And thrilling hands, that made me weep and tremble-
Ah, coward dupel to yield it to the miscreant,
Who spake pollution of thee! barter for Life
This farewell Pledge, which with impassion'd Vow
I had sworn that I would grasp-ev'n in my death-pang!

I am unworthy of thy love, Teresa,
Of that unearthly smile upon those lips,
Which ever smiled on me! Yet do not scorn me-
I lisp'd thy name, ere I had learnt my mother's.

Dear Portrait! rescued from a traitor's keeping,
I will not now profane thee, holy Image,
To a dark trick. That worst bad man shall find
A picture, which will wake the hell within him,
And rouse a fiery whirlwind in his conscience.

ACT III.

SCENE I.

A Hall of Armoury, with an Altar at the back of the Stage. Soft Music from an instrument of Glass or

Steel.

VALDEZ, ORDONIO, and ALVAR in a Sorcerer's robe, are discovered.

ORDONIO.

This was too melancholy, Father.

VALDEZ.

Nay,

My Alvar loved sad music from a child.
Once he was lost; and after weary search
We found him in an open place in the wood,
To which spot he had follow'd a blind boy,
Who breathed into a pipe of sycamore
Some strangely moving notes: and these, he said,
Were taught him in a dream. Him we first saw
Stretch'd on the broad top of a sunny heath-bank:
And lower down poor Alvar, fast asleep,
His head upon the blind boy's dog. It pleased me
To mark how he had fasten'd round the pipe
A silver toy his grandam had late given him.
Methinks I see him now as he then look'd-
Even so!-He had outgrown his infant dress,
Yet still he wore it.

ALVAR.

My tears must not flow! I must not clasp his knees, and cry, My father! Enter TERESA, and Attendants.

TERESA.

Lord Valdez, you have asked my presence here, And I submit; but (Heaven bear witness for me) My heart approves it not! 't is mockery.

ORDONIO.

Believe you then no preternatural influence? Believe you not that spirits throng around us?

TERESA.

Say rather that I have imagined it

A possible thing: and it has soothed my soul
As other fancies have; but ne'er seduced me
To traffic with the black and frenzied hope
That the dead hear the voice of witch or wizard.

(TO ALVAR). Stranger, I mourn and blush to see you

here,

Even now your living wheel turns o'er my head!
[Music expressive of the movements and images
that follow.

Ye, as ye pass, toss high the desert Sands,
That roar and whiten, like a burst of waters,
A sweet appearance, but a dread illusion
To the parch'd caravan that roams by night!
And ye build upon the becalmed waves
That whirling pillar, which from Earth to Heaven
Stands vast, and moves in blackness! Ye too split
The ice mount! and with fragments many and huge
Tempest the new-thaw'd sea, whose sudden gulfs
Suck in, perchance, some Lapland wizard's skiff!
Then round and round the whirlpool's marge ye dance,
Till from the blue swoln Corse the Soul toils out,
And joins your mighty Army.

[Here behind the scenes a voice sings the three
words, Hear, Sweet Spirit.»

Had pamper'd his swoln heart and made him proud?
And what if Pride had duped him into guilt?
Yet still he stalk'd a self-created God,

Not very bold, but exquisitely cunning;
And one that at his Mother's looking-glass
Would force his features to a frowning sternness?
Young Lord! I tell thee, that there are such Beings-
Yea, and it gives fierce merriment to the damn'd,
To see these most proud men, that loath mankind,
At every stir and buzz of coward conscience,
Trick, cant, and lie, most whining hypocrites!
Away, away! Now let me hear more music.

TERESA.

[Music again.

'T is strange, I tremble at my own conjectures! But whatsoe'er it mean, I dare no longer

Be present at these lawless mysteries,

This dark Provoking of the Hidden Powers!

Already I affront-if not high Heaven

Yet Alvar's Memory!-Hark! I make appeal Against the unholy rite, and hasten hence

To bend before a lawful shrine, and seek

[The whole Music clashes into a Chorus.

CHORUS.

Wandering Demons, hear the spell!
Lest a blacker charm compel-

[The incense on the altar takes fire suddenly, and
an illuminated picture of ALVAR's assassina-
tion is discovered, and having remained a
few seconds is then hidden by ascending
flames.

ORDONIO (starting in great agitation). Duped! duped! duped!-the traitor Isidore!

[At this instant the doors are forced open, MONVIEDRO and the Familiars of the Inquisition, Servants, etc. enter and fill the stage.

MONVIEDRO.

First seize the sorcerer! suffer him not to speak!
The holy judges of the Inquisition

Shall hear his first words. Look you pale, Lord Valdez?
Plain evidence have we here of most foul sorcery.
There is a dungeon underneath this castle,
And as you hope for mild interpretation,
Surrender instantly the keys and charge of it.

ORDONIO (recovering himself as from stupor, to
Servants.)

Why haste you not? Off with him to the dungeon!
[All rush out in tumult.

SCENE II.

Interior of a Chapel, with painted Windows.

Enter TERESA.

TERESA.

When first I entered this pure spot, forebodings
Press'd heavy on my heart: but as I knelt,
Such calm unwonted bliss possess'd my spirit,
A trance so cloudless, that those sounds, hard by,
Of trampling uproar fell upon mine ear
As alien and unnoticed as the rain-storm
Beats on the roof of some fair banquet-room,
While sweetest melodies are warbling--

Enter VALDEZ.

VALDEZ.

Ye pitying saints, forgive a father's blindness, And extricate us from this net of peril!

TERESA.

Who wakes anew my fears, and speaks of peril?

VALDEZ.

O best Teresa, wisely wert thou prompted!
This was no feat of mortal agency!
That picture-Oh, that picture tells me all!

Self-kindled, self-consumed: bright as thy Life, Sudden and unexpected as thy Fate,

Alvar! My son! My son!-The Inquisitor

Comfort and faithful Hope! Let us retire.

ALVAR (to TERESA, anxiously). O full of faith and guileless love, thy Spirit

Almost, I fear, it hath unhinged his brain.

ORDONIO (now in soliloquy, and now addressing
his father and just after the speech has
commenced, TERESA reappears and advances
slowly).

Say, I had laid a body in the sun!
Well! in a month there swarın forth from the corse
A thousand, nay, ten thousand sentient beings
In place of that one man.-Say, I had killd him!
[TERESA starts and stops listening.

Yet who shall tell me, that each one and all
Of these ten thousand lives is not as happy
As that one life, which being push'd aside,
Made room for these unnumber'd--

[A pause.

The hunt is up! and in the midnight wood,
With lights to dazzle and with nets they seek
A timid prey: and lo! the tiger's eye
Glares in the red flame of his hunter's torch!
To Isidore I will dispatch a message,
And lure him to the cavern! ay, that cavern!
le cannot fail to find it. Thither I'll lure him,
Whence he shall never, never more return!

[Looks through the side window.

A rim of the sun lies yet upon the sea,
And now 't is gone! All shall be done to-night.

[Exit.