ACT II

_Enter_ DJABAL.

_Dja._ That a strong man should think himself a God! I--Hakeem? To have wandered through the world, Sown falsehood, and thence reaped now scorn, now faith, For my one chant with many a change, my tale Of outrage, and my prayer for vengeance--this Required, forsooth, no mere man's faculty, Naught less than Hakeem's? The persuading Loys To pass probation here: the getting access By Loys to the Prefect; worst of all, The gaining my tribe's confidence by fraud That would disgrace the very Frank,--a few Of Europe's secrets which subdue the flame, The wave,--to ply a simple tribe with these, Took Hakeem? And I feel this first to-day! Does the day break, is the hour imminent When one deed, when my whole life's deed, my deed Must be accomplished? Hakeem? Why the God? Shout, rather, "Djabal, Youssof's child, thought slain With his whole race, the Druses' Sheikhs, this Prefect Endeavored to extirpate--saved, a child, Returns from traversing the world, a man, Able to take revenge, lead back the march To Lebanon"--so shout, and who gainsays? But now, because delusion mixed itself Insensibly with this career, all 's changed! Have I brought Venice to afford us convoy? "True--but my jugglings wrought that!" Put I heart Into our people where no heart lurked?--"Ah, What cannot an impostor do!" Not this! Not do this which I do! Not bid avaunt Falsehood! Thou shalt not keep thy hold on me! --Nor even get a hold on me! 'T is now-- This day--hour--minute--'t is as here I stand On the accursed threshold of the Prefect, That I am found deceiving and deceived! And now what do I?--hasten to the few Deceived, ere they deceive the many--shout, "As I professed, I did believe myself! Say, Druses, had you seen a butchery-- If Ayoob, Karshook saw----Maani there Must tell you how I saw my father sink; My mother's arms twine still about my neck; I hear my brother shriek, here's yet the scar Of what was meant for my own death-blow--say, If you had woke like me, grown year by year Out of the tumult in a far-off clime, Would it be wondrous such delusion grew? I walked the world, asked help at every hand; Came help or no? Not this and this? Which helps When I returned with, found the Prefect here, The Druses here, all here but Hakeem's self, The Khalif of the thousand prophecies, Reserved for such a juncture,--could I call My mission aught but Hakeem's? Promised Hakeem More than performs the Djabal--you absolve? --Me, you will never shame before the crowd Yet happily ignorant?--Me, both throngs surround, The few deceived, the many unabused, --Who, thus surrounded, slay for you and them The Prefect, lead to Lebanon? No Khalif, But Sheikh once more! Mere Djabal--not" ...

(_Enter_ KHALIL _hastily_.)

_Kha._ --God Hakeem! 'T is told! The whole Druse nation knows thee, Hakeem, As we! and mothers lift on high their babes Who seem aware, so glisten their great eyes, Thou hast not failed us; ancient brows are proud; Our elders could not earlier die, it seems, Than at thy coming! The Druse heart is thine! Take it! my lord and theirs, be thou adored!

_Dja._ [_Aside_.] Adored!--but I renounce it utterly!

_Kha._ Already are they instituting choirs And dances to the Khalif, as of old 'T is chronicled thou bad'st them.

_Dja._ [_Aside._] I abjure it! 'T is not mine--not for me!

_Kha._ Why pour they wine Flavored like honey and bruised mountain-herbs, Or wear those strings of sun-dried cedar-fruit? Oh, let me tell thee--Esaad, we supposed Doting, is carried forth, eager to see The last sun rise on the Isle: he can see now! The shamed Druse women never wept before: They can look up when we reach home, they say. Smell!--sweet cane, saved in Lilith's breast thus long-- Sweet!--it grows wild in Lebanon. And I Alone do nothing for thee! 'T is my office Just to announce what well thou know'st--but thus Thou bidst me. At this self-same moment tend The Prefect, Nuncio and the Admiral Hither by their three sea-paths: nor forget Who were the trusty watchers!--thou forget? Like me, who do forget that Anael bade ...

