 | The Mermaid |  |
SCENE II.
Beneild Castle—A chamber, lights, &c.—A storm heard without.Lady Beneild and Attendants.
Lady B.
The priest, the priest! I will make my confession.
The white-main'd waves are hungry for their prey,
And shake the islands as they leap to catch—
The priest—the holy priest, that I may tell
What mortal instigation hath enjoin'd
This Chaos of the ocean and the air—
Hark how the stamp of angry heaven doth shake
The vaulted firmament!
(thunder.)
[Enter Friar.]
Come, father, come:
My thoughts partake the wildness of the hour,
And I am lost if thou canst not appease.
Friar.
The storm subsides; and far beyond the hills,
The parting thunders roll their dreadful cars
Into the dark abysms of the air
Wherein the tempests sleep.
Lady B.
But I would tell
Who brought them forth, and, with shrill-sounded call,
Rous'd the sail-tearing demons of the wind
To whelm a fated bark. My son, my son,
488
Steer from the cliffs where dens the fatal Elpa:
And then the mantling blackness first began
To wrap the heavens, and o'er the sun's brightface
The hideous cowl of darkness was drawn down.
This day Glenelg espous'd fair Agandel;
And for the scorn of that disdainful maid
I fear my son has feed grim Elpa's power
To mar their hopeful love.
Friar.
Unhappy youth—
But the weak malice of incarnate things
Cannot infect the universal air,
Though envious tongues are potent to do harm—
If more the witch attempts, she mocks your son,
And, but with shame, he will repent his faith
In her malign pretensions—Lady, come;
'Tis near the wonted time of midnight prayer:
Let us into your oriel, and implore
Some blessed interdict upon Beneild,
In the unhallow'd course of his revenge.
[Exeunt.
| The Mermaid | |