Chapter 3

A Chamber.

[Enter ALARCOS and PAGE.]

I:3:1 PAGE. Will you wait here, my Lord?

I:3:2 ALAR. I will, sir Page.

[Exit PAGE.]

The Bishop of Ossuna: what would he? He scents the prosperous ever. Ay! they’ll cluster Round this new hive. But I’ll not house them yet. Marry, I know them all; but me they know, As mountains might the leaping stream that meets The ocean as a river. Time and exile Change our life’s course, but is its flow less deep Because it is more calm? I’ve seen to-day Might stir its pools. What if my phantom flung A shade on their bright path? ‘Tis closed to me Although the goal’s a crown. She loved me once; Now swoons, and now the match is off. She’s true. But I have clipped the heart that once could soar High as her own! Dreams, dreams! And yet entranced, Unto the fair phantasma that is fled, My struggling fancy clings; for there are hours When memory with her signet stamps the brain With an undying mint; and these were such, When high Ambition and enraptured Love, Twin Genii of my daring destiny, Bore on my sweeping life with their full wing, Like an angelic host:

[In the distance enter a lady veiled.]

Is this their priest? Burgos unchanged I see.

[Advancing towards her.]

A needless veil To one prophetic of thy charms, fair lady. And yet they fall on an ungracious eye.

[Withdraws the veil.]

Solisa!

I:3:3 SOL. Yes! Solisa; once again O say Solisa! let that long lost voice Breathe with a name too faithful!

I:3:4 ALAR. Oh! what tones, What mazing sight is this! The spellbound forms Of my first youth rise up from the abyss Of opening time. I listen to a voice That bursts the sepulchre of buried hope Like an immortal trumpet.

I:3:5 SOL. Thou hast granted, Mary, my prayers!

I:3:6 ALAR. Solisa, my Solisa!

I:3:7 SOL. Thine, thine, Alarcos. But thou: whose art thou?

I:3:8 ALAR. Within this chamber is my memory bound; I have no thought, no consciousness beyond Its precious walls.

I:3:9 SOL. Thus did he look, thus speak, When to my heart he clung, and I to him Breathed my first love--and last.

I:3:10 ALAR. Alas! alas! Woe to thy Mother, maiden.

I:3:11 SOL. She has found That which I oft have prayed for.

I:3:12 ALAR. But not found A doom more dark than ours.

I:3:13 SOL. I sent for thee, To tell thee why I sent for thee; yet why, Alas! I know not. Was it but to look Alone upon the face that once was mine? This morn it was so grave. O! was it woe, Or but indifference, that inspired that brow That seemed so cold and stately? Was it hate? O! tell me anything, but that to thee I am a thing of nothingness.

I:3:14 ALAR. O spare! Spare me such words of torture.

I:3:15 SOL. Could I feel Thou didst not hate me, that my image brought At least a gentle, if not tender thoughts, I’d be content. I cannot live to think, After the past, that we should meet again And change cold looks. We are not strangers, say At least we are not strangers?

I:3:16 ALAR. Gentle Princess--

I:3:17 SOL. Call me Solisa; tho’ we meet no more Call me Solisa now.

I:3:18 ALAR. Thy happiness--

I:3:19 SOL. O! no, no, no, not happiness, at least Not from those lips.

I:3:20 ALAR. Indeed it is a name That ill becomes them.

I:3:21 SOL. Yet they say, thou’rt happy, And bright with all prosperity, and I Felt solace in that thought.

I:3:22 ALAR. Prosperity! Men call them prosperous whom they deem enjoy That which they envy; but there’s no success Save in one master-wish fulfilled, and mine Is lost for ever.

I:3:23 SOL. Why was it? O, why Didst thou forget me?

I:3:24 ALAR. Never, lady, never-- But ah! the past, the irrevocable past-- We can but meet to mourn.

I:3:25 SOL. No, not to mourn I came to bless thee, came to tell to thee I hoped that thou wert happy.

I:3:26 ALAR. Come to mourn. I’ll find delight in my unbridled grief: Yes! let me fling away at last this mask, And gaze upon my woe.

I:3:27 SOL. O, it was rash, Indeed ‘twas rash, Alarcos; what, sweet sir, What, after all our vows, to hold me false, And place this bar between us! I’ll not think Thou ever loved’st me as thou did’st profess, And that’s the bitter drop.

I:3:28 ALAR. Indeed, indeed--

I:3:29 SOL. I could bear much, I could bear all, but this My faith in thy past love, it was so deep, So pure, so sacred, ‘twas my only solace; I fed upon it in my secret heart, And now e’en that is gone.

I:3:30 ALAR. Doubt not the past, ‘Tis sanctified. It is the green fresh spot In my life’s desert.

I:3:31 SOL. There is none to thee As I have been? Speak, speak, Alarcos, tell me Is’t true? Or, in this shipwreck of my soul, Do I cling wildly to some perishing hope That sinks like me?

I:3:32 ALAR. The May-burst of the heart Can bloom but once; and mine has fled, not faded. That thought gave fancied solace, ah, ‘twas fancy, For now I feel my doom.

