And thrilling hands, that made me weep and tremble-On such employment! With far other thoughts 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! My Alvar loved sad music from a child. Some strangely moving notes: and these, he said, His head upon the blind boy's dog. It pleased me 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 here, ALVAR. O high-soul'd maiden! and more dear to me I swear to thee 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: Who in broad circle, lovelier than the rainbow, [Music Even now your living wheel turns o'er my head! Ye, as ye pass, toss high the desert sands, Till from the blue swoln Corse the Soul toils out, [Here behind the scenes a voice sings the three Soul of Alvar! So shall the Church's cleansing rites be thine, SONG Behind the Scenes, accompanied by the same Instru ment as before. Hear, sweet spirit, hear the spell, And at evening evermore, In a Chapel on the shore, Had pamper'd his swoln heart and made him proud? 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 [Exeunt TERESA and Attendant. (Music as before). The spell is mutter'd-Come, thou wandering Shape, [The whole Music clashes into a Chorus CHORUS. Wandering Demons, hear the spell! [The incense on the altar takes fire suddenly, and ORDONIO (starting in great agitation). MONVIEDRO. First seize the sorcerer! suffer him not to speak! Shall hear his first words.-Look you pale, Lord Plain evidence have we here of most foul sorcery. Why haste you not? Off with him to the dungeon! 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, TERESA. [Music again. Such calm unwonted bliss possess'd my spirit, As alien and unnoticed as the rain-storm Enter VALDEZ. VALDEZ. Ye pitying saints, forgive a father's blindness, TERESA. Who wakes anew my fears, and speaks of peril? VALDEZ. O best Teresa, wisely wert thou prompted! shine, [Turning off, aloud, but yet as to himself. And the blood dances freely through its channels! Accurst assassins! Hush! who comes here? The wizard Moor's em- Moors were his murderers, you say? Saints shield us [VALDEZ moves towards the back of the stage to [Turns off abruptly; then to himself This is my virtuous, grateful Isidore! [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 Hatred and Love! Fancies opposed by fancies! Is Alvar dead? what then? VALDEZ. ORDONIO (as he advances with VALDEZ). 12 [Averting himself [TERESA moves hastily forwards, and places herself directly before ORDONIO. 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? eye-Suits that a high-born maiden's modesty? Over his rocky grave the Fir-grove sighs VALDEZ. Urge him not-not now! ORDONIO. A tender-hearted, scrupulous, grateful villain, VALDEZ (looking with anxious disquiet at his Son, yet While his two companions ORDONIO. TERESA. The mine is undermined! Blood! Blood! Blood! The hunt is up! and in the midnight wood, 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! To the creatures of his fancy 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! 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! 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. Art thou more coward now? Call him, that fears his fellow-man, a coward! 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, Had a strange power of breathing terror round me! 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- Of a huge chasm I stept. The shadowy moonshine 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 |