Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

ISIDORE.

Call him, that fears his fellow man, a coward!
I fear not man-but this inhuman cavern,
It were too bad a prison house for goblins.
Beside, (you'll smile my lord) but true it is,
My last night's sleep was very sorely haunted
By what had passed between us in the morning.
O sleep of horrors! Now run down and stared at
By Forms so hideous that they mock remembrance-
Now seeing nothing and imagining nothing,
But only being afraid-stifled with Fear!
While every goodly or familiar form

Had a strange power of breathing terror round me !
I saw you in a thousand fearful shapes;

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

[blocks in formation]

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,
By all that makes that life of value to me,
My wife, my babes, my honour, I swear to you,
Name it, and I will toil to do the thing,
If it be innocent! But this, my lord!

Is not a place where you could perpetrate,
No nor propose, a wicked thing. The darkness,
When ten strides off we know 'tis cheerful moonlight,
Collects the guilt, and crowds it round the heart.
It must be innocent.

[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,
And pressed his soul into a human shape
By accident or malice. In this world

He found no fit companion.

[blocks in formation]

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.
And he whose tale I tell thee-dost thou listen?

ISIDORE.

I would my lord you were by my fire-side,
I'd listen to you with an eager eye,

Though you began this cloudy tale at midnight,
But I do listen-pray proceed my lord,

ORDONIO.

ISIDORE.

He of whom you tell the tale

ORDONIO.

Where was I?

Surveying all things with a quiet scorn,
Tamed himself down to living purposes,
The occupations and the semblances
Of ordinary men-and such he seemed !

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,

« AnteriorContinuar »