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And thrilling hands, that made me weep and tremble-On such employment! With far other thoughts
Ah, coward dupe! to yield it to the miscreant,
Who spake pollution of thee! barter for Life

This farewell Pledge, which with impassion'd Vow

I left you.

ORDONIO (aside).

I had sworn that I would grasp-ev'n in my death- Ha! he has been tampering with her?

pang!

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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 ask'd my presence here, And I submit; but (Heaven bear witness for me) My heart approves it not! 'tis 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,

ALVAR.

O high-soul'd maiden! and more dear to me
Than suits the Stranger's name!—

I swear to thee
I will uncover all concealed guilt.
Doubt, but decide not! Stand ye from the altar.
[Here a sirain of music is heard from behind the

scene.

ALVAR.

With no irreverent voice or uncouth charm I call up the Departed!

Soul of Alvar!

Hear our soft suit, and heed my milder spell:
So may the Gates of Paradise, unbarr'd,
Cease thy swift toils! since haply thou art one
Of that innumerable company

Who in broad circle, lovelier than the rainbow,
With noise too vast and constant to be heard:
Girdle this round earth in a dizzy motion,
Fitliest unheard! For oh, ye numberless
And rapid travellers! What ear unstunn'd,
What sense unmadden'd, might bear up against
The rushing of your congregated wings?

[Music

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 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."

Soul of Alvar!
Hear the mild spell, and tempt no blacker Charm!
By sighs unquiet, and the sickly pang
Of a half dead, yet still undying Hope,
Pass visible before our mortal sense!

So shall the Church's cleansing rites be thine,
Her knells and masses that redeem the Dead!

SONG

Behind the Scenes, accompanied by the same Instru ment as before.

Hear, sweet spirit, hear the spell,
Lest a blacker charm compel!
So shall the midnight breezes swell
With thy deep long-lingering knell.

And at evening evermore,

In a Chapel on the shore,
Shall the Chanters sad and saintly.
Yellow tapers burning faintly,

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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?

Still prompts thee wisely. Let the pangs of guilt
Surprise the guilty: thou art innocent!

[Exeunt TERESA and Attendant. (Music as before).

The spell is mutter'd-Come, thou wandering Shape,
Who own'st no Master in a human eye,
Whate'er be this man's doom, fair be it, or foul;
If he be dead, O come! and bring with thee
That which he grasp'd in death! but if he live,
Some token of his obscure perilous life.

[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, Mox-
VIEDRO 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 enter'd this pure spot, forebodings

Young Lord! I tell thee, that there are such Beings-Press'd heavy on my heart: but as I knelt,

Yea, and it gives fierce merriment to the damn'd,
To see these most proud men, that lothe 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.

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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!
heart That picture-Oh, that picture tells me all!
With a flash of light it came, in flames it vanish'd
Self-kindled, self-consumed: bright as thy Life,
Sudden and unexpected as thy Fate,
Alvar! My son! My son -The Inquisitor-

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shine,

[Turning off, aloud, but yet as to himself. And the blood dances freely through its channels!

Accurst assassins!

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Hush! who comes here? The wizard Moor's em-
ployer!

Moors were his murderers, you say? Saints shield us
From wicked thoughts—————

[VALDEZ moves towards the back of the stage to
meet ORDONIO, and during the concluding
lines of TERESA's speech appears as eagerly
conversing with him.

[Turns off abruptly; then to himself

This is my virtuous, grateful Isidore!

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[Then mimicking ISIDORE's manner and voice. A common trick of gratitude, my Lord!" Oh Gratitude! a dagger would dissect

His "own full heart"-'t were good to see its color

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Hatred and Love! Fancies opposed by fancies!
What, if one reptile sting another reptile!
Where is the crime? The goodly face of Nature
Hath one disfeaturing stain the less upon it.
Are we not all predestined Transiency,
And cold Dishonor? Grant it, that this hand
Had given a morsel to the hungry worms
Somewhat too early-Where's the crime of this?
That this must needs bring on the idiocy
[Retires out of sight. Of moist-eyed Penitence 't is like a dream!

Is Alvar dead? what then?
The nuptial rites and funeral shall be one!
Here's no abiding-place for thee, Teresa.-
Away! they see me not-Thou seest me, Alvar!
To thee I bend my course.--But first one question,
One question to Ordonio.--My limbs tremble---
There I may sit unmark'd—a moment wil! restore me.

VALDEZ.

