Virtue — Remorse.
[After 117] Ord. (starts). A gust, &c. Remorse.
[Between 125 and 140.]
Isidore. They’ll know my gait: but stay! last night I watched
A stranger near the ruin in the wood,
Who as it seemed was gathering herbs and wild flowers.
I had followed him at distance, seen him scale
Its western wall, and by an easier entrance
Stole after him unnoticed. There I marked,
That mid the chequer work of light and shade,
With curious choice he plucked no other flowers,
But those on which the moonlight fell: and once
I heard him muttering o’er the plant. A wizard —
Some gaunt slave prowling here for dark employment.
Ordonio. Doubtless you question’d him?
Isidore. ‘Twas my intention,
Having first traced him homeward to his haunt.
But lo! the stern Dominican, whose spies
Lurk everywhere, already (as it seemed)
Had given commission to his apt familiar
To seek and sound the Moor; who now returning,
Was by this trusty agent stopped midway.
I, dreading fresh suspicion if found near him
In that lone place, again concealed myself;
Yet within hearing. So the Moor was question’d,
And in your name, as lord of this domain,
Proudly he answered, ‘Say to the Lord Ordonio,
Remorse.
[Between 158 and 205:]
Ordonio (in retiring stops suddenly at the edge of the scene, and
then turning round to ISIDORE). Ha! Who lurks there! Have we been
overheard?
There where the smooth high wall of slate-rock glitters ——
Isidore. ‘Neath those tall stones, which propping each the other,
Form a mock portal with their pointed arch?
Pardon my smiles! ‘Tis a poor idiot boy,
Who sits in the sun, and twirls a bough about,
His weak eyes seeth’d in most unmeaning tears.
And so he sits, swaying his cone-like head,
And, staring at his bough from morn to sun-set,
See-saws his voice in inarticulate noises.
Ordonio. ‘Tis well! and now for this same wizard’s lair.
Isidore. Some three strides up the hill, a mountain ash
Stretches its lower boughs and scarlet clusters
O’er the old thatch.
Ordonio. I shall not fail to find it.
[Exeunt ORDONIO and ISIDORE.
SCENE II.
The inside of a Cottage, around which flowers and plants of various
kinds are seen. Discovers ALVAR, ZULIMEZ and ALHADRA, as on the point of
leaving.
Alhadra (addressing ALVAR). Farewell then! and though many thoughts
perplex me,
Aught evil or ignoble never can I
Suspect of thee! If what thou seem’st thou art,
The oppressed brethren of thy blood have need
Of such a leader.
Alvar. Nobly minded woman!
Long time against oppression have I fought,
And for the native liberty of faith
Have bled and suffered bonds. Of this be certain:
Time, as he courses onward, still unrolls
The volume of concealment. In the future,
As in the optician’s glassy cylinder,
The indistinguishable blots and colours
Of the dim past collect and shape themselves,
Upstarting in their own completed image
To scare or to reward.
I sought the guilty,
And what I sought I found: but ere the spear
Flew from my hand, there rose an angel form
Betwixt me and my aim. With baffled purpose
To the Avenger I leave Vengeance, and depart!
Whate’er betide, if aught my arm may aid,
Or power protect, my word is pledged to thee:
For many are thy wrongs, and thy soul noble.
Once more, farewell. [Exit ALHADRA.
Yes, to the Belgic states
We will return. These robes, this stained complexion,
Akin to falsehood, weigh upon my spirit.
Whate’er befall us, the heroic Maurice
Will grant us an asylum, in remembrance
Of our past services.
Zulimez. And all the wealth, power, influence which is yours,
You let a murderer hold?
Alvar. O faithful Zulimez!
That my return involved Ordonio’s death,
I trust, would give me an unmingled pang,
Yet bearable: — but
