The Purgatory of St. Patrick Part 8

All the guards that here are with thee Has my liberal hand suborned, So that at the clink of gold Have their ears grown deaf and torpid.

Fly! and that thou mayest see How a woman's heart can prompt her, How her honour she can trample, How her self-respect leave prostrate, With thee I will go, since now It is needful that henceforward I in life and death am thine, For without thee life were worthless, Thou who in my heart dost live.

I bring with me gems and money Quite enough to the most distant Parts of India to transport us, Where the sun with beams and shadows Scatters frost, or burning scorches.

At the door two steeds are standing, I should rather call these horses Two swift lynxes, air-born creatures, Thoughts by liveliest minds begotten; They so rapid are, that though We as fugitives fly on them, An a.s.surance of our safety We shall feel. At once resolve then.

Why thus ponder? what delays thee?

Time is pressing, therefore shorten All discourse; and that mischance, Which disturbs love's plans so often, May not offer an obstruction To so well-prepared a project, First before thee I will go.

Issue, while in specious converse I divert thy guards, and give To thy coming forth a cover.

Even the sun our project favours, Which amid the west waves yonder, Sinking, dips his golden curls To refresh his glowing forehead.

[Exit.

SCENE VIII.

LUIS.

LUIS. A most opportune occasion To my hands has fortune offered; Since Heaven knows that all the show Of apparent love and fondness Which I proffered to Polonia Was a.s.sumed, it being my object She should go with me, where I, Seizing on the gold and costly Gems she carries, so might issue From this Babylonian bondage.

For although in my person Was esteemed and duly honoured, Still 'twas slavery after all, And my free wild life was longing For that liberty, heaven's best gift, Which I had enjoyed so often.

But a great embarra.s.sment And a hindrance were a woman For the end I have in view, Since in me is love a folly That ne'er pa.s.ses appet.i.te, Which being satisfied, no longer Care I for a woman's presence, How so fair or so accomplished.

And since thus my disposition Is so free, of what importance Is a murder more or less?

At my hands must die Polonia For her loving at a time When there's no one loved or honoured.

Had she loved as others love, Then she would have lived as others.

[Exit.

SCENE IX.

The Captain; then The King, PHILIP, and LEOGAIRE.

CAPTAIN. The sad sentence of his death Have I come, by the king's orders, Here to read to Luis Enius.-- But what's this? The door lies open, And the tower deserted. Ha!

Soldiers! No one answers. Ho, there!

Guards, come hither, treason! treason!

[Enter The King, PHILIP, and LEOGAIRE.

KING. Why these outcries? this commotion?

What is this?

CAPTAIN. That Luis Enius Has escaped, and from the fortress All the guards have fled.

LEOGAIRE. My lord, I saw entering here Polonia.

PHILIP. Heavens! beyond all doubt 'twas she Who released him. That her lover He dared call him, you well know.

Jealousy and rage provoke me To pursue them. A new Troy Will to-day be Ireland's story.

[Exit.

KING. Give me, too, a horse; in person I these fugitives will follow.

Ah, what Christians are these two Who with actions so discordant, One deprives me of my rest, And the other robs my honour?

But the twain shall feel the weight Of my vengeful hands fall on them; For not safe from me would be Even their sovereign Roman Pontiff.

[Exeunt.

SCENE X.

A WOOD, AT WHOSE EXTREMITY IS PAUL'S CABIN.

POLONIA flying wounded, and LUIS with a naked dagger in his hand.

POLONIA. Oh, hold thy b.l.o.o.d.y hand!

Though love be dead, let Christian faith command.

My honour take; but, oh, my poor life spare, That suppliant at thy feet pours out its humble prayer.

LUIS. Hapless Polonia, since creation's hour Beauty has ever one unvarying dower, It brings misfortune with it, it is this Makes beauty rarely live long time with bliss.

I, who less pity feel Than any headsman who e'er held death's steel, May by thy death procure My life, since with it I will go secure.

If thee I bring where fortune's hand may guide me I bring the witness of my woes beside me, By whom they may pursue me, Track me, discover me, in fact, undo me If here I leave thee living, I leave thee angry, vengeful, unforgiving; Leave thee, in fact, to be One enemy more (and what an enemy!); Thus equally I grieve thee, Thus evil do whether I take or leave thee; And so 'tis better thus, That I a wretch, cruel and infamous, False, impious, fierce, abandoned, wicked, banned By G.o.d and man, should slay thee by my hand, Since buried here, Within the rustic entrails dark and drear Of this rude realm of stone, My worst misfortune shall remain unknown.

My fury, too, shall gain A novel kind of vengeance when thou'rt slain, Remaining satisfied That Philip, too, by the same stroke has died, If in thy heart he lived; and then mine ire Will need no victim more except thy sire.

Through thee first came My first disgrace, the cause of all my shame, And so the first of all On thee my vengeful strokes shall furious fall.

POLONIA. Ah me! my fate pursuing, I have but only worked my own undoing, Like to the worm that by its subtle art Spins its own grave. Hast thou a human heart?

LUIS. I am a demon. So to prove it, die.

Thus --

POLONIA. G.o.d of Patrick, listen to my cry!

[He stabs her several times, and she falls within.

LUIS. She fell on flowers, there sowing Both lives and horrors in her blood outflowing.

Thus now with greater ease I can escape, and carry o'er the seas, In many a gem and chain, Treasure enough to make me rich in Spain, Until so changed by time, Disguised by wandering in a foreign clime, I may return to reap My vengeance; for a wrong doth never sleep.

But whither do I stray, Treading the shades of death in this dark way?

My path is lost: I go Whither I do not know; Perchance escaping from my prison bands To fall again into my tyrant's hands.

If the dark night doth not my sight deceive, Yonder a rustic cabin I perceive.

Yes, I am right. I'll knock; I can't much err, They'll know the way.

[He knocks.