I:3:33 SOL. Thou hast no doom But what is splendid as thyself. Alas! Weak woman, when she stakes her heart, must play Ever a fatal chance. It is her all, And when ‘tis lost, she’s bankrupt; but proud man Shuffles the cards again, and wins to-morrow What pays his present forfeit.

I:3:34 ALAR. But alas! What have I won?

I:3:35 SOL. A country and a wife.

I:3:36 ALAR. A wife!

I:3:37 SOL. A wife, and very fair, they say. She should be fair, who could induce thee break Such vows as thine. O! I am very weak. Why came I here? Was it indeed to see If thou could’st look on me?

I:3:38 ALAR. My own Solisa.

I:3:39 SOL. Call me not thine; why, what am I to thee That thou should’st call me thine?

I:3:40 ALAR. Indeed, sweet lady, Thou lookest on a man as bruised in spirit, As broken-hearted, and subdued in soul, As any breathing wretch that deems the day Can bring no darker morrow. Pity me! And if kind words may not subdue those lips So scornful in their beauty, be they touched At least by Mercy’s accents! Was’t a crime, I could not dare believe that royal heart Retained an exile’s image? that forlorn, Harassed, worn out, surrounded by strange aspects And stranger manners, in those formal ties Custom points out, I sought some refuge, found At least companionship, and, grant ‘twas weak, Shrunk from the sharp endurance of the doom That waits on exile, utter loneliness!

I:3:41 SOL. His utter loneliness!

I:3:42 ALAR. And met thy name, Most beauteous lady, prithee think of this, Only to hear the princes of the world Were thy hot suitors, and that one would soon Be happier than Alarcos.

I:3:43 SOL. False, most false, They told thee false.

I:3:44 ALAR. At least, then, pity me, Solisa!

I:3:45 SOL. Ah! Solisa, that sweet voice, Why should I pity thee? ‘Tis not my office. Go, go to her that cheered thy loneliness, Thy utter loneliness. And had I none? Had I no pangs of solitude? Exile! O! there were moments I’d have gladly given My crown for banishment. A wounded heart Beats freer in a desert; ‘tis the air Of palaces that chokes it.

I:3:46 ALAR. Fate has crossed, Not falsehood, our sweet loves. Our lofty passion Is tainted with no vileness. Memory bears Convulsion, not contempt; no palling sting That waits on base affections. It is something To have loved thee; and in that thought I find My sense exalted; wretched though I be.

I:3:47 SOL. Is he so wretched? Yet he is less forlorn Than when he sought, what I would never seek, A partner in his woe! I’ll ne’er believe it; Thou art not wretched. Why, thou hast a friend, A sweet companion in thy grief to soothe Thy loneliness, and feed on thy bright smiles, Thrill with thine accents, with impassioned reverence Enclasp thine hand, and with enchained eyes Gaze on thy glorious presence. O, Alarcos! Art thou not worshipped now? What, can it be, That there is one, who walks in Paradise, Nor feels the air immortal?

I:3:48 ALAR. Let my curse Descend upon the hour I left thy walls, My father’s town!

I:3:49 SOL. My blessing on thy curse! Thou hast returned, thou hast returned, Alarcos?

I:3:50 ALAR. To despair.

I:3:51 SOL. Yet ‘tis not the hour he quitted Our city’s wall, it is the tie that binds him Within those walls my lips would more denounce, But ah, that tie is dear!

I:3:52 ALAR. Accursed be The wiles that parted us; accursed be The ties that sever us

I:3:53 SOL. Thou’rt mine.

I:3:54 ALAR. For ever. Thou unpolluted passion of my youth, My first, my only, my enduring love!

[They embrace.]

[Enter FERDINAND, the PAGE.]

I:3:55 PAGE. Lady, a message from thy royal father; He comes--

I:3:56 SOL.

[Springing from the arms of Alarcos.]

My father! word of fear! Why now To cloud my light? I had forgotten fate; But he recalls it. O my bright Alarcos! My love must fly. Nay, not one word of care; Love only from those lips. Yet, ere we part, Seal our sweet faith renewed.

I:3:57 ALAR. And never broken.

[Exit Alarcos.]

I:3:58 SOL. Why has he gone? Why did I bid him go? And let this jewel I so daring plucked Slip in the waves again? I’m sure there’s time To call him back, and say farewell once more. I’ll say farewell no more; it was a word Ever harsh music when the morrow brought Welcomes renewed of love, No more farewells. O when will he be mine! I cannot wait, I cannot tarry, now I know he loves me; Each hour, each instant that I see him not, Is usurpation of my right. O joy! Am I the same Solisa, that this morn Breathed forth her orison with humbler spirit Than the surrounding acolytes? Thou’st smiled, Sweet Virgin, on my prayers. Twice fifty tapers Shall burn before thy shrine. Guard over me O! mother of my soul, and let me prosper In my great enterprise! O hope! O love! O sharp remembrance of long baffled joy! Inspire me now.