WALLACE We will obey you.

(Aside.) But softly! we must look a little nearer.

MARMADUKE Tell where you found us. At some future time I will explain the cause.

[Exeunt.]

ACT III

SCENE--The door of the Hostel, a group of Pilgrims as before; IDONEA and the Host among them

HOST Lady, you'll find your Father at the Convent As I have told you: He left us yesterday With two Companions; one of them, as seemed, His most familiar Friend.

(Going.) There was a letter Of which I heard them speak, but that I fancy Has been forgotten.

IDONEA (to Host) Farewell!

HOST Gentle pilgrims, St. Cuthbert speed you on your holy errand.

[Exeunt IDONEA and Pilgrims.]

[SCENE--A desolate Moor]

[OSWALD (alone)]

OSWALD Carry him to the Camp! Yes, to the Camp.

Oh, Wisdom! a most wise resolve! and then, That half a word should blow it to the winds!

This last device must end my work.--Methinks It were a pleasant pastime to construct A scale and table of belief--as thus-- Two columns, one for pa.s.sion, one for proof; Each rises as the other falls: and first, Pa.s.sion a unit and _against_ us--proof-- Nay, we must travel in another path, Or we're stuck fast for ever;--pa.s.sion, then, Shall be a unit _for_ us; proof--no, pa.s.sion!

We'll not insult thy majesty by time, Person, and place--the where, the when, the how, And all particulars that dull brains require To const.i.tute the spiritless shape of Fact, They bow to, calling the idol, Demonstration.

A whipping to the Moralists who preach That misery is a sacred thing: for me, I know no cheaper engine to degrade a man, Nor any half so sure. This Stripling's mind Is shaken till the dregs float on the surface; And, in the storm and anguish of the heart, He talks of a transition in his Soul, And dreams that he is happy. We dissect The senseless body, and why not the mind?-- These are strange sights--the mind of man, upturned, Is in all natures a strange spectacle; In some a hideous one--hem! shall I stop?

No.--Thoughts and feelings will sink deep, but then They have no substance. Pa.s.s but a few minutes, And something shall be done which Memory May touch, whene'er her Va.s.sals are at work.

[Enter MARMADUKE, from behind]

OSWALD (turning to meet him) But listen, for my peace--

MARMADUKE Why, I _believe_ you.

OSWALD But hear the proofs--

MARMADUKE Ay, prove that when two peas Lie snugly in a pod, the pod must then Be larger than the peas--prove this--'twere matter Worthy the hearing. Fool was I to dream It ever could be otherwise!

OSWALD Last night When I returned with water from the brook, I overheard the Villains--every word Like red-hot iron burnt into my heart.

Said one, "It is agreed on. The blind Man Shall feign a sudden illness, and the Girl, Who on her journey must proceed alone, Under pretence of violence, be seized.

She is," continued the detested Slave, "She is right willing--strange if she were not!-- They say, Lord Clifford is a savage man; But, faith, to see him in his silken tunic, Fitting his low voice to the minstrel's harp, There's witchery in't. I never knew a maid That could withstand it. True," continued he, "When we arranged the affair, she wept a little (Not the less welcome to my Lord for that) And said, 'My Father he will have it so.'"

MARMADUKE I am your hearer.

OSWALD This I caught, and more That may not be retold to any ear.

The obstinate bolt of a small iron door Detained them near the gateway of the Castle.

By a dim lantern's light I saw that wreaths Of flowers were in their hands, as if designed For festive decoration; and they said, With brutal laughter and most foul allusion, That they should share the banquet with their Lord And his new Favorite.

MARMADUKE Misery!--

OSWALD I knew How you would be disturbed by this dire news, And therefore chose this solitary Moor, Here to impart the tale, of which, last night, I strove to ease my mind, when our two Comrades, Commissioned by the Band, burst in upon us.

MARMADUKE Last night, when moved to lift the avenging steel, I did believe all things were shadows--yea, Living or dead all things were bodiless, Or but the mutual mockeries of body, Till that same star summoned me back again.

Now I could laugh till my ribs ached. Fool!

To let a creed, built in the heart of things, Dissolve before a twinkling atom!--Oswald, I could fetch lessons out of wiser schools Than you have entered, were it worth the pains.

Young as I am, I might go forth a teacher, And you should see how deeply I could reason Of love in all its shapes, beginnings, ends; Of moral qualities in their diverse aspects; Of actions, and their laws and tendencies.

OSWALD You take it as it merits--

MARMADUKE One a King, General or Cham, Sultan or Emperor, Strews twenty acres of good meadow-ground With carcases, in lineament and shape And substance, nothing differing from his own, But that they cannot stand up of themselves; Another sits i' th' sun, and by the hour Floats kingcups in the brook--a Hero one We call, and scorn the other as Time's spendthrift; But have they not a world of common ground To occupy--both fools, or wise alike, Each in his way?

OSWALD Troth, I begin to think so.

MARMADUKE Now for the corner-stone of my philosophy: I would not give a denier for the man Who, on such provocation as this earth Yields, could not chuck his babe beneath the chin, And send it with a fillip to its grave.

OSWALD Nay, you leave me behind.

MARMADUKE That such a One, So pious in demeanour! in his look So saintly and so pure!--Hark'ee, my Friend, I'll plant myself before Lord Clifford's Castle, A surly mastiff kennels at the gate, And he shall howl and I will laugh, a medley Most tunable.