Chapter 6

SCENE--The door of the Hostel, a group of Pilgrims as before; IDONEA and the Host among them

HOST Lady, you'll find your Father at the Convent As I have told you: He left us yesterday With two Companions; one of them, as seemed, His most familiar Friend. (Going.) There was a letter Of which I heard them speak, but that I fancy Has been forgotten.

IDONEA (to Host) Farewell!

HOST Gentle pilgrims, St. Cuthbert speed you on your holy errand.

[Exeunt IDONEA and Pilgrims.]

[SCENE--A desolate Moor]

[OSWALD (alone)]

OSWALD Carry him to the Camp! Yes, to the Camp. Oh, Wisdom! a most wise resolve! and then, That half a word should blow it to the winds! This last device must end my work.--Methinks It were a pleasant pastime to construct A scale and table of belief--as thus-- Two columns, one for passion, one for proof; Each rises as the other falls: and first, Passion a unit and _against_ us--proof-- Nay, we must travel in another path, Or we're stuck fast for ever;--passion, then, Shall be a unit _for_ us; proof--no, passion! We'll not insult thy majesty by time, Person, and place--the where, the when, the how, And all particulars that dull brains require To constitute the spiritless shape of Fact, They bow to, calling the idol, Demonstration. A whipping to the Moralists who preach That misery is a sacred thing: for me, I know no cheaper engine to degrade a man, Nor any half so sure. This Stripling's mind Is shaken till the dregs float on the surface; And, in the storm and anguish of the heart, He talks of a transition in his Soul, And dreams that he is happy. We dissect The senseless body, and why not the mind?-- These are strange sights--the mind of man, upturned, Is in all natures a strange spectacle; In some a hideous one--hem! shall I stop? No.--Thoughts and feelings will sink deep, but then They have no substance. Pass but a few minutes, And something shall be done which Memory May touch, whene'er her Vassals are at work.

[Enter MARMADUKE, from behind]

OSWALD (turning to meet him) But listen, for my peace--

MARMADUKE Why, I _believe_ you.

OSWALD But hear the proofs--

MARMADUKE Ay, prove that when two peas Lie snugly in a pod, the pod must then Be larger than the peas--prove this--'twere matter Worthy the hearing. Fool was I to dream It ever could be otherwise!

OSWALD Last night When I returned with water from the brook, I overheard the Villains--every word Like red-hot iron burnt into my heart. Said one, "It is agreed on. The blind Man Shall feign a sudden illness, and the Girl, Who on her journey must proceed alone, Under pretence of violence, be seized. She is," continued the detested Slave, "She is right willing--strange if she were not!-- They say, Lord Clifford is a savage man; But, faith, to see him in his silken tunic, Fitting his low voice to the minstrel's harp, There's witchery in't. I never knew a maid That could withstand it. True," continued he, "When we arranged the affair, she wept a little (Not the less welcome to my Lord for that) And said, 'My Father he will have it so.'"

MARMADUKE I am your hearer.

OSWALD This I caught, and more That may not be retold to any ear. The obstinate bolt of a small iron door Detained them near the gateway of the Castle. By a dim lantern's light I saw that wreaths Of flowers were in their hands, as if designed For festive decoration; and they said, With brutal laughter and most foul allusion, That they should share the banquet with their Lord And his new Favorite.

MARMADUKE Misery!--

OSWALD I knew How you would be disturbed by this dire news, And therefore chose this solitary Moor, Here to impart the tale, of which, last night, I strove to ease my mind, when our two Comrades, Commissioned by the Band, burst in upon us.

MARMADUKE Last night, when moved to lift the avenging steel, I did believe all things were shadows--yea, Living or dead all things were bodiless, Or but the mutual mockeries of body, Till that same star summoned me back again. Now I could laugh till my ribs ached. Fool! To let a creed, built in the heart of things, Dissolve before a twinkling atom!--Oswald, I could fetch lessons out of wiser schools Than you have entered, were it worth the pains. Young as I am, I might go forth a teacher, And you should see how deeply I could reason Of love in all its shapes, beginnings, ends; Of moral qualities in their diverse aspects; Of actions, and their laws and tendencies.

