I did not think that aught was left in me

Of what I have been-yes, I thank thee, Heaven!
One happy thought has passed across my mind.
-It may not be--I am cut off from man;
No more shall I be man-no more shall I
Have human feelings !-(To HERBERT)-Now, for
a little more

About your Daughter!

Her.
Troops of armed men,
Met in the roads, would bless us ; little children,
Rushing along in the full tide of play,

Stood silent as we passed them! I have heard
The boisterous carman, in the miry road,
Check his loud whip and hail us with mild voice,
And speak with milder voice to his poor beasts.
Mar. And whither were you going?
Her.
Learn, young Man,
To fear the virtuous, and reverence misery,
Whether too much for patience, or, like mine,
Softened till it becomes a gift of mercy.
Mar. Now, this is as it should be !
Her.

I am weak!My Daughter does not know how weak I am; And, as thou see'st, under the arch of heaven Here do I stand, alone, to helplessness,

By the good God, our common Father, doomed !But I had once a spirit and an arm—

Mar. Now, for a word about your Barony: I fancy when you left the Holy Land,

And came to what's your title-eh? your claims Were undisputed!

Whom no one comes to meet, I stood alone ;-
I murmured—but, remembering Him who feeds
The pelican and ostrich of the desert,
From my own threshold I looked up to Heaven
And did not want glimmerings of quiet hope.
So, from the court I passed, and down the brook,
Led by its murmur, to the ancient oak

│I came ; and when I felt its cooling shade,
I sate me down, and cannot but believe-
While in my lap I held my little Babe

And clasped her to my heart, my heart that ached
More with delight than grief-I heard a voice
Such as by Cherith on Elijah called;
It said, "I will be with thee." A little boy,
A shepherd-lad, ere yet my trance was gone,
Hailed us as if he had been sent from heaven,
And said, with tears, that he would be our guide :
I had a better guide-that innocent Babe-
Her, who hath saved me, to this hour, from harm,
From cold, from hunger, penury, and death;
To whom I owe the best of all the good

I have, or wish for, upon earth-and more

And higher far than lies within earth's bounds:
Therefore I bless her: when I think of Man,
I bless her with sad spirit,-when of God,
I bless her in the fulness of my joy!

Mar. The name of daughter in his mouth, he prays!

With nerves so steady, that the very flies
Sit unmolested on his staff.-Innocent !-
If he were innocent-then he would tremble
And be disturbed, as I am. (Turning aside). I
have read

In Story, what men now alive have witnessed, How, when the People's mind was racked with doubt,

Appeal was made to the great Judge: the
Accused

With naked feet walked over burning ploughshares.
Here is a Man by Nature's hand prepared
For a like trial, but more merciful.

Why else have I been led to this bleak Waste?
Bare is it, without house or track, and destitute
Of obvious shelter, as a shipless sea.
Here will I leave him-here-All-seeing God!
Such as he is, and sore perplexed as I am,

I will commit him to this final Ordeal!—
He heard a voice-a shepherd-lad came to him
And was his guide; if once, why not again,
And in this desert? If never-then the whole
Of what he says, and looks, and does, and is,
Makes up one damning falsehood. Leave him here
To cold and hunger!-Pain is of the heart,
And what are a few throes of bodily suffering
If they can waken one pang of remorse?

[Goes up to HErbert.

Old Man! my wrath is as a flame burnt out,
It cannot be rekindled. Thou art here
Led by my hand to save thee from perdition;
Thou wilt have time to breathe and think-
Her.
Oh, Mercy!
Mar. I know the need that all men have of mercy,
And therefore leave thee to a righteous judgment.
Her. My Child, my blessed Child!
Mar.
No more of that
Thou wilt have many guides if thou art innocent;
Yea, from the utmost corners of the earth,
That Woman will come o'er this Waste to save thee.
[He pauses and looks at HERBERT's staff.
Ha! what is here? and carved by her own hand!
[Reads upon the staff.

;

"I am eyes to the blind, saith the Lord.
He that puts his trust in me shall not fail!"
Yes, be it so ;-repent and be forgiven-
God and that staff are now thy only guides.

[He leaves HERBERT on the Moor.

Spin motives out of their own bowels, Lacy!
I learn'd this when I was a Confessor.

I know him well; there needs no other motive
Than that most strange incontinence in crime
Which haunts this Oswald. Power is life to him
And breath and being; where he cannot govern,
He will destroy.

Lacy. To have been trapped like moles !— Yes, you are right, we need not hunt for motives: There is no crime from which this man would shrink; He recks not human law; and I have noticed That often when the name of God is uttered, A sudden blankness overspreads his face.

