University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE SECOND.

The confines of a wood with a large plain stretching up the country in the back-ground, and shewing a city in the distance. Over the city hangs a dark cloud. Enter the Shepherds meeting on either side.
3d Shep.
Did you remark the strange and sudden mist
That parted us?

1st Shep.
Ay, and was lost in wonder.

3d Shep.
How it came rolling tow'rds us through the trees,
And wrapp'd us from each other!

1st Shep.
'Twas like night
Visibly passing. All my faculties
Seem'd stuff'd and blinded till it had gone by.
Yet here we are all met.

2d Shep.
Some trick no doubt
Of this tyrannic juggler to delude us:
It's failure looks well-omen'd. What do you see?

3d Shep.
Nothing as yet in the north.

1st Shep.
But tow'rds the south
There is a streak of light in the dark sky;
And the Enchanter in his city seems
At troubled work.

2d Shep.
That's plain. Heav'n alter him!
What choice has his been of these dark vexations,
These sullen heights, this flound'ring in Heav'n's worst,
This poor and purblind acting of the god,
When by the same good gift of understanding
Thus devilishly abused, and by applying
To books of clearer wisdom, he had been
Blessing and blest, and help'd to keep our land
In still and shiny peace, it's vital air
Pure and at liberty, and it's happy families
As numerous, and as smiling, and as rich
With joy at heart, as the small orbs that throng
Their laughing cheeks together on our vines.
What flash was that? Was it not lightning?

1st and 3d Shep.
Look,
Now the light's coming.

2d Shep.
Something flashes thick
As from a forge, and spits against the dark:
The wind too,—how it musters on the sudden!
Now, now!

Another cloud, similar to that over the city, emerges from the north after the light, and begins to come slowly onward, the latter meantime shifting it's place a little towards it, and leaving the spires of the city whitening up into the air.
1st Shep.
The Enchanter, wrapp'd within his cloud,
Seems to await it. Heaven send us good!
For after all, my friends, what if this voice
We heard delude us, and this other cloud
Contain but other evils like himself,
Come to dispute with him the power to vex us?

2d Shep.
That thought has cross'd me also; but I feel
It cannot be; the voice had something in it
So frank and kind, I feel assured 'twas true.
Besides, those counter-ills have fail'd already:—
He is so fixed and potent in his art,
They have but furnish'd him with proud occasion
To play the master, and bring under him,
One after one, the trusters in his trade.
No, no; the world is wiser, and has found,
Be sure, some nobler art that shall perplex him.
The better spirit within us all is roused,
The spirit that reddens at an insolent eye,
That leaps 'twixt wrong and suffering, that throws up
A smile to heav'n ere it's impatience executes,
That says to all men, ‘This is right, this wrong,
This just and unjust, bearable and unbearable,’
This spirit is roused; and it shall read to his
A lesson of such new and finishing thunder,
As shall, at once, shake him from out his hold,
And purge the air from after pestilence.

A fierce gust of wind:—the two clouds wheel nearly together, and hover a little, darting out fires. By this time, a multitude of Shepherds have joined the others, and are gazing with anxiety at the sight.
CHORUS OF PART OF THE SHEPHERDS.
Moment of all anxious wonder!
Hour, about to strike in thunder!
Lo, we feel to that dread sound
Heaven's own finger travelling round!

CHORUS OF OTHER PART OF THE SHEPHERDS.
Go not back, thou sacred hand,
Hope of every listening land!
Strike, strike, and set the nations free,
And ring the knell, from clime to clime, of tyranny,—of tyranny!

The attacking cloud throws out brighter and thicker flames than the other:—the latter begins to heave, and give way.
GRAND CHORUS.
See! see! he totters in his cloudy walls!
See! see!
See! see!
He totters, totters, in his cloudy walls!
(A vivid flash of lightning.)
He falls!

A tremendous clap of thunder, the clouds coming in contact; one bursts, and the Enchanter falls headlong, the twilight over the country vanishing. Then to the sound of distant and grand music, the other cloud, turning to a silvery hue, moves into the former's place over the city, and separates into four bright globes, on each of which sits a Genius, with one hand holding a thunderbolt carelessly on the thigh, and in the other lifting an olive-branch. They descend gradually into the city, amidst the far-off sound of bells and artillery.
2d Shep.
More wonders yet:—we three will first return
To the anxious hearts that wait us in the wood,
Then join you in the city. Away, away!

(Exeunt severally.)