OSWALD You take it as it merits--

MARMADUKE One a King, General or Cham, Sultan or Emperor, Strews twenty acres of good meadow-ground With carcases, in lineament and shape And substance, nothing differing from his own, But that they cannot stand up of themselves; Another sits i' th' sun, and by the hour Floats kingcups in the brook--a Hero one We call, and scorn the other as Time's spendthrift; But have they not a world of common ground To occupy--both fools, or wise alike, Each in his way?

OSWALD Troth, I begin to think so.

MARMADUKE Now for the corner-stone of my philosophy: I would not give a denier for the man Who, on such provocation as this earth Yields, could not chuck his babe beneath the chin, And send it with a fillip to its grave.

OSWALD Nay, you leave me behind.

MARMADUKE That such a One, So pious in demeanour! in his look So saintly and so pure!--Hark'ee, my Friend, I'll plant myself before Lord Clifford's Castle, A surly mastiff kennels at the gate, And he shall howl and I will laugh, a medley Most tunable.

OSWALD In faith, a pleasant scheme; But take your sword along with you, for that Might in such neighbourhood find seemly use.-- But first, how wash our hands of this old Man?

MARMADUKE Oh yes, that mole, that viper in the path; Plague on my memory, him I had forgotten.

OSWALD You know we left him sitting--see him yonder.

MARMADUKE Ha! ha!--

OSWALD As 'twill be but a moment's work, I will stroll on; you follow when 'tis done.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE changes to another part of the Moor at a short distance--HERBERT is discovered seated on a stone

HERBERT A sound of laughter, too!--'tis well--I feared, The Stranger had some pitiable sorrow Pressing upon his solitary heart. Hush!--'tis the feeble and earth-loving wind That creeps along the bells of the crisp heather. Alas! 'tis cold--I shiver in the sunshine-- What can this mean? There is a psalm that speaks Of God's parental mercies--with Idonea I used to sing it.--Listen!--what foot is there?

[Enter MARMADUKE]

MARMADUKE (aside--looking at HERBERT) And I have loved this Man! and _she_ hath loved him! And I loved her, and she loves the Lord Clifford! And there it ends;--if this be not enough To make mankind merry for evermore, Then plain it is as day, that eyes were made For a wise purpose--verily to weep with! [Looking round.] A pretty prospect this, a masterpiece Of Nature, finished with most curious skill! (To HERBERT.) Good Baron, have you ever practised tillage? Pray tell me what this land is worth by the acre?

HERBERT How glad I am to hear your voice! I know not Wherein I have offended you;--last night I found in you the kindest of Protectors; This morning, when I spoke of weariness, You from my shoulder took my scrip and threw it About your own; but for these two hours past Once only have you spoken, when the lark Whirred from among the fern beneath our feet, And I, no coward in my better days, Was almost terrified.

MARMADUKE That's excellent!-- So, you bethought you of the many ways In which a man may come to his end, whose crimes Have roused all Nature up against him--pshaw!--

HERBERT For mercy's sake, is nobody in sight? No traveller, peasant, herdsman?

MARMADUKE Not a soul: Here is a tree, raggèd, and bent, and bare, That turns its goat's-beard flakes of pea-green moss From the stern breathing of the rough sea-wind; This have we, but no other company: Commend me to the place. If a man should die And leave his body here, it were all one As he were twenty fathoms underground.

HERBERT Where is our common Friend?

MARMADUKE A ghost, methinks-- The Spirit of a murdered man, for instance-- Might have fine room to ramble about here, A grand domain to squeak and gibber in.

HERBERT Lost Man! if thou have any close-pent guilt Pressing upon thy heart, and this the hour Of visitation--

MARMADUKE A bold word from _you_!