ORDONIO (as he advances with VALDEZ).
These are the dungeon keys. Monviedro knew not Wild talk, my son' But thy excess of feeling
That I too had received the wizard message,

12

[Averting himself

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[TERESA moves hastily forwards, and places herself directly before ORDONIO.

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Unknown, perhaps

ORDONIO (checking the feeling of surprise, and Captured, yet, as the son of Valdez, murder'd. forcing his tones into an expression of Leave all to me. Nay, whither, gentle Lady?

playful courtesy).

Teresa? or the Phantom of Teresa?

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eye-Suits that a high-born maiden's modesty?
O folly and shame! Tempt not my rage, Teresa!

Over his rocky grave the Fir-grove sighs
A lulling ceaseless dirge! "T is well with HIM.
[Strides off in agitation towards the altar, but
returns as VALDEZ is speaking.
TERESA (recoiling with the expression appropriate to
the passion).
The rock! the fir-grove!
[TO VALDEZ.
Didst thou hear him say it?
Hush! I will ask him!

VALDEZ.

Urge him not-not now!
This we beheld. Nor He nor I know more,
Than what the magic imagery reveal'd.
The assassin, who press'd foremost of the three-

ORDONIO.

A tender-hearted, scrupulous, grateful villain,
Whom I will strangle!

VALDEZ (looking with anxious disquiet at his Son, yet
attempting to proceed with his description).

While his two companions

ORDONIO.

TERESA.

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The mine is undermined! Blood! Blood! Blood!
They thirst for thy blood! thy blood, Ordonio!
[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

Dead! dead already! what care we for the dead? Glares in the red flame of his hunter's torch!

VALDEZ (to TERESA).

Pity him! soothe him! disenchant his spirit!
These supernatural shows, this strange disclosure,
And this too fond affection, which still broods
O'er Alvar's fate, and still burns to avenge it-
These, struggling with his hopeless love for you,
Distemper him, and give reality

To the creatures of his fancy

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ACT IV.

SCENE I.

A cavern, dark, except where a gleam of moonlight is seen on one side at the further end of it; supposed to be cast on it from a crevice in a part of the cavern out of sight. ISIDORE alone, an extinguished torch in his hand.

ISIDORE.

Faith 't was a moving letter-very moving!
'His life in danger, no place safe but this!
Twas his turn now to talk of gratitude."
And yet but no! there can't be such a villain.
It cannot be !

Thanks to that little crevice, Which lets the moonlight in! I'll go and sit by it. To peep at a tree, or see a he-goat's beard, Or hear a cow or two breathe loud in their sleepAny thing but this crash of water-drops! These dull abortive sounds that fret the silence With puny thwartings and mock opposition! So beats the death-watch to a dead man's ear. [He goes out of sight, opposite to the patch of moonlight: returns after a minute's elapse, in an ecstasy of fear.

A hellish pit! The very same I dreamt of!
I was just in-and those damn'd fingers of ice
Which clutch'd my hair up! Ha!-what's that-it

moved.

[ISIDORE stands staring at another recess in the cavern. In the mean time ORDONIO enters with a torch, and halloos to ISIDORE.

ISIDORE.

I swear that I saw something moving there! The moonshine came and went like a flash of lightning

I swear, I saw it move.

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Art thou more coward now?
ISIDORE.

Call him, that fears his fellow-man, a coward!
I fear not man-but this inhuman cavern,

ORDONIO (goes into the recess, then returns, and with It were too bad a prison-house for goblins.

greal scorn).

A jutting clay stone

Props on the long lank weed, that grows beneath: And the weed nods and drips.

ISIDORE (forcing a laugh faintly). A jest to laugh at! It was not that which scared me, good my Lord.

ORDONIO.

What scared you, then?

ISIDORE.

You see that little rift?

But first permit me! [Lights his torch at ORDONIO's, and while lighting it. (A lighted torch in the hand, Is no unpleasant object here-one's breath Floats round the flame, and makes as many colors As the thin clouds that travel near the moon.)

You see that crevice there?

My torch extinguish'd by these water drops,

Beside (you'll smile, my Lord), but true it is,
My last night's sleep was very sorely haunted
By what had pass'd 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 Waked me: she heard my heart beat.

ORDONIO.

And marking that the moonlight came from thence, Had you been here before?

I stept in to it, meaning to sit there;

But scarcely had I measured twenty paces-
My body bending forward, yea, overbalanced
Almost beyond recoil, on the dim brink

Of a huge chasm I stept. The shadowy moonshine
Filling the Void, so counterfeited Substance,

ISIDORE.

Strange enough!

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

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