Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Alla! 375

Alhadra. This night a reeking slave came with loud pant,

Gave Ferdinand a letter, and departed,

Swift as he came. Pale, with unquiet looks,

He read the scroll.

Maurice. Its purport?

Alhadra. Yes, I ask’d it.

He answer’d me, ‘Alhadra! thou art worthy 380

A nobler secret; but I have been faithful

To this bad man, and faithful I will be.’

He said, and arm’d himself, and lit a torch;

Then kiss’d his children, each one on its pillow,

And hurried from me. But I follow’d him 385

At distance, till I saw him enter there.

Naomi. The cavern?

Alhadra. Yes — the mouth of yonder cavern.

After a pause I saw the son of Velez

Rush by with flaring torch; he likewise enter’d —

There was another and a longer pause — 390

And once, methought, I heard the clash of swords,

And soon the son of Velez reappear’d.

He flung his torch towards the moon in sport,

And seem’d as he were mirthful! I stood listening

Impatient for the footsteps of my husband! 395

Maurice. Thou called’st him?

Alhadra. I crept into the cavern:

‘Twas dark and very silent. [Then wildly.

What said’st thou?

No, no! I did not dare call, Ferdinand!

Lest I should hear no answer. A brief while,

Belike, I lost all thought and memory 400

Of that for which I came! After that pause,

O God! I heard a groan! — and follow’d it.

And yet another groan — which guided me

Into a strange recess — and there was light,

A hideous light! his torch lay on the ground — 405

Its flame burnt dimly o’er a chasm’s brink.

I spake — and while I spake, a feeble groan

Came from that chasm! It was his last! his death groan!

Maurice. Comfort her, comfort her, Almighty Father!

Alhadra. I stood in unimaginable trance 410

And agony, that cannot be remember’d,

Listening with horrid hope to hear a groan!

But I had heard his last — my husband’s death-groan!

Naomi. Haste! let us go!

Alhadra. I look’d far down the pit.

My sight was bounded by a jutting fragment, 415

And it was stain’d with blood! Then first I shriek’d!

My eyeballs burnt! my brain grew hot as fire!

And all the hanging drops of the wet roof

Turn’d into blood. I saw them turn to blood!

And I was leaping wildly down the chasm 420

When on the further brink I saw his sword,

And it said, Vengeance! Curses on my tongue!

The moon hath moved in heaven, and I am here,

And he hath not had vengeance! Ferdinand!

Spirit of Ferdinand! thy murderer lives! 425

Away! away! [She rushes off, all following.

END OF THE FOURTH ACT

Table of Contents

The interior Court of a Saracenic or Gothic Castle with the iron gate

of a dungeon visible.

Teresa. Heart-chilling Superstition! thou canst glaze

Ev’n Pity’s eye with her own frozen tear.

In vain I urge the tortures that await him:

Even Selma, reverend guardian of my childhood,

My second mother, shuts her heart against me!

Well, I have won from her what most imports

The present need, this secret of the dungeon

Known only to herself. — A Moor! a Sorcerer!

No, I have faith, that nature ne’er permitted

Baseness to wear a form so noble. True,

I doubt not, that Ordonio had suborned him

To act some part in some unholy fraud;

As little doubt, that for some unknown purpose

He hath baffled his suborner, terror-struck him,

And that Ordonio meditates revenge!

But my resolve is fixed! myself will rescue him,

And learn if haply he knew aught of Alvar.

Enter VALDEZ.

Valdez. Still sad? — and gazing at the massive door

Of that fell dungeon which thou ne’er had’st sight of,

Save what, perchance, thy infant fancy shap’d it

When the nurse still’d thy cries with unmeant threats.

Now by my faith, girl! this same wizard haunts thee!

A stately man, and eloquent and tender —

Who then need wonder if a lady sighs

Even at the thought of what these stern Dominicans —

Teresa. The horror of their ghastly punishments

Doth so o’ertop the height of all compassion,

That I should feel too little for mine enemy,

If it were possible I could feel more,

Even though the dearest inmates of our household

Were doom’d to suffer them. That such things are —

Remorse.

O honor’d Selma! this strange man has left me

Wilder’d with stranger fancies than yon moon

Corr. in MS. III.

She gazes idly!

Ter. But that entrance, Selma

Corr. in MS. III.

[Between 248 and 255:]

What if Monviedro or his creatures hear us!

I dare not listen to you.

Teresa. My honoured lord,

These were my Alvar’s lessons, and whene’er

I bend me o’er his portrait, I repeat them,

As if to give a voice to the mute image.

Valdez. —— We have mourned for

Alvar.

Of his sad fate there now remains no doubt.

Have I no other son?

Remorse.

Remorse.

[Between 262 and 268:]

O that I had indeed the sorcerer’s power. —

I would call up before thine eyes the image

Of my betrothed Alvar, of thy first-born!

His own fair countenance, his kingly forehead,

His tender smiles, love’s day-dawn on his lips!

That spiritual and almost heavenly light

In his commanding eye — his mien heroic,

Virtue’s own native heraldry! to man

Genial, and pleasant to his guardian angel.

Whene’er he gladden’d, how the gladness spread

Wide round him! and when oft with swelling tears,

Flash’d through by indignation, he bewail’d

The wrongs of Belgium’s martyr’d patriots,

Oh, what a grief was there — for joy to envy,

Or gaze upon enamour’d!

O my father!

Recall that morning when we knelt together,

And thou didst bless our loves! O even now,

Even now, my sire! to thy mind’s eye present him,

As at that moment he rose up before thee,

Stately, with beaming look! Place, place beside him

Ordonio’s dark perturbed countenance!

Then bid me (Oh thou could’st not) bid me turn

From him, the joy, the triumph of our kind!

To take in exchange that brooding man, who never

Lifts up his eye from the earth, unless to scowl.

Remorse.

[Between 274-87:]

Teresa. O grief! to hear

Hateful intreaties from a voice we love!

Enter a PEASANT and presents a letter to VALDEZ.

Valdez (reading it). ‘He dares not venture hither!’ Why what can

this mean?

‘Lest the Familiars of the Inquisition,

That watch around my gates, should intercept him;

But he conjures me, that without delay

I hasten to him — for my own sake entreats me

To guard from danger him I hold imprison’d —

He will reveal a secret, the joy of which

Will even outweigh the sorrow.’ — Why what can this be?

Perchance it is some Moorish stratagem,

To have in me a hostage for his safety.

Nay, that they dare not! Ho! collect my servants!

I will go thither — let them arm themselves. [Exit VALDEZ.

Teresa (alone). The moon is high in heaven, and all is hush’d.

Yet anxious listener! I have seem’d to hear

A low dead thunder mutter thro’ the night,

As ‘twere a giant angry in his sleep.

O Alvar! Alvar! &c.

Remorse.

[After 276] And all his wealth perhaps come to the Church MS. III.

erased.

[After 296]

[A pause.

And this majestic Moor, seems he not one

Who oft and long communing with my Alvar,