HERBERT Restore him, Heaven!

MARMADUKE The desperate Wretch!--A Flower, Fairest of all flowers, was she once, but now They have snapped her from the stem--Poh! let her lie Besoiled with mire, and let the houseless snail Feed on her leaves. You knew her well--ay, there, Old Man! you were a very Lynx, you knew The worm was in her--

HERBERT Mercy! Sir, what mean you?

MARMADUKE You have a Daughter!

HERBERT Oh that she were here!-- She hath an eye that sinks into all hearts, And if I have in aught offended you, Soon would her gentle voice make peace between us.

MARMADUKE (aside) I do believe he weeps--I could weep too-- There is a vein of her voice that runs through his: Even such a Man my fancy bodied forth From the first moment that I loved the Maid; And for his sake I loved her more: these tears-- I did not think that aught was left in me Of what I have been--yes, I thank thee, Heaven! One happy thought has passed across my mind. --It may not be--I am cut off from man; No more shall I be man--no more shall I Have human feelings!-- (To HERBERT) --Now, for a little more About your Daughter!

HERBERT Troops of armed men, Met in the roads, would bless us; little children, Rushing along in the full tide of play, Stood silent as we passed them! I have heard The boisterous carman, in the miry road, Check his loud whip and hail us with mild voice, And speak with milder voice to his poor beasts.

MARMADUKE And whither were you going?

HERBERT Learn, young Man,-- To fear the virtuous, and reverence misery, Whether too much for patience, or, like mine, Softened till it becomes a gift of mercy.

MARMADUKE Now, this is as it should be!

HERBERT I am weak!-- My Daughter does not know how weak I am; And, as thou see'st, under the arch of heaven Here do I stand, alone, to helplessness, By the good God, our common Father, doomed!-- But I had once a spirit and an arm--

MARMADUKE Now, for a word about your Barony: I fancy when you left the Holy Land, And came to--what's your title--eh? your claims Were undisputed!

HERBERT Like a mendicant, Whom no one comes to meet, I stood alone;-- I murmured--but, remembering Him who feeds The pelican and ostrich of the desert, From my own threshold I looked up to Heaven And did not want glimmerings of quiet hope. So, from the court I passed, and down the brook, Led by its murmur, to the ancient oak I came; and when I felt its cooling shade, I sate me down, and cannot but believe-- While in my lap I held my little Babe And clasped her to my heart, my heart that ached More with delight than grief--I heard a voice Such as by Cherith on Elijah called; It said, "I will be with thee." A little boy, A shepherd-lad, ere yet my trance was gone, Hailed us as if he had been sent from heaven, And said, with tears, that he would be our guide: I had a better guide--that innocent Babe-- Her, who hath saved me, to this hour, from harm, From cold, from hunger, penury, and death; To whom I owe the best of all the good I have, or wish for, upon earth--and more And higher far than lies within earth's bounds: Therefore I bless her: when I think of Man, I bless her with sad spirit,--when of God, I bless her in the fulness of my joy!

MARMADUKE The name of daughter in his mouth, he prays! With nerves so steady, that the very flies Sit unmolested on his staff.--Innocent!-- If he were innocent--then he would tremble And be disturbed, as I am. (Turning aside.) I have read In Story, what men now alive have witnessed, How, when the People's mind was racked with doubt, Appeal was made to the great Judge: the Accused With naked feet walked over burning ploughshares. Here is a Man by Nature's hand prepared For a like trial, but more merciful. Why else have I been led to this bleak Waste? Bare is it, without house or track, and destitute Of obvious shelter, as a shipless sea. Here will I leave him--here--All-seeing God! Such as _he_ is, and sore perplexed as I am, I will commit him to this final _Ordeal!_-- He heard a voice--a shepherd-lad came to him And was his guide; if once, why not again, And in this desert? If never--then the whole Of what he says, and looks, and does, and is, Makes up one damning falsehood. Leave him here To cold and hunger!--Pain is of the heart, And what are a few throes of bodily suffering If they can waken one pang of remorse? [Goes up to HERBERT.] Old Man! my wrath is as a flame burnt out, It cannot be rekindled. Thou art here Led by my hand to save thee from perdition: Thou wilt have time to breathe and think--

HERBERT Oh, Mercy!

