The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 132

[After 186] end of the Third Act. Editions 1, 2, 3.

ACT IV

SCENE I

_A cavern, dark, except where a gleam of moonlight is seen on one side at the further end of it; supposed to be cast on it from a crevice in a part of the cavern out of sight. ISIDORE alone, an extinguished torch in his hand._

_Isidore._ Faith 'twas a moving letter--very moving!

'His life in danger, no place safe but this!

'Twas his turn now to talk of grat.i.tude.'

And yet--but no! there can't be such a villain.

It can not be!

Thanks to that little crevice, 5 Which lets the moonlight in! I'll go and sit by it.

To peep at a tree, or see a he-goat's beard, Or hear a cow or two breathe loud in their sleep-- Any thing but this crash of water drops!

These dull abortive sounds that fret the silence 10 With puny thwartings and mock opposition!

So beats the death-watch to a sick man's ear.

[_He goes out of sight, opposite to the patch of moonlight: and returns._

A h.e.l.lish pit! The very same I dreamt of!

I was just in--and those d.a.m.n'd fingers of ice Which clutch'd my hair up! Ha!--what's that--it mov'd. 15

[_ISIDORE stands staring at another recess in the cavern. In the mean time ORDONIO enters with a torch, and halloes to ISIDORE._

_Isidore._ I swear that I saw something moving there!

The moonshine came and went like a flash of lightning---- I swear, I saw it move.

_Ordonio (goes into the recess, then returns)._ A jutting clay stone Drops on the long lank weed, that grows beneath: And the weed nods and drips.[859:1]

_Isidore._ A jest to laugh at! 20 It was not that which scar'd me, good my lord.

_Ordonio._ What scar'd you, then?

_Isidore._ You see that little rift?

But first permit me!

[_Lights his torch at ORDONIO'S, and while lighting it._

(A lighted torch in the hand Is no unpleasant object here--one's breath Floats round the flame, and makes as many colours 25 As the thin clouds that travel near the moon.) You see that crevice there?

My torch extinguished by these water-drops, And marking that the moonlight came from thence, I stept in to it, meaning to sit there; 30 But scarcely had I measured twenty paces-- My body bending forward, yea, o'erbalanced Almost beyond recoil, on the dim brink Of a huge chasm I stept. The shadowy moonshine Filling the void so counterfeited substance, 35 That my foot hung aslant adown the edge.

Was it my own fear?

Fear too hath its instincts![860:1]

(And yet such dens as these are wildly told of, And there are beings that live, yet not for the eye) An arm of frost above and from behind me 40 Pluck'd up and s.n.a.t.c.hed me backward. Merciful Heaven!

You smile! alas, even smiles look ghastly here!

My lord, I pray you, go yourself and view it.

_Ordonio._ It must have shot some pleasant feelings through you.

_Isidore._ If every atom of a dead man's flesh 45 Should creep, each one with a particular life, Yet all as cold as ever--'twas just so!

Or had it drizzled needle-points of frost Upon a feverish head made suddenly bald--

_Ordonio._ Why, Isidore, I blush for thy cowardice. It might have startled, 50 I grant you, even a brave man for a moment-- But such a panic--

_Isidore._ When a boy, my lord!

I could have sate whole hours beside that chasm, Push'd in huge stones and heard them strike and rattle Against its horrid sides: then hung my head 55 Low down, and listened till the heavy fragments Sank with faint crash in that still groaning well, Which never thirsty pilgrim blest, which never A living thing came near--unless, perchance, Some blind-worm battens on the ropy mould 60 Close at its edge.

_Ordonio._ Art thou more coward now?

_Isidore._ Call him, that fears his fellow-man, a coward!

I fear not man--but this inhuman cavern, It were too bad a prison-house for goblins.

Beside, (you'll smile, my lord) but true it is, 65 My last night's sleep was very sorely haunted By what had pa.s.sed between us in the morning.

O sleep of horrors! Now run down and stared at By forms so hideous that they mock remembrance-- Now seeing nothing and imagining nothing, 70 But only being afraid--stifled with fear!

While every goodly or familiar form Had a strange power of breathing terror round me![861:1]

I saw you in a thousand fearful shapes; And, I entreat your lordship to believe me, 75 In my last dream----

_Ordonio._ Well?

_Isidore._ I was in the act Of falling down that chasm, when Alhadra Wak'd me: she heard my heart beat.

_Ordonio._ Strange enough!

Had you been here before?

_Isidore._ Never, my lord!

But mine eyes do not see it now more clearly, 80 Than in my dream I saw--that very chasm.

_Ordonio (after a pause)._ I know not why it should be! yet it is--

_Isidore._ What is, my lord?

_Ordonio._ Abhorrent from our nature To kill a man.--

_Isidore._ Except in self-defence.

_Ordonio._ Why that's my case; and yet the soul recoils from it-- 85 'Tis so with me at least. But you, perhaps, Have sterner feelings?

_Isidore._ Something troubles you.

How shall I serve you? By the life you gave me, By all that makes that life of value to me, My wife, my babes, my honour, I swear to you, 90 Name it, and I will toil to do the thing, If it be innocent! But this, my lord!

Is not a place where you could perpetrate, No, nor propose a wicked thing. The darkness, When ten strides off we know 'tis cheerful moonlight, 95 Collects the guilt, and crowds it round the heart.

It must be innocent.

_Ordonio._ Thyself be judge.

One of our family knew this place well.

_Isidore._ Who? when? my lord?