_Dja._ [_Aside._] Ay, Anael, Anael--is that said at last? Louder than all, that would be said, I knew! What does abjuring mean, confessing mean, To the people? Till that woman crossed my path, On went I, solely for my people's sake: I saw her, and I then first saw myself, And slackened pace: "If I should prove indeed Hakeem--with Anael by!"

_Kha._ [_Aside._] Ah, he is rapt! Dare I at such a moment break on him Even to do my sister's bidding? Yes: The eyes are Djabal's and not Hakeem's yet, Though but till I have spoken this, perchance.

_Dja._ [_Aside._] To yearn to tell her, and yet have no one Great heart's word that will tell her! I could gasp Doubtless one such word out, and die. [_Aloud._] You said That Anael ...

_Kha._ ... Fain would see thee, speak with thee, Before thou change, discard this Djabal's shape She knows, for Hakeem's shape she is to know. Something to say that will not from her mind! I know not what--"Let him but come!" she said.

_Dja._ [_Half apart._] My nation--all my Druses--how fare they? Those I must save, and suffer thus to save, Hold they their posts? Wait they their Khalif too?

_Kha._ All at the signal pant to flock around That banner of a brow!

_Dja._ [_Aside._] And when they flock, Confess them this: and after, for reward, Be chased with howlings to her feet perchance! --Have the poor outraged Druses, deaf and blind, Precede me there, forestall my story there, Tell it in mocks and jeers! I lose myself! Who needs a Hakeem to direct him now? I need the veriest child--why not this child? [_Turning abruptly to_ KHALIL. You are a Druse too, Khalil; you were nourished Like Anael with our mysteries: if she Could vow, so nourished, to love only one Who should avenge the Druses, whence proceeds Your silence? Wherefore made you no essay, Who thus implicitly can execute My bidding? What have I done, you could not? Who, knowing more than Anael the prostration Of our once lofty tribe, the daily life Of this detested ... Does he come, you say, This Prefect? All's in readiness?

_Kha._ The sword, The sacred robe, the Khalif's mystic tiar, Laid up so long, are all disposed beside The Prefect's chamber.

_Dja._ --Why did you despair?

_Kha._ I know our nation's state? Too surely know, As thou who speak'st to prove me! Wrongs like ours Should wake revenge: but when I sought the wronged And spoke,--"The Prefect stabbed your son-- arise! Your daughter, while you starve, eats shameless bread In his pavilion--then arise!"--my speech Fell idly: 't was, "Be silent, or worse fare! Endure till time 's slow cycle prove complete! Who may'st thou be that takest on thee to thrust Into this peril--art thou Hakeem?" No! Only a mission like thy mission renders All these obedient at a breath, subdues Their private passions, brings their wills to one!

_Dja._ You think so?

_Kha._ Even now--when they have witnessed Thy miracles--had I not threatened all With Hakeem's vengeance, they would mar the work, And couch ere this, each with his special prize, Safe in his dwelling, leaving our main hope To perish. No! When these have kissed thy feet At Lebanon, the past purged off, the present Clear,--for the future, even Hakeem's mission May end, and I perchance, or any youth, Shall rule them thus renewed.--I tutor thee!

_Dja._ And wisely. (He is Anael's brother, pure As Anael's self.) Go say, I come to her. Haste! I will follow you. [KHALIL _goes._ Oh, not confess To these, the blinded multitude--confess, Before at least the fortune of my deed Half authorize its means! Only to her Let me confess my fault, who in my path Curled up like incense from a Mage-king's tomb When he would have the wayfarer descend Through the earth's rift and bear hid treasure forth! How should child's-carelessness prove manhood's crime Till now that I, whose lone youth hurried past, Letting each joy 'scape for the Druses' sake, At length recover in one Druse all joy? Were her brow brighter, her eyes richer, still Would I confess! On the gulf's verge I pause. How could I slay the Prefect, thus and thus? Anael, be mine to guard me, not destroy! [_Goes._

(_Enter_ ANAEL, _and_ MAANI _who is assisting to array her in the ancient dress of the Druses._)

_Anael._ Those saffron vestures of the tabret-girls! Comes Djabal, think you?

_Maani._ Doubtless Djabal comes.

_An._ Dost thou snow-swathe thee kinglier, Lebanon, Than in my dreams?--Nay, all the tresses off My forehead! Look I lovely so? He says That I am lovely.