MARMADUKE I know the need that all men have of mercy, And therefore leave thee to a righteous judgment.

HERBERT My Child, my blessèd Child!

MARMADUKE No more of that; Thou wilt have many guides if thou art innocent; Yea, from the utmost corners of the earth, That Woman will come o'er this Waste to save thee. [He pauses and looks at HERBERT'S staff.] Ha! what is here? and carved by her own hand! [Reads upon the staff.] "I am eyes to the blind, saith the Lord. He that puts his trust in me shall not fail!" Yes, be it so;--repent and be forgiven-- God and that staff are now thy only guides. [He leaves HERBERT on the Moor.]

SCENE--An eminence, a Beacon on the summit

LACY, WALLACE, LENNOX, etc. etc.

SEVERAL OF THE BAND (confusedly) But patience!

ONE OF THE BAND Curses on that Traitor, Oswald!-- Our Captain made a prey to foul device!--

LENNOX (to WALLACE) His tool, the wandering Beggar, made last night A plain confession, such as leaves no doubt, Knowing what otherwise we know too well, That she revealed the truth. Stand by me now; For rather would I have a nest of vipers Between my breast-plate and my skin, than make Oswald my special enemy, if you Deny me your support.

LACY We have been fooled-- But for the motive?

WALLACE Natures such as his Spin motives out of their own bowels, Lacy! I learn'd this when I was a Confessor. I know him well; there needs no other motive Than that most strange incontinence in crime Which haunts this Oswald. Power is life to him And breath and being; where he cannot govern, He will destroy.

LACY To have been trapped like moles!-- Yes, you are right, we need not hunt for motives: There is no crime from which this man would shrink; He recks not human law; and I have noticed That often when the name of God is uttered, A sudden blankness overspreads his face.

LENNOX Yet, reasoner as he is, his pride has built Some uncouth superstition of its own.

WALLACE I have seen traces of it.

LENNOX Once he headed A band of Pirates in the Norway seas; And when the King of Denmark summoned him To the oath of fealty, I well remember, 'Twas a strange answer that he made; he said, "I hold of Spirits, and the Sun in heaven."

LACY He is no madman.

WALLACE A most subtle doctor Were that man, who could draw the line that parts Pride and her daughter, Cruelty, from Madness, That should be scourged, not pitied. Restless Minds, Such Minds as find amid their fellow-men No heart that loves them, none that they can love, Will turn perforce and seek for sympathy In dim relation to imagined Beings.

ONE OF THE BAND What if he mean to offer up our Captain An expiation and a sacrifice To those infernal fiends!

WALLACE Now, if the event Should be as Lennox has foretold, then swear, My Friends, his heart shall have as many wounds As there are daggers here.

LACY What need of swearing!

ONE OF THE BAND Let us away!

ANOTHER Away!

A THIRD Hark! how the horns Of those Scotch Rovers echo through the vale.

LACY Stay you behind; and when the sun is down, Light up this beacon.

ONE OF THE BAND You shall be obeyed.

[They go out together.]

SCENE--The Wood on the edge of the Moor.

MARMADUKE (alone)

MARMADUKE Deep, deep and vast, vast beyond human thought, Yet calm.--I could believe, that there was here The only quiet heart on earth. In terror, Remembered terror, there is peace and rest.

[Enter OSWALD]

OSWALD Ha! my dear Captain.

MARMADUKE A later meeting, Oswald, Would have been better timed.

OSWALD Alone, I see; You have done your duty. I had hopes, which now I feel that you will justify.

MARMADUKE I had fears, From which I have freed myself--but 'tis my wish To be alone, and therefore we must part.

