University of Virginia Library

SCENE III.

RUPERT'S CELL. Rupert. Maximin.
Rupert.
Thou hast delaid some little, Maximin.

Maximin.
Frate! I met a woman in the street,
And she might well delay me: guess now why.

Rupert.
Who in the world can guess the why of women?

Maximin.
She said she knew us both in Hungary.

Rupert.
I now suspect the person: she is crazed.

Maximin.
Well may she be, deprived of such a friend.

Rupert.
No friend was ever mine in that false sex.
I am impatient, Maximin.

Maximin.
Impatient!
And so am I. (Maximin throws open the door, and Agatha enters.)

Knowest thou this woman, Frate?

Rupert.
Art thou crazed too? I know her? Not at all.

Maximin.
And hast thou never known her? never toucht her?
I only mean in giving her thy blessing.

Rupert.
A drunken sailor in a desert isle
Would not approach her.

Maximin
(indignant).
Not my sister?

Agatha.
Scorner!
Insulter! (Aside.)

He may have forgotten. Can he?
He did not see me, would not look at me.

Maximin.
My sword shall write her name upon thy midrif.
Prepare!

Agatha.
Hold! hold! Spare him yet, Maximin!
How could I . . and the man who . .

Maximin.
Speak it out,
Worthless one!

Agatha.
I am worthless. Let him live!
Oh let him live!

Maximin.
Thou lovest thy betrayer.

Agatha.
The once beloved are unestranged by falsehood;
They can not wholly leave us, tho' they leave us
And never look behind.

Maximin.
Wild! wild as hawk!

Rupert
(on his knees).
Vision of light, of love, of purity!
Dost thou revisit on the verge of earth
A soul so lost, to rescue it? Enough,
Agatha! Do not ask him for my life;
No, bid him slay me; bid him quench the days
That have in equal darkness set and risen
Since proud superiors banisht faithful love.
I am grown old; few years are left me, few
And sorrowful: my reason comes and goes:
I am almost as capable of crimes
As virtues.

Maximin.
By my troth, a hundred-fold
More capable.

Rupert.
Both ('tis Heaven's will) are over.
Here let me end my hours: they should have all
Been thine; he knows it; let him take them for thee;
And close thou here mine eyes where none behold,
Forgiving me . . no, not forgiving me,
But praying, thou pure soul! for Heaven's forgiveness.

Maximin.
I will not strike thee on the ground: rise up,
Then, when thou risest . .

Agatha.
Come away, my brother!

Rupert.
Never, so help me saints! will I rise up:
I will breathe out my latest breath before her.

Maximin.
It sickens a stout man to tread on toads.

[Goes.
Rupert
(rising slowly, and passing a dagger through his fingers).
And the stout man might slip too, peradventure.