style="font-size:15px;"> In fine, compell’d a parley!
Osorio (sighing as if lost in thought). Albert! Brother!
Ferdinand. He offer’d me his purse.
Osorio. Yes?
Ferdinand. Yes! I spurn’d it.
He promis’d us I know not what — in vain!
Then with a look and voice which overaw’d me,
He said — What mean you, friends? My life is dear. 85
I have a brother and a promised wife
Who make life dear to me, and if I fall
That brother will roam earth and hell for vengeance.
There was a likeness in his face to yours.
I ask’d his brother’s name; he said, Osorio, 90
Son of Lord Velez! I had well-nigh fainted!
At length I said (if that indeed I said it,
And that no spirit made my tongue his organ),
That woman is now pregnant by that brother,
And he the man who sent us to destroy you, 95
He drove a thrust at me in rage. I told him,
He wore her portrait round his neck — he look’d
As he had been made of the rock that propp’d him back;
Ay, just as you look now — only less ghastly!
At last recovering from his trance, he threw 100
His sword away, and bade us take his life —
It was not worth his keeping.
Osorio. And you kill’d him?
O bloodhounds! may eternal wrath flame round you!
He was the image of the Deity. [A pause.
It seizes me — by Hell! I will go on! 105
What? would’st thou stop, man? thy pale looks won’t save thee!
[Then suddenly pressing his forehead.
Oh! cold, cold, cold — shot thro’ with icy cold!
Ferdinand (aside). Were he alive, he had return’d ere now.
The consequence the same, dead thro’ his plotting!
Osorio. O this unutterable dying away here, 110
This sickness of the heart! [A pause.
What if I went
And liv’d in a hollow tomb, and fed on weeds?
Ay! that’s the road to heaven! O fool! fool! fool! [A pause.
What have I done but that which nature destin’d
Or the blind elements stirr’d up within me? 115
If good were meant, why were we made these beings?
And if not meant ——
Ferdinand. How feel you now, my lord?
[OSORIO starts, looks at him wildly, then, after a
pause, during which his features are forced
into a smile.
Osorio. A gust of the soul! i’faith, it overset me.
O ‘twas all folly — all! idle as laughter!
Now, Ferdinand, I swear that thou shalt aid me. 120
Ferdinand (in a low voice). I’ll perish first! Shame on my
coward heart,
That I must slink away from wickedness
Like a cow’d dog!
Osorio. What dost thou mutter of?
Ferdinand. Some of your servants know me, I am certain.
Osorio. There’s some sense in that scruple; but we’ll mask you. 125
Ferdinand. They’ll know my gait. But stay! of late I have
watch’d
A stranger that lives nigh, still picking weeds,
Now in the swamp, now on the walls of the ruin,
Now clamb’ring, like a runaway lunatic,
Up to the summit of our highest mount. 130
I have watch’d him at it morning-tide and noon,
Once in the moonlight. Then I stood so near,
I heard him mutt’ring o’er the plant. A wizard!
Some gaunt slave, prowling out for dark employments.
Osorio. What may his name be?
Ferdinand. That I cannot tell you. 135
Only Francesco bade an officer
Speak in your name, as lord of this domain.
So he was question’d, who and what he was.
This was his answer: Say to the Lord Osorio,
‘He that can bring the dead to life again.’ 140
Osorio. A strange reply!
Ferdinand. Aye — all of him is strange.
He call’d himself a Christian — yet he wears
The Moorish robe, as if he courted death.
Osorio. Where does this wizard live?
Ferdinand (pointing to a distance). You see that brooklet?
Trace its course backward thro’ a narrow opening 145
It leads you to the place.
Osorio. How shall I know it?
Ferdinand. You can’t mistake. It is a small green dale
Built all around with high off-sloping hills,
And from its shape our peasants aptly call it
The Giant’s Cradle. There’s a lake in the midst, 150
And round its banks tall wood,