OSWALD Nay, then--I am mistaken. There's a weakness About you still; you talk of solitude-- I am your friend.

MARMADUKE What need of this assurance At any time? and why given now?

OSWALD Because You are now in truth my Master; you have taught me What there is not another living man Had strength to teach;--and therefore gratitude Is bold, and would relieve itself by praise.

MARMADUKE Wherefore press this on me?

OSWALD Because I feel That you have shown, and by a signal instance, How they who would be just must seek the rule By diving for it into their own bosoms. To-day you have thrown off a tyranny That lives but in the torpid acquiescence Of our emasculated souls, the tyranny Of the world's masters, with the musty rules By which they uphold their craft from age to age: You have obeyed the only law that sense Submits to recognise; the immediate law, From the clear light of circumstances, flashed Upon an independent Intellect. Henceforth new prospects open on your path; Your faculties should grow with the demand; I still will be your friend, will cleave to you Through good and evil, obloquy and scorn, Oft as they dare to follow on your steps.

MARMADUKE I would be left alone.

OSWALD (exultingly) I know your motives! I am not of the world's presumptuous judges, Who damn where they can neither see nor feel, With a hard-hearted ignorance; your struggles I witness'd, and now hail your victory.

MARMADUKE Spare me awhile that greeting.

OSWALD It may be, That some there are, squeamish half-thinking cowards, Who will turn pale upon you, call you murderer, And you will walk in solitude among them. A mighty evil for a strong-built mind!-- Join twenty tapers of unequal height And light them joined, and you will see the less How 'twill burn down the taller; and they all Shall prey upon the tallest. Solitude!-- The Eagle lives in Solitude!

MARMADUKE Even so, The Sparrow so on the house-top, and I, The weakest of God's creatures, stand resolved To abide the issue of my act, alone.

OSWALD _Now_ would you? and for ever?--My young Friend, As time advances either we become The prey or masters of our own past deeds. Fellowship we _must_ have, willing or no; And if good Angels fail, slack in their duty, Substitutes, turn our faces where we may, Are still forthcoming; some which, though they bear Ill names, can render no ill services, In recompense for what themselves required. So meet extremes in this mysterious world, And opposites thus melt into each other.

MARMADUKE Time, since Man first drew breath, has never moved With such a weight upon his wings as now; But they will soon be lightened.

OSWALD Ay, look up-- Cast round you your mind's eye, and you will learn Fortitude is the child of Enterprise: Great actions move our admiration, chiefly Because they carry in themselves an earnest That we can suffer greatly.

MARMADUKE Very true.

OSWALD Action is transitory--a step, a blow, The motion of a muscle--this way or that-- 'Tis done, and in the after-vacancy We wonder at ourselves like men betrayed: Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark, And shares the nature of infinity.

MARMADUKE Truth--and I feel it.

OSWALD What! if you had bid Eternal farewell to unmingled joy And the light dancing of the thoughtless heart; It is the toy of fools, and little fit For such a world as this. The wise abjure All thoughts whose idle composition lives In the entire forgetfulness of pain. --I see I have disturbed you.

MARMADUKE By no means.

OSWALD Compassion!--pity!--pride can do without them; And what if you should never know them more!-- He is a puny soul who, feeling pain, Finds ease because another feels it too. If e'er I open out this heart of mine It shall be for a nobler end--to teach And not to purchase puling sympathy. --Nay, you are pale.

MARMADUKE It may be so.

OSWALD Remorse-- It cannot live with thought; think on, think on, And it will die. What! in this universe, Where the least things control the greatest, where The faintest breath that breathes can move a world; What! feel remorse, where, if a cat had sneezed, A leaf had fallen, the thing had never been Whose very shadow gnaws us to the vitals.

MARMADUKE Now, whither are you wandering? That a man So used to suit his language to the time, Should thus so widely differ from himself-- It is most strange.