_Maa._ Lovely: nay, that hangs Awry.

_An._ You tell me how a khandjar hangs? The sharp side, thus, along the heart, see, marks The maiden of our class. Are you content For Djabal as for me?

_Maa._ Content, my child.

_An._ Oh mother, tell me more of him! He comes Even now--tell more, fill up my soul with him!

_Maa._ And did I not ... yes, surely ... tell you all?

_An._ What will be changed in Djabal when the Change Arrives? Which feature? Not his eyes!

_Maa._ 'T is writ Our Hakeem's eyes rolled fire and clove the dark Superbly.

_An._ Not his eyes! His voice perhaps? Yet that's no change; for a grave current lived --Grandly beneath the surface ever lived, That, scattering, broke as in live silver spray While ... ah, the bliss ... he would discourse to me In that enforced still fashion, word on word! 'T is the old current which must swell through that, For what least tone, Maani, could I lose? 'T is surely not his voice will change! --If Hakeem Only stood by! If Djabal, somehow, passed Out of the radiance as from out a robe; Possessed, but was not it! He lived with you? Well--and that morning Djabal saw me first And heard me vow never to wed but one Who saved my People--on that day ... proceed!

_Maa._ Once more, then: from the time of his return In secret, changed so since he left the Isle That I, who screened our Emir's last of sons, This Djabal, from the Prefect's massacre --Who bade him ne'er forget the child he was, --Who dreamed so long the youth he might become-- I knew not in the man that child; the man Who spoke alone of hope to save our tribe, How he had gone from land to land to save Our tribe--allies were sure, nor foes to dread; And much he mused, days, nights, alone he mused: But never till that day when, pale and worn As by a persevering woe, he cried "Is there not one Druse left me?"--and I showed The way to Khalil's and your hiding-place From the abhorred eye of the Prefect here, So that he saw you, heard you speak--till then, Never did he announce--(how the moon seemed To ope and shut, the while, above us both!) --His mission was the mission promised us; The cycle had revolved; all things renewing, He was lost Hakeem clothed in flesh to lead His children home anon, now veiled to work Great purposes: the Druses now would change!

_An._ And they have changed! And obstacles did sink, And furtherances rose! And round his form Played fire, and music beat her angel wings! My people, let me more rejoice, oh more For you than for myself! Did I but watch Afar the pageant, feel our Khalif pass, One of the throng, how proud were I--though ne'er Singled by Djabal's glance! But to be chosen His own from all, the most his own of all, To be exalted with him, side by side, Lead the exulting Druses, meet ... ah, how Worthily meet the maidens who await Ever beneath the cedars--how deserve This honor, in their eyes? So bright are they Who saffron-vested sound the tabret there, The girls who throng there in my dream! One hour And all is over: how shall I do aught That may deserve next hour's exalting?-- How?-- [_Suddenly to_ MAANI. Mother, I am not worthy him! I read it Still in his eyes! He stands as if to tell me I am not, yet forbears. Why else revert To one theme ever?--how mere human gifts Suffice him in myself--whose worship fades, Whose awe goes ever off at his approach, As now, who when he comes ...

(DJABAL _enters_.)

Oh why is it I cannot kneel to you?

_Dja._ Rather, 't is I Should kneel to you, my Anael!

_An._ Even so! For never seem you--shall I speak the truth?-- Never a God to me! 'T is the Man's hand, Eye, voice! Oh, do you veil these to our people, Or but to me? To them, I think, to them! And brightness is their veil, shadow--my truth! You mean that I should never kneel to you --So, thus I kneel!

_Dja._ [_Preventing her._] No--no! [_Feeling the khandjar as he raises her._ Ha, have you chosen ...

_An._ The khandjar with our ancient garb. But, Djabal, Change not, be not exalted yet! Give time That I may plan more, perfect more! My blood Beats, beats! [_Aside._] Oh, must I then--since Loys leaves us Never to come again, renew in me These doubts so near effaced already--must I needs confess them now to Djabal?--own That when I saw that stranger, heard his voice, My faith fell, and the woeful thought flashed first That each effect of Djabal's presence, taken For proof of more than human attributes In him, by me whose heart at his approach Beat fast, whose brain while he was by swam round, Whose soul at his departure died away, --That every such effect might have been wrought In other frames, though not in mine, by Loys Or any merely mortal presence? Doubt Is fading fast: shall I reveal it now? How shall I meet the rapture presently, With doubt unexpiated, undisclosed?

