeps along the bells of the crisp heather.
Alas! 't is cold—I shiver in the sunshine
What can this mean? There is a psalm that speaks Of God's parental mercies with Idonea
I used to sing it. Listen-what foot is there?
Mar. (aside-looking at HERBERT.) And I have loved this man! and she hath loved him! And I loved her, and she loves the Lord Clifford ! And there it ends; - if this be not enough To make mankind merry for evermore, Then plain it is as day, that eyes were made For a wise purpose- verily to weep with! [Looking round.
A pretty prospect this, a masterpiece
Of Nature, finished with most curious skill!
(To HERBERT.) Good Baron, have you ever practised
tillage?
Pray tell me what this land is worth by the acre?
Her. How glad I am to hear your voice! I know
Wherein I have offended you;- last night
I found in you the kindest of protectors;
This morning, when I spoke of weariness,
You from my shoulder took my scrip and threw it
About your own; but for these two hours past
Once only have you spoken, when the lark
Whirred from among the fern beneath our feet,
And I, no coward in my better days,
Was almost terrified.
Mar.
That's excellent!-
So, you bethought you of the many ways
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