OSWALD Murder!--what's in the word!-- I have no cases by me ready made To fit all deeds. Carry him to the Camp!-- A shallow project;--you of late have seen More deeply, taught us that the institutes Of Nature, by a cunning usurpation Banished from human intercourse, exist Only in our relations to the brutes That make the fields their dwelling. If a snake Crawl from beneath our feet we do not ask A license to destroy him: our good governors Hedge in the life of every pest and plague That bears the shape of man; and for what purpose, But to protect themselves from extirpation?-- This flimsy barrier you have overleaped.

MARMADUKE My Office is fulfilled--the Man is now Delivered to the Judge of all things.

OSWALD Dead!

MARMADUKE I have borne my burthen to its destined end.

OSWALD This instant we'll return to our Companions-- Oh how I long to see their faces again!

[Enter IDONEA with Pilgrims who continue their journey.]

IDONEA (after some time) What, Marmaduke! now thou art mine for ever. And Oswald, too! (To MARMADUKE.) On will we to my Father With the glad tidings which this day hath brought; We'll go together, and, such proof received Of his own rights restored, his gratitude To God above will make him feel for ours.

OSWALD I interrupt you?

IDONEA Think not so.

MARMADUKE Idonea, That I should ever live to see this moment!

IDONEA Forgive me.--Oswald knows it all--he knows, Each word of that unhappy letter fell As a blood drop from my heart.

OSWALD 'Twas even so.

MARMADUKE I have much to say, but for whose ear?--not thine.

IDONEA Ill can I bear that look--Plead for me, Oswald! You are my Father's Friend. (To MARMADUKE.) Alas, you know not, And never _can_ you know, how much he loved me. Twice had he been to me a father, twice Had given me breath, and was I not to be His daughter, once his daughter? could I withstand His pleading face, and feel his clasping arms, And hear his prayer that I would not forsake him In his old age-- [Hides her face.]

MARMADUKE Patience--Heaven grant me patience!-- She weeps, she weeps--_my_ brain shall burn for hours Ere _I_ can shed a tear.

IDONEA I was a woman; And, balancing the hopes that are the dearest To womankind with duty to my Father, I yielded up those precious hopes, which nought On earth could else have wrested from me;--if erring, Oh let me be forgiven!

MARMADUKE I _do_ forgive thee.

IDONEA But take me to your arms--this breast, alas! It throbs, and you have a heart that does not feel it.

MARMADUKE (exultingly) She is innocent. [He embraces her.]

OSWALD (aside) Were I a Moralist, I should make wondrous revolution here; It were a quaint experiment to show The beauty of truth-- [Addressing them.] I see I interrupt you; I shall have business with you, Marmaduke; Follow me to the Hostel.

[Exit OSWALD.]

IDONEA Marmaduke, This is a happy day. My Father soon Shall sun himself before his native doors; The lame, the hungry, will be welcome there. No more shall he complain of wasted strength, Of thoughts that fail, and a decaying heart; His good works will be balm and life to him.

MARMADUKE This is most strange!--I know not what it was, But there was something which most plainly said, That thou wert innocent.

IDONEA How innocent!-- Oh heavens! you've been deceived.

MARMADUKE Thou art a Woman To bring perdition on the universe.

IDONEA Already I've been punished to the height Of my offence. [Smiling affectionately.] I see you love me still, The labours of my hand are still your joy; Bethink you of the hour when on your shoulder I hung this belt. [Pointing to the belt on which was suspended HERBERT'S scrip.]

MARMADUKE Mercy of Heaven! [Sinks.]

IDONEA What ails you? [Distractedly.]

MARMADUKE The scrip that held his food, and I forgot To give it back again!

IDONEA What mean your words?

MARMADUKE I know not what I said--all may be well.

IDONEA That smile hath life in it!

MARMADUKE This road is perilous; I will attend you to a Hut that stands Near the wood's edge--rest there to-night, I pray you: For me, I have business, as you heard, with Oswald, But will return to you by break of day.

[Exeunt.]