The Dramatic Works of G. E. Lessing Part 89

The n.o.ble Patriarch! He seeks in me No common herald, but the meanest spy.

Therefore, good brother, tell your Patriarch, That I am not--as far as you can sift-- The man to suit his ends. I hold myself A captive still. I know a Templar's duty: Ready to die, not live to play the spy.

FRIAR.

I thought as much. Nor can I censure you For your resolve. The best has still to come.

Our Patriarch has learnt the very fort, Its name, its strength, its site on Lebanon, Wherein those countless treasures are concealed, Wherewith the Sultan's prudent father pays His troops, and all the heavy costs of war.

He knows that Saladin, from time to time, Visits this fortress, by some secret way, With but a few attendants.

TEMPLAR.

Well! what then?

FRIAR.

'Twould be an easy task, methinks, to seize The Sultan thus defenceless--and to end him.

You shudder, knight! Two monks who fear the Lord, Are ready now to undertake the task, And wait a leader.

TEMPLAR.

And the Patriarch Has pitched on me to do this n.o.ble deed?

FRIAR.

He thinks King Philip might from Ptolemais Give aid in the design.

TEMPLAR.

Has pitched on me!

On me!--Say, brother, have you never heard The boundless debt I owe to Saladin?

FRIAR.

Truly I have.

TEMPLAR.

And yet----

FRIAR.

The Patriarch Says that is very well; but yet your order, And vows to G.o.d----

TEMPLAR.

Change nothing; they command No villainy.

FRIAR.

No. But the Patriarch Says what seems villainy to human eyes, May not appear so in the sight of G.o.d.

TEMPLAR.

Brother, I owe my life to Saladin, And his shall my hand take?

FRIAR.

Oh, no!--But yet The Patriarch maintains that Saladin, Who is the common foe of Christendom, Can never have a claim to be your friend.

TEMPLAR.

My friend? forsooth! because I will not be A thankless wretch to him!

FRIAR.

'Tis so!--But yet The Patriarch thinks grat.i.tude is not Before the eyes of G.o.d or man, a debt, Unless, for our own sakes, some benefit Has been conferred; and, says the Patriarch, It is affirmed the Sultan spared your life Merely because your voice, your look, your air, Awoke a recollection of his brother----

TEMPLAR.

He knows all this, and yet?----Ah, were it true!

And, Saladin, could Nature form in me A single feature in thy brother's likeness, With nothing in my soul to answer it?

Or what does correspond, shall I belie To please a Patriarch? No, surely Nature Could never lie so basely! Nor, kind G.o.d, Couldst thou so contradict Thyself! Go, brother, And do not rouse my anger.

FRIAR.

I withdraw More gladly than I came. And, pardon me: A monk's first duty, sir, is to obey.

Scene VI.--_The_ Templar _and_ Daja.

(_She has been watching him from afar and now approaches_.)

DAJA.

Methinks the monk left him in no good mood, But, spite of that, I must my errand risk.

TEMPLAR.

This. .h.i.ts exactly. As the proverb goes, Women and monks are ever Satan's tools, And I to-day am subject to them both.

DAJA.

Whom do I see? Thank G.o.d, our n.o.ble knight.

Where have you been so long? Not ill, I hope?

TEMPLAR.

No.

DAJA.