ISIDORE. Call him, that fears his fellow man, a coward! Had a strange power of breathing terror round me ! And, I entreat your lordship to believe me, In my last dream— ORDONIO. Well? ISIDORE. I was in the act Of falling down that chasm, when Alhadra Wak'd me: she heard my heart beat. ORDONIO. Had you been here before? Strange enough ! ISIDORE. Never, my lord! But mine eyes do not see it now more clearly, Than in my dream I saw that very chasm. ORDONIO. (stands lost in thought, then after a pause.) I know not why it should be! yet it is Why that's my case; and yet the soul recoils from it 'Tis so with me at least. But you, perhaps, Have sterner feelings? ISIDORE. Something troubles you. How shall I serve you? By the life you gave me, Is not a place where you could perpetrate, [Ordonio darkly, and in the feeling of self justification, tells what he conceives of his own character and actions, speaking of himself in the third person. ORDONIO. Thyself be judge. One of our family knew this place well. ISIDORE, Who? when? my lord? ORDONIO. What boots it, who or when? Hang up thy torch-I'll tell his tale to thee. [They hang up their torches on some ridge in the cavern. He was a man different from other men, And he despised them, yet revered himself. ISIDORE. (aside.) He? He despised? Thou'rt speaking of thyself! I am on my guard however: no surprize. [Then to Ordonio. What he was mad? ORDONIO. All men seemed mad to him! Nature had made him for some other planet, He found no fit companion. And phantom thoughts unsought-for troubled him. Something within would still be shadowing out All possibilities; and with these shadows His mind held dalliance. Once, as so it happened, A fancy crossed him wilder than the rest : To this in moody murmur and low voice He yielded utterance, as some talk in sleep: The man who heard him. Why didst thou look round? ISIDORE. I have a prattler three years old, my lord! In truth he is my darling, As I went From forth my door, he made a moan in sleep But I am talking idly-pray proceed! And what did this man? ORDONIO. With his human hand He gave a substance and reality To that wild fancy of a possible thing. Well it was done! [then very wildly. Why babblest thou of guilt? The deed was done, and it passed fairly off. ISIDORE. I would my lord you were by my fire-side, Though you began this cloudy tale at midnight, ORDONIO. ISIDORE. He of whom you tell the tale ORDONIO. Where was I? Surveying all things with a quiet scorn, But that same over ready agent-he ISIDORE. Ah! what of him, my lord? ORDONIO. He proved a traitor, Betrayed the mystery to a brother traitor, |