Len. Yet, reasoner as he is, his pride has built Some uncouth superstition of its own. Wal. I have seen traces of it. Len.

Once he headed

Would have been better timed.
Osw.
Alone, I see ;
You have done your duty. I had hopes, which now
I feel that you will justify.

Mar.
I had fears,
From which I have freed myself-but 'tis my wish
To be alone, and therefore we must part.

Osw. Nay, then-I am mistaken. There's a weakness

About you still; you talk of solitude-
I am your friend.

At any time? and why given now!
Osw.

You are now in truth my Master; you have taught me

What there is not another living man

Had strength to teach ;--and therefore gratitude
Is bold, and would relieve itself by praise.
Mar. Wherefore press this on me?
Osw.

Because I feel

In dim relation to imagined Beings.

our Captain

Of our emasculated souls, the tyranny

Of the world's masters, with the musty rules
By which they uphold their craft from age to age:
You have obeyed the only law that sense
Submits to recognise; the immediate law,
From the clear light of circumstances, flashed
Upon an independent Intellect.

Henceforth new prospects open on your path;
Your faculties should grow with the demand;
I still will be your friend, will cleave to you
Through good and evil, obloquy and scorn,
Oft as they dare to follow on your steps.
Mar. I would be left alone.

The Sparrow so on the house-top, and I,
The weakest of God's creatures, stand resolved
To abide the issue of my act, alone.

Os. Now would you? and for ever?-My young
Friend,

As time advances either we become

The prey or masters of our own past deeds.
Fellowship we must have, willing or no ;
And if good Angels fail, slack in their duty,
Substitutes, turn our faces where we may,

Are still forthcoming; some which, though they bear
Ill names, can render no ill services,
In recompense for what themselves required.
So meet extremes in this mysterious world,
And opposites thus melt into each other.

Mar. Time, since Man first drew breath, has never moved

With such a weight upon his wings as now;
But they will soon be lightened.

Ay, look upCast round you your mind's eye, and you will learn Fortitude is the child of Enterprise : Great actions move our admiration, chiefly

Osw. Action is transitory-a step, a blow, The motion of a muscle-this way or that'Tis done, and in the after-vacancy

We wonder at ourselves like men betrayed:
Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark,
And shares the nature of infinity.

Mar. Truth-and I feel it.
Osw.

What! if you had bid Eternal farewell to unmingled joy

And the light dancing of the thoughtless heart;
It is the toy of fools, and little fit

For such a world as this. The wise abjure
All thoughts whose idle composition lives
In the entire forgetfulness of pain.
-I see I have disturbed you.
Mar.
By no means.
Osw. Compassion !-pity !-pride can do without
them;

And what if you should never know them more!-
He is a puny soul who, feeling pain,
Finds ease because another feels it too.
If e'er I open out this heart of mine
It shall be for a nobler end-to teach
And not to purchase puling sympathy.
-Nay, you are pale.

Osw.

Murder --what's in the word!-
I have no cases by me ready made
To fit all deeds. Carry him to the Camp!—
A shallow project ;-you of late have seen
More deeply, taught us that the institutes
Of Nature, by a cunning usurpation
Banished from human intercourse, exist
Only in our relations to the brutes

That make the fields their dwelling. If a snake
Crawl from beneath our feet we do not ask
A license to destroy him: our good governors
Hedge in the life of every pest and plague

Mar. I have much to say, but for whose ear?— not thine.

Idon. Ill can I bear that look-Plead for me, Oswald !

You are my Father's Friend.

(TO MARMADUKE).

Alas, you know not, And never can you know, how much he loved me. Twice had he been to me a father, twice Had given me breath, and was I not to be His daughter, once his daughter? could I withstand His pleading face, and feel his clasping arms, And hear his prayer that I would not forsake him In his old age[Hides her face. Mar. Patience Heaven grant me patience!—— She weeps, she weeps-my brain shall burn for hours Ere I can shed a tear.

This is a happy day. My Father soon
Shall sun himself before his native doors;
The lame, the hungry, will be welcome there.
Of thoughts that fail, and a decaying heart;
No more shall he complain of wasted strength,
His good works will be balm and life to him.

Mar. This is most strange!-I know not what it was,

But there was something which most plainly said, That thou wert innocent.

To bring perdition on the universe.
Idon. Already I've been punished to the height
Of my offence.
[Smiling affectionately.
I see you love me still,
The labours of my hand are still your joy;
Bethink you of the hour when on your shoulder
I hung this belt.

you :

For me, I have business, as you heard, with Oswald, But will return to you by break of day. [Exeunt.