As I approach the core of my heart's grief- Witch. Spare not thyself-proceed. Man. She was like me in lineaments-her eyes, Her faults were mine-her virtues were her own- With thy hand? Witch. Man. Not with my hand, but heart-which broke her heart ;It gazed on mine, and wither'd. I have shed Blood, but not hers-and yet her blood was shed ; I saw-and could not stanch it. Witch. And for this A being of the race thou dost despise, The order which thine own would rise above, The gifts of our great knowledge, and shrink'st back Man. Daughter of Air! I tell thee, since that hour- Or watch my watchings-Come and sit by me My solitude is solitude no more, But peopled with the Furies;-I have gnash'd And fatal things pass'd harmless-the cold hand Back by a single hair, which would not break. The affluence of my soul-which one day was Is mortal here-I dwell in my despair- Witch. That I can aid thee. Man. It may be To do this thy power Must wake the dead, or lay me low with them. Do so-in any shape-in any hour With any torture so it be the last. Witch. That is not in my province; but if thou Wilt swear obedience to my will, and do My bidding, it may help thee to thy wishes. Man. I will not swear-Obey! and whom? the spirits Whose presence I command, and be the slave Of those who served me-Never! Witch. Is this all? Hast thou no gentler answer?-Yet bethink thee, Man. I have said it Witch. Enough !-I may retire then-say! Man. Retire! [The WITCH disappears. Man. (alone). We are the fools of time and terror: days Steal on us and steal from us; yet we live, Loathing our life, and dreading still to die. In all the days of this detested yoke This vital weight upon the struggling heart, Which sinks with sorrow, or beats quick with pain, In all the days of past and future, for In life there is no present, we can number The story of Pausanias, king of Sparta (who commanded the Greeks at the battle f Platea, and afterwards perished for an attempt to betray the Lacedæmonians), and Cleonice, is told in Plutarch's Life of Cimon; and in the Laconics of Pausanias the sophist, in his description of Greece. Had still been living: bad I never love 1 And champion human fears. The night approaches. [Exit. SCENE III. The summit of the Jungfrau Mountain. Enter FIRST DESTINY. The moon is rising broad, and round, and bright; And here on snows, where never human foot The fretwork of some earthquake-where the clouds Is our great festival-'tis strange they come not. A Voice without, singing. The Captive Usurper, Hurl'd down from the throne, I broke through his slumbers, I leagued him with numbers He's Tyrant again! With the blood of a million he'll answer my care, Second Voice, without. The ship sail'd on, the ship sail'd fast, But I left not a sail, and I left not a mast; There is not a plank of the hull or the deck, And there is not a wretch to lament o'er his wreck; A traitor on land, and a pirate at sea But I saved him to wreak further havoc for me! FIRST DESTINY, answering. The city lies sleeping; The morn, to deplore it, The black plague flew o'er it- Tens of thousands shall perish- Of their own desolation- This wreck of a realm-this deed of my doing- Enter the SECOND and THIRD DESTINIES. The Three. Our hands contain the hearts of men, Our footsteps are their graves; We only give to take again First Des. Welcome !-Where's Nemesis? Second Des. At some great work; But what I know not, for my hands were full. First Des. Enter NEMESIS. Say where hast thou been? My sisters and thyself are slow to-night. Nem. I was detain'd repairing shatter'd thrones, Marrying fools, restoring dynasties, Avenging men upon their enemies, And making them repent their own revenge; We have outstay'd the hour-mcunt we our clouds! [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The Hall of Arimanes-Arimanes on his Throne, a Globe Hail to our Master!-Prince of Earth and Air! Themselves to chaos at his high command! His shadow is the Pestilence; his path To him Death pays his tribute; Life is his And his the spirit of whatever is ! Enter the DESTINIES and NEMESIS. First Des. Glory to Arimanes! on the earth Second Des. Glory to Arimanes! we who bow Nem. Sovereign of sovereigns! we are thine, And all that liveth, more or less, is ours, A Spirit. Enter MANFred. What is here? I do know the man A mortal!-Thou most rash and fatal wretch, Bow down and worship! Second Spirit. A Magian of great power, and fearful skill! Third Spirit. Bow down, and worship, slave !— What, know'st thou not Thine and our Sovereign ?-Tremble and obey! All the Spirits. Prostrate thyself, and thy condemned clav Child of the Earth! or dread the worst. Man. And yet ye see I kneel not. I know it; "Twill be taught thee. Man. "Tis taught already;-many a night on the carth, On the hare ground, have I bow'd down my face. |