SCENE I.--Lochmaben. A Room in the Castle.

Enter Lamberton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, Edward and Nigel Bruce, the two Setons, Sir Thomas Randolf, and other Lords and Gentlemen.

Lamberton. My lords and gentlemen, this is no time For ceremony, which, when lazy peace Has rusted o'er the world's slack businesses, Oils easily the motion of affairs; For now events impel each other on, And higher powers than beadles usher them. I am commissioned by the noble Bruce To greet you heartily and wish you well While you remain within Lochmaben's walls. By my advice he begs you to excuse His absence, while I speak. When you have heard I doubt not that you will. He has confessed The sacrilegious crime of yesterday, Contritely and with simple truthfulness. No exculpation, no defence at all, Such as we know there is, he offered me. Some of us here may hold that Bruce's act Should rather be extolled than stigmatised. We know for certain now what was the wrong That Comyn, having wrought, denied on oath, And all our sympathy goes out to Bruce. But such the old deceitfulness of sin That feelings of the sweetest comfort oft Mislead us to embrace iniquity. Man's worst of deeds God turns to good account: A penance, which I hope will work God's will, I have enjoined on the humiliate earl. I mean to crown him, Robert, King of Scots: His task will be to make that title good. Now I have said a word that stirs your blood, Begetting hope and courage, valiant twins. And yet it is not I that speak, but God: Surely God speaks. The sequence of events, Of which this conference is the latest bud, Appears to me a heavenly oracle, As evident as Aaron's sprouting rod, Commanding Robert Bruce to be the king. He would have placed the crown on Comyn's head Had Comyn wished, that Scotland might be one; But Comyn thought to get the crown by guile, And like an impious fool betrayed his friend, Setting between him and the English king A gulf of enmity impassable. Edward will judge him out of church and law; But in our Scotch communion he is safe: And being out of law, there is no way, Except to be our king, above the law. Needs must, my lords; and is not need God's will? Edward Bruce. It is the will of God. All. Bruce shall be king.

Enter Bruce.

Long live the King! Long live King Robert Bruce! Bruce. You hail me by a name that may be mine In more than word, but not without your aid. There are not many Scots besides yourselves Who will acknowledge me their King. Think well Before you pledge your faith to one outlawed; For so I am, if law depend on power. Scotland, the Isles, and England are my foes: My friends are individual; on my hands They may be counted. Lennox, Athole, Cairns, Fleming, the Hayes, the Frasers, Sommerville, Glasgow, and Moray, sum the list with you: These only are the Scots whom I may rule. Sir Christopher Seton. Then only these deserve the name of Scot. Lamberton. Right, Seton! Randolf. We are Scots, the rest are slaves! Freeman and Scot have ever meant the same. Lamberton. Carrick or King? Bruce. King, by God's will and yours. Lamberton. Sometimes we please ourselves with images Of deeds heroic. The unstabled thought, Enfranchised by rough-riding passion, winds A haughty course and laughs at depth and height: But the blood tires; and lo! our thought, a steed, That from his rider ever takes the mood, Pants, droops, turns tail, and hobbles home to stall. Look in yourselves, and see if vain conceit Or lofty daring, lord it o'er your minds. This thing is sure: reason must be constrained: You must be hot, believing, fanatic; You must be wrathful, patriotic, rash; Forethought abandon o'er to providence; Let prudence lag behind you, like a snail, Bearing its house with care upon its back; Take counsel only of the circumstance That shapes itself in doing of the deed; Be happy, scornful, death-defiant: strong You will be then matchless, invincible. What! shall we go to Scone, and crown Bruce king? Randolf. At once, Lord Archbishop. Sir John Seton. To Glasgow, first, To take our friends there with us. Lamberton. That is best. Is it your will to be crowned king at Scone? Bruce. Most reverend father, and my noble friends, If language were to me in place of thought, I could pour grateful speeches in your ears; But words are wanting. I am helpless, dumb; I would be lonely; I would think awhile. Lamberton. Think worthy thoughts, that only second are To worthy deeds; yet their begetters too. We'll leave you till our little troop's arrayed. Bruce. You are very kind, my lords. [All go out except Bruce. I'm not a man Much given to meditate. When pending thoughts Hurtle each other in the intellect, Darkening that firmament like thunder-clouds, To let them lighten forth in utterance Clears up the sky, confused with swaying rack. My life begins a new departure here; And like one dying all my time appears Even on the instant, in eternal light. Ambition struck the hours that measured it. My pact with Comyn was half-hearted. What! The passion that laid hold upon my soul When he was killed--When he was killed? I think I'm to myself too merciful; but yet I seemed to do some bidding:--were there not Alloys of gladness that the bond was loosed, Of jealousy that Comyn barred my way, Mixed in the blow that paid the traitor's wage? There are two voices whispering in my ear: This is the bane of self-communion. Now, Right in thy teeth, or in thy toothless chaps, I swear, antiquity, first thoughts are best: Their treble notes I still shall hearken to, And let no second, murmuring soft, seduce Their clear and forthright meaning. It is gone, The flash of revelation: dallying does With intuition as with other chance. I would to God that I might ever hear The trump of doom pealing along the sky, And know that every common neighbour day Is the last day, and so live on and fight In presence of the judgment. Wishing this Have I not broached the very heart of truth? Each unmarked moment is an end of time, And this begins the future.

