Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

recess with his torch, ORDONIO follows him; a loud

cry of ‘Traitor! Monster!’ is heard from the

cavern, and in a moment ORDONIO returns alone.

Ordonio. I have hurl’d him down the chasm! treason for treason.

He dreamt of it: henceforward let him sleep,

A dreamless sleep, from which no wife can wake him. 170

His dream too is made out — Now for his friend.

[Exit ORDONIO.

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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! 5

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, 10

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! 15

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 20

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 — 25

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 30

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

Valdez. Hush, thoughtless woman!

Teresa. Nay, it wakes within me

More than a woman’s spirit.

Valdez. No more of this —

What if Monviedro or his creatures hear us!

I dare not listen to you.

Teresa. My honoured lord, 35

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. 40

Have I no other son?

Teresa. Speak not of him!

That low imposture! That mysterious picture!

If this be madness, must I wed a madman?

And if not madness, there is mystery,

And guilt doth lurk behind it.

Valdez. Is this well? 45

Teresa. Yes, it is truth: saw you his countenance?

How rage, remorse, and scorn, and stupid fear

Displaced each other with swift interchanges?

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

I would call up before thine eyes the image 50

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, 55

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 60

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, 65

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 perturbéd countenance!

Then bid me (Oh thou could’st not) bid me turn 70

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.

Valdez. Ungrateful woman! I have tried to stifle

An old man’s passion! was it not enough, 75

That thou hast made my son a restless man,

Banish’d his health, and half unhing’d his reason;

But that thou wilt insult him with suspicion?

And toil to blast his honour? I am old,

A comfortless old man!

Teresa. O grief! to hear 80

Hateful entreaties 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 85

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, 90

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 95

A low dead thunder mutter thro’ the night,

As ‘twere a giant angry in his sleep.

O Alvar! Alvar! that they could return,

Those blessed days that imitated heaven,

When we two wont to walk at eventide; 100

When we saw nought but beauty; when we heard

The voice of that Almighty One who loved us

In every gale that breathed, and wave that murmur’d!

O we have listen’d, even till high-wrought pleasure

Hath half assumed the countenance of grief, 105

And the deep sigh seemed to heave up a weight

Of bliss, that pressed too heavy on the heart. [A pause.

And this majestic Moor, seems he not one

Who oft and long communing with my Alvar

Hath drunk in kindred lustre from his presence, 110

And guides me to him with reflected light?

What if in yon dark dungeon coward treachery

Be groping for him with envenomed poniard —

Hence, womanish fears, traitors to love and duty —

I’ll free him. [Exit TERESA.

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The mountains by moonlight. ALHADRA alone in a Moorish dress.

Alhadra. Yon hanging woods, that touch’d by autumn seem

As they were blossoming hues of fire and gold

The flower-like woods, most lovely in decay,

The many clouds, the sea, the rock, the sands.

Lie in the silent moonshine: and the owl, 5

(Strange! very strange!) the screech-owl only wakes!

Sole voice, sole eye of all this world of beauty!

Unless, perhaps, she sing her screeching song

To a herd of wolves, that skulk athirst for blood.

Why such a thing am I? — Where are these men? 10

I need the sympathy of human faces,

To beat away this deep contempt for all things,

Which quenches my revenge. O! would to Alla,

The raven, or the sea-mew, were appointed

To bring me food! or rather that my soul 15

Could drink in life from the universal air!

It were a lot divine in some small skiff

Along some Ocean’s boundless solitude,

To float for ever with a careless course.

And think myself the only being alive! 20