The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 124

What--would'st thou stop, man? thy pale looks won't save thee!

Oh cold--cold--cold! shot through with icy cold!

_Isidore (aside)._ Were he alive he had returned ere now.

The consequence the same--dead through his plotting! 125

_Ordonio._ O this unutterable dying away--here-- This sickness of the heart!

What if I went And liv'd in a hollow tomb, and fed on weeds?

Aye! that's the road to heaven! O fool! fool! fool!

What have I done but that which nature destined, 130 Or the blind elements stirred up within me?

If good were meant, why were we made these beings?

And if not meant--

_Isidore._ You are disturbed, my lord!

_Ordonio (starts)._ A gust of the soul! i'faith it overset me.

O 'twas all folly--all! idle as laughter! 135 Now, Isidore! I swear that thou shalt aid me.

_Isidore (in a low voice)._ I'll perish first!

_Ordonio._ What dost thou mutter of?

_Isidore._ Some of your servants know me, I am certain.

_Ordonio._ There's some sense in that scruple; but we'll mask you.

_Isidore._ They'll know my gait: but stay! last night I watched 140 A stranger near the ruin in the wood, Who as it seemed was gathering herbs and wild flowers.

I had followed him at distance, seen him scale Its western wall, and by an easier entrance Stole after him unnoticed. There I marked, 145 That mid the chequer work of light and shade With curious choice he plucked no other flowers, But those on which the moonlight fell: and once I heard him muttering o'er the plant. A wizard-- Some gaunt slave prowling here for dark employment. 150

_Ordonio._ Doubtless you question'd him?

_Isidore._ 'Twas my intention, Having first traced him homeward to his haunt.

But lo! the stern Dominican, whose spies Lurk every where, already (as it seemed) Had given commission to his apt familiar 155 To seek and sound the Moor; who now returning, Was by this trusty agent stopped midway.

I, dreading fresh suspicion if found near him In that lone place, again concealed myself: Yet within hearing. So the Moor was question'd, 160 And in your name, as lord of this domain, Proudly he answered, 'Say to the Lord Ordonio, He that can bring the dead to life again!'

_Ordonio._ A strange reply!

_Isidore._ Aye, all of him is strange.

He called himself a Christian, yet he wears 165 The Moorish robes, as if he courted death.

_Ordonio._ Where does this wizard live?

_Isidore (pointing to the distance)._ You see that brooklet?

Trace its course backward: through a narrow opening It leads you to the place.

_Ordonio._ How shall I know it?

_Isidore._ You cannot err. It is a small green dell 170 Built all around with high off-sloping hills, And from its shape our peasants aptly call it The Giant's Cradle. There's a lake in the midst, And round its banks tall wood that branches over, And makes a kind of faery forest grow 175 Down in the water. At the further end A puny cataract falls on the lake; And there, a curious sight! you see its shadow For ever curling, like a wreath of smoke, Up through the foliage of those faery trees. 180 His cot stands opposite. You cannot miss it.

_Ordonio (in retiring stops suddenly at the edge of the scene, and then turning round to Isidore)._ Ha!--Who lurks there! Have we been overheard?

There where the smooth high wall of slate-rock glitters----

_Isidore._ 'Neath those tall stones, which propping each the other, Form a mock portal with their pointed arch? 185 Pardon my smiles! 'Tis a poor idiot boy, Who sits in the sun, and twirls a bough about, His weak eyes seeth'd in most unmeaning tears.

And so he sits, swaying his cone-like head, And staring at his bough from morn to sun-set, 190 See-saws his voice in inarticulate noises.

_Ordonio._ 'Tis well, and now for this same wizard's lair.

_Isidore._ Some three strides up the hill, a mountain ash Stretches its lower boughs and scarlet cl.u.s.ters O'er the old thatch.

_Ordonio._ I shall not fail to find it. 195

[_Exeunt ORDONIO and ISIDORE._

LINENOTES:

[3] My] _My_ Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

[17] And how, my lord? I pray you name the thing. Editions 1, 2, 3.

[19] _Ordonio (with embarra.s.sment and hesitation)._ Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

[23] truth] _truth_ Editions 2, 3, 1829.

[24] _Isidore (looking as suddenly alarmed)._ Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

[37] upon] on _Edition 1_.]

[61] _Isidore (with stammering)._ Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

[63] incautious] _incautious_ Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

[67] native] _native_ Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

[69] _Ordonio (aloud, though to express his contempt he speaks in the third person)._ Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

[79] _Ordonio (with bitter scorn)._ Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

[83] _Ordonio (alarmed)._ Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

[84] those] these Edition 1.

[91] Am I not a _man_? Edition 1. I] _I_ Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

[97] _Ordonio (sighing as if lost in thought)._ Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

[98] _Ordonio (with eager suspicion)._ Editions 2, 3, 1829.

[98] _Isidore (indignantly)._ Editions 2, 3, 1829.