Enter Isabella.

Isabella! Isabella. What in this time of doleful accidents Could move the joyful shouts I heard just now? Bruce. My dearest, what would make you shout for joy? Isabella. I have not shouted since I was a girl; But now, I think, if any happy thing Should spring into my life, I would cry out, I have been so unhappy, and so long. Tell me you'll never leave me any more; Then will I cry, and weep, for very joy. Bruce. Heaven grant it may be so! Isabella. If there is hope!-- Did I not shout now?--I will nurse it warm, And pet it like a darling, till it come To be what I imagine in the fact, Or in the fancy; for I will go mad: I'll bend myself to lose all faculty, All thought, remembrance, all intelligence, So to be capable of company With your phantasm, more real then than life; And be a wild mad woman, if those fears, Those weary absences, those partings pale, And fevered expectations, which have filled The summer of our life with storm and cold, Determine not in peace and halcyon days. You do not love me as I love you; no; Else you would never leave me. Love of power And love of me hold tourney in your breast. Let Will throw down the baton, and declare The love of me the winner, and I'll be Your queen of love; and beautiful as love For man can make a woman. I am proud: When love transfigures me I can conceive How beautiful I am. Stay with me, then, That holy, sweet, and confident desire May light me up a pleasant bower for you: I am, when you are gone, a house forlorn, Cold, desolate, and hasting to decay: Stay, tenant me, preserve me in repair; Only sweet uses keep sweet beauty fair. Bruce. I love you, Isabella, by high heaven, More than the highest power that can be mine. Isabella. Why then pursue this power so ardently? Bruce. I stayed pursuit; but it would follow me. My countrymen have asked me to be king. Isabella. King!--But you murdered Comyn. All his friends-- Forgive me, love. I would not for the world Reproach you; but---- Bruce. I know your gentle heart. My thought of you is not the morning bride; Nor even the rose that oped its balmy breast And gave its nectar sweetly. In my mind This memory of you crowds out the rest: The woman who with tender arms embraced The bloody murderer. I know your heart. Isabella. Hush! Bruce. Friends are few; but if my title's good? Hopeless the cause; but if the cause be just? I'm glad my hand that did my passion's hest Has made my mind up for me. Isabella. You'll be king? Bruce. Will I be hunted like a common knave Who stabs his comrade in a drunken brawl For some rude jest or ruder courtesan, And, being an outlaw, dies by any hand? I'd rather be the king; and though I die The meanest death, be held in memory As one who, having entered on a course Of righteous warfare by a gate of shame, Pursued it with his might, and made amends For starting false--so far as lay in him; For out of him his sin is, 'stablished, past, And by a life's atonement unredeemed. I do not brood on this. Before you came I had better thoughts. Isabella. O, I am sad at that! Bruce. I love you: not from you those worse thoughts sprang. Isabella. Perhaps they did: for I have sometimes found, When I have spent an hour in decking me, But thinking more to please you in my life Than in my dress, that, coming then to you, Brimming with tenderness, some thoughtless word, Or even a look from you, has changed my mood, And made me deem the world a wilderness; While this cross glance, or inauspicious tone, Was but a feint of yours, whose strength of love Withheld itself, afraid it should undo Its purpose by endeavouring too much: And we have parted, discontented both. But we'll not part now. Say, we shall not part. Bruce. Not now. We will be crowned together, queen. Isabella. 'But then' succeeds 'not now'; I hope, far off. Bruce. We must prepare to go. Isabella. So soon! Bruce. Our friends Await us, chafing doubtless at delay. Isabella. Then I will make a proverb lie for once, And be on horseback sooner than my lord. [They go out.