HERBERT Like a mendicant, Whom no one comes to meet, I stood alone;-- I murmured--but, remembering Him who feeds The pelican and ostrich of the desert, From my own threshold I looked up to Heaven And did not want glimmerings of quiet hope.

So, from the court I pa.s.sed, and down the brook, Led by its murmur, to the ancient oak I came; and when I felt its cooling shade, I sate me down, and cannot but believe-- While in my lap I held my little Babe And clasped her to my heart, my heart that ached More with delight than grief--I heard a voice Such as by Cherith on Elijah called; It said, "I will be with thee." A little boy, A shepherd-lad, ere yet my trance was gone, Hailed us as if he had been sent from heaven, And said, with tears, that he would be our guide: I had a better guide--that innocent Babe-- Her, who hath saved me, to this hour, from harm, From cold, from hunger, penury, and death; To whom I owe the best of all the good I have, or wish for, upon earth--and more And higher far than lies within earth's bounds: Therefore I bless her: when I think of Man, I bless her with sad spirit,--when of G.o.d, I bless her in the fulness of my joy!

MARMADUKE The name of daughter in his mouth, he prays!

With nerves so steady, that the very flies Sit unmolested on his staff.--Innocent!-- If he were innocent--then he would tremble And be disturbed, as I am.

(Turning aside.) I have read In Story, what men now alive have witnessed, How, when the People's mind was racked with doubt, Appeal was made to the great Judge: the Accused With naked feet walked over burning ploughshares.

Here is a Man by Nature's hand prepared For a like trial, but more merciful.

Why else have I been led to this bleak Waste?

Bare is it, without house or track, and dest.i.tute Of obvious shelter, as a shipless sea.

Here will I leave him--here--All-seeing G.o.d!

Such as _he_ is, and sore perplexed as I am, I will commit him to this final _Ordeal!_-- He heard a voice--a shepherd-lad came to him And was his guide; if once, why not again, And in this desert? If never--then the whole Of what he says, and looks, and does, and is, Makes up one d.a.m.ning falsehood. Leave him here To cold and hunger!--Pain is of the heart, And what are a few throes of bodily suffering If they can waken one pang of remorse?

[Goes up to HERBERT.]

Old Man! my wrath is as a flame burnt out, It cannot be rekindled. Thou art here Led by my hand to save thee from perdition: Thou wilt have time to breathe and think--

HERBERT Oh, Mercy!

MARMADUKE I know the need that all men have of mercy, And therefore leave thee to a righteous judgment.

HERBERT My Child, my blessed Child!

MARMADUKE No more of that; Thou wilt have many guides if thou art innocent; Yea, from the utmost corners of the earth, That Woman will come o'er this Waste to save thee.

[He pauses and looks at HERBERT'S staff.]

Ha! what is here? and carved by her own hand!

[Reads upon the staff.]

"I am eyes to the blind, saith the Lord.

He that puts his trust in me shall not fail!"

Yes, be it so;--repent and be forgiven-- G.o.d and that staff are now thy only guides.

[He leaves HERBERT on the Moor.]

SCENE--An eminence, a Beacon on the summit

LACY, WALLACE, LENNOX, etc. etc.

SEVERAL OF THE BAND (confusedly) But patience!

ONE OF THE BAND Curses on that Traitor, Oswald!-- Our Captain made a prey to foul device!--

LENNOX (to WALLACE) His tool, the wandering Beggar, made last night A plain confession, such as leaves no doubt, Knowing what otherwise we know too well, That she revealed the truth. Stand by me now; For rather would I have a nest of vipers Between my breast-plate and my skin, than make Oswald my special enemy, if you Deny me your support.

LACY We have been fooled-- But for the motive?

WALLACE Natures such as his Spin motives out of their own bowels, Lacy!

I learn'd this when I was a Confessor.

I know him well; there needs no other motive Than that most strange incontinence in crime Which haunts this Oswald. Power is life to him And breath and being; where he cannot govern, He will destroy.

LACY To have been trapped like moles!-- Yes, you are right, we need not hunt for motives: There is no crime from which this man would shrink; He recks not human law; and I have noticed That often when the name of G.o.d is uttered, A sudden blankness overspreads his face.

LENNOX Yet, reasoner as he is, his pride has built Some uncouth superst.i.tion of its own.

WALLACE I have seen traces of it.

LENNOX Once he headed A band of Pirates in the Norway seas; And when the King of Denmark summoned him To the oath of fealty, I well remember, 'Twas a strange answer that he made; he said, "I hold of Spirits, and the Sun in heaven."

LACY He is no madman.

WALLACE A most subtle doctor Were that man, who could draw the line that parts Pride and her daughter, Cruelty, from Madness, That should be scourged, not pitied. Restless Minds, Such Minds as find amid their fellow-men No heart that loves them, none that they can love, Will turn perforce and seek for sympathy In dim relation to imagined Beings.

ONE OF THE BAND What if he mean to offer up our Captain An expiation and a sacrifice To those infernal fiends!

WALLACE Now, if the event Should be as Lennox has foretold, then swear, My Friends, his heart shall have as many wounds As there are daggers here.

LACY What need of swearing!

ONE OF THE BAND Let us away!

ANOTHER Away!

A THIRD Hark! how the horns Of those Scotch Rovers echo through the vale.

LACY Stay you behind; and when the sun is down, Light up this beacon.

ONE OF THE BAND You shall be obeyed.

[They go out together.]