Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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!

(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 snatched 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 passed 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!

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?

Ordonio. What boots it, who or when?

Hang up thy torch — I’ll tell his tale to thee. 100

[They hang up their torches on some ridge in the cavern.

He was a man different from other men,

And he despised them, yet revered himself.

Isidore (aside). He? He despised? Thou’rt speaking of thyself!

I am on my guard, however: no surprise. [Then to ORDONIO.

What, he was mad?

Ordonio. All men seemed mad to him! 105

Nature had made him for some other planet,

And pressed his soul into a human shape

By accident or malice. In this world

He found no fit companion.

Isidore. Of himself he speaks. [Aside.

Alas! poor wretch! 110

Mad men are mostly proud.

Ordonio. He walked alone,

And phantom thoughts unsought-for troubled him.

Something within would still be shadowing out

All possibilities; and with these shadows

His mind held dalliance. Once, as so it happened, 115

A fancy crossed him wilder than the rest:

To this in moody murmur and low voice

He yielded utterance, as some talk in sleep:

The man who heard him. —

Why did’st thou look round?

Isidore. I have a prattler three years old, my lord! 120

In truth he is my darling. As I went

From forth my door, he made a moan in sleep —

But I am talking idly — pray proceed!

And what did this man?

Ordonio. With this human hand

He gave a substance and reality 125

To that wild fancy of a possible thing. —

Well it was done!

Why babblest thou of guilt?

The deed was done, and it passed fairly off.

And he whose tale I tell thee — dost thou listen?

Isidore. I would, my lord, you were by my fireside, 130

I’d listen to you with an eager eye,

Though you began this cloudy tale at midnight,

But I do listen — pray proceed, my lord.

Ordonio. Where was I?

Isidore. He of whom you tell the tale —

Ordonio. Surveying all things with a quiet scorn, 135

Tamed himself down to living purposes,

The occupations and the semblances

Of ordinary men — and such he seemed!

But that same over ready agent — he —

Isidore. Ah! what of him, my lord?

Ordonio. He proved a traitor, 140

Betrayed the mystery to a brother-traitor,

And they between them hatch’d a damnéd plot

To hunt him down to infamy and death.

What did the Valdez? I am proud of the name

Since he dared do it. —

[ORDONIO grasps his sword, and turns off from ISIDORE,

then after a pause returns.

Our links burn dimly. 145

Isidore. A dark tale darkly finished! Nay, my lord!

Tell what he did.

Ordonio. That which his wisdom prompted —

He made the traitor meet him in this cavern,

And here he kill’d the traitor.

Isidore. No! the fool! 150

He had not wit enough to be a traitor.

Poor thick-eyed beetle! not to have foreseen

That he who gulled thee with a whimpered lie

To murder his own brother, would not scruple

To murder thee, if e’er his guilt grew jealous, 155

And he could steal upon thee in the dark!

Ordonio. Thou would’st not then have come, if —

Isidore. Oh yes, my lord!

I would have met him arm’d, and scar’d the coward.

[ISIDORE throws off his robe; shews himself armed, and

draws his sword.

Ordonio. Now this is excellent and warms the blood! 160

My heart was drawing back, drawing me back

With weak and womanish scruples. Now my vengeance

Beckons me onwards with a warrior’s mien,

And claims that life, my pity robb’d her of —

Now will I kill thee, thankless slave, and count it 165

Among my comfortable thoughts hereafter.

Isidore. And all my little ones fatherless —

Die thou first.

[They fight, ORDONIO disarms ISIDORE, and in disarming

him throws his sword up that recess opposite to

which they were standing. ISIDORE hurries into the