_Dja._ [_Aside._] Avow the truth? I cannot! In what words Avow that all she loved in me was false? --Which yet has served that flower-like love of hers To climb by, like the clinging gourd, and clasp With its divinest wealth of leaf and bloom. Could I take down the prop-work, in itself So vile, yet interlaced and overlaid With painted cups and fruitage--might these still Bask in the sun, unconscious their own strength Of matted stalk and tendril had replaced The old support thus silently withdrawn! But no; the beauteous fabric crushes too. 'T is not for my sake but for Anael's sake I leave her soul this Hakeem where it leans. Oh could I vanish from her, quit the Isle! And yet--a thought comes: here my work is done At every point; the Druses must return-- Have convoy to their birth-place back, whoe'er The leader be, myself or any Druse-- Venice is pledged to that: 't is for myself, For my own vengeance in the Prefect's death, I stay now, not for them: to slay or spare The Prefect, whom imports it save myself? He cannot bar their passage from the Isle; What would his death be but my own reward? Then, mine I will forego. It is foregone! Let him escape with all my House's blood! Ere he can reach land, Djabal disappears, And Hakeem, Anael loved, shall, fresh as first, Live in her memory, keeping her sublime Above the world. She cannot touch that world By ever knowing what I truly am, Since Loys,--of mankind the only one Able to link my present with my past, My life in Europe with my Island life, Thence, able to unmask me,--I 've disposed Safely at last at Rhodes, and ...

(_Enter_ KHALIL.)

_Kha._ Loys greets thee!

_Dja._ Loys? To drag me back? It cannot be!

_An._ [_Aside._] Loys! Ah, doubt may not be stifled so!

_Kha._ Can I have erred that thou so gazest? Yes, I told thee not in the glad press of tidings Of higher import, Loys is returned Before the Prefect, with, if possible, Twice the light-heartedness of old. As though On some inauguration he expects, To-day, the world's fate hung!

_Dja._ --And asks for me?

_Kha._ Thou knowest all things. Thee in chief he greets, But every Druse of us is to be happy At his arrival, he declares: were Loys Thou, Master, he could have no wider soul To take us in with. How I love that Loys!

_Dja._ [_Aside._] Shame winds me with her tether round and round!

_An._ [_Aside._] Loys? I take the trial! it is meet, The little I can do, be done; that faith, All I can offer, want no perfecting Which my own act may compass. Ay, this way All may go well, nor that ignoble doubt Be chased by other aid than mine. Advance Close to my fear, weigh Loys with my Lord, The mortal with the more than mortal gifts!

_Dja._ [_Aside._] Before, there were so few deceived! and now There's doubtless not one least Druse in the Isle But, having learned my superhuman claims, And calling me his Khalif-God, will clash The whole truth out from Loys at first word! While Loys, for his part, will hold me up, With a Frank's unimaginable scorn Of such imposture, to my people's eyes! Could I but keep him longer yet awhile From them, amuse him here until I plan How he and I at once may leave the Isle! Khalil I cannot part with from my side-- My only help in this emergency: There's Anael!

_An._ Please you?

_Dja._ Anael--none but she!

[_To_ ANAEL.] I pass some minutes in the chamber there, Ere I see Loys: you shall speak with him Until I join you. Khalil follows me.

_An._ [_Aside._] As I divined: he bids me save myself, Offers me a probation--I accept! Let me see Loys!

_Loys_. [_Without._] Djabal!

_An._ [_Aside._] 'Tis his voice. The smooth Frank trifler with our people's wrongs, The self-complacent boy-inquirer, loud On this and that inflicted tyranny, --Aught serving to parade an ignorance Of how wrong feels, inflicted! Let me close With what I viewed at distance: let myself Probe this delusion to the core!

_Dja._ He comes. Khalil, along with me! while Anael waits Till I return once more--and but once more!