 | The Priestess |  |
SCENE II.
A field. Enter to music Rudiger and Druids—Adalgisa and Women—Gontran and Soldiers.Gont.
Soldiers, our Druid fathers have convoked us,
To offer weighty cause why instant battle
Should against Rome be hurled—why your chief, Ambron,
Should be deposed, and Norma no more heeded.
Rud.
Time was, the Druid need not have stood forth
To show why his monitions should prevail.
But we are here for action. Briefly then:
Why is not Norma present? Why has her
Loud, eloquent cry for war sunk all at once
To pleadings for delay? This may enlighten:
Yesterday she was tracked to the enemy's outposts.
Men of Gaul, we're betrayed. She tampers with
The Roman—and is even now, perchance,
Haggling upon the price which he shall pay her
For Gaul's enslavement. Ask ye proof of this?
Her threat to us! Her absence from this meeting!
And Ambron—where is he?
(Enter Ambron.)
Amb.
Who summons Ambron?
Rud.
Behold him, pledged to follow Norma's bidding—
No matter where it lead—to war or peace—
Fidelity or treason! Ask you why
Ambron is thus devoted? Other thoughts
Than reverence for her office mingle with
His zeal in Norma's service—nor is she
Slow to requite his kindness.
Amb.
Slandering dotard!
I had borne all but that! Not thy gray hairs
Shall shield thee from my fury.
Gont.
(Interposing.)
Nay!
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I thank thee.
Age be his shield!—Soldiers, hear me proclaim
The crime of Norma. She has even dared
Say to these remnants of old wickedness.
In your detested rites venture to shed
The sacred human blood, and yours shall flow.
They were but yesterday detected by her
In disobedience. With indignant words
She bade them loose their victim. They, enraged,
And, thinking by one blow to feed their grudge
And reinstate their stripped authority,
Favored the act of one, who drew his dagger
And rushed upon the priestess. She repelled him.
And I came timely in to rescue her
From the assassins. (Sensation among the Soldiers.)
Rud.
And the act of one.
Unauthorized, uncountenanced, he brings
Against us all! But does the tale disprove
Our charge of treason? Where this while is Norma?
She knows the charge is true. She will not venture
To reäppear before you.
Amb.
She is here!
(Enter Norma.)
Nor.
I bring you peace, my country, peace and freedom.
Rud.
Whence? We may doubt the gift, knowing the giver.
Nor.
Rudiger, I salute you. When we met
Last, 'twas a sharp response ye tendered me.
Whence bring I peace? From Rome who brings the war!
Rud.
So! As I told you, soldiers! She has been
Bargaining with the enemy.
Nor.
And why not?
What will ye fight for, soldiers, should the war
Go on? For Druid empire—human sacrifices—
Assassination, perjury, and plunder.
At length the mist before my eyes is scattered.
The Druids have deceived us—falsely charged
'Gainst Rome, intents she never harbored. Come!
Abandon this poor, tottering Druid system,
Effete and doting, and Rome asks no more!
Was it not time I bargained with the Roman
When these men sought my life; ay, would have had it
But for the noble Ambron!
(Cries of “Down with the Druids! Down! Down with them!”)
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Let them retire unharmed, but be henceforth
Druids no more, but common men. Ye will it!
And so (revivers of the impossible past!)
Depart forthwith, nor dare to abuse our mercy.
(Druids, all but Rudiger, Exeunt.)
Rud.
While thrives the oak, the Druid shall survive.
[Exit
Nor.
Then, to be free, my countrymen, we must
Be part of the mighty empire—part of Rome!
Rome offers her adoption—her protection—
Her roads—her fortresses—her means of plenty—
And to the soldiers, who will join her army,
Double their present pay—the officers,
Their present rank, with prospect of promotion.
Ye have the offer. Shall it be accepted?
Egbert.
Ay, soldiers, ay! The thing for us—for Gaul!
(Cries of ay! from the soldiers.)
Nor.
Then go, give signal to the enemy—
To our friends, brothers, rather—of the issue—
And with them interchange a soldier's hug.
(Music and cries. Exeunt all but Norma and Ambron. The latter, when all have gone out, drops his sword. Norma picks it up and hands it to him.)
Nor.
Thou hast dropped thy sword.
Amb.
I've no more need of it.
Nor.
Then thank the gods and give it to its scabbard
Against the time of need.
Amb.
(Receives and puts up sword.)
O, Norma! Norma!
Thou hast transformed me wholly. I who held
In this right hand the destiny of Gaul,—
Who hated peace as sailors do a calm—
I now give up my power, as 'twere a bauble
I had outgrown.
Nor.
A noble sacrifice!
Amb.
Of no true nobleness the change is bred.
Self, self, and always self, the only motive!
O! be thou here the prophetess, and read
What my tongue dare not utter.
Nor.
Speak.
Amb.
I love.
I know there's profanation in this madness,
But Druid rigor now is at an end
And thou art free.
Nor.
Free, Ambron? I am bound
In fetters past release. I am a wife.
Amb.
A wife!
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A secret this, my more than brother!
Amb.
One that more crushes than a battle lost.
And yet, even here I trust thee. Who's thy husband?
Nor.
A Roman chief—Octavian—soon to be
Proconsul here.
Amb.
A Roman! A proconsul!
How—why—I see it all! Heroic Norma!
You wed Gaul's ruler, to secure Gaul's welfare.
Nor.
That hope, methinks, was foremost; yet it was not
Unpaired with love such as a wife should bring.
Amb.
Felicity attend thee! May the gods
Shower their selectest blessings on you both.
Thou hast been much to me—hast made my life
From contact with thine own more rich and sacred;
So that my present sorrow seemeth better
Than all the ignorant joy of former years.
Dost thou remember what a mere barbarian,
Rude in attire, in speech, in superstition,
I was when first thou took'st me into training,
Shaped my chaotic thoughts, my ruffian passions,
By forms and intuitions of thine own,
Till the rough savage grew to be a man
And the brute life obedient to a higher?
Now, must I lose my teacher?
Nor.
No. Why shouldst thou?
Stay with us; still our army's honored chief.
Amb.
It cannot be. Among the mountains dwells
My sire, a gray-haired peasant, with his flocks.
Him I rejoin, to find in scenes of beauty
And simple occupations (thanks to thee!)
Contentment that in war and power abides not.
Farewell! But should the dark hour overtake thee—
Should grief, disaster, reach or threaten thee,
Then call on Ambron! He will keep the sword
Thou didst restore. Farewell!
Nor.
Go, noble friend!
We shall recall thee, soon; though not, I trust,
At prompting of misfortune.
Amb.
So I trust.
[Exit
(Shouts from without.)
Nor.
Those shouts proclaim the meeting of the armies.
Met, not in homicidal wrath, to stain
The turf with carnage—but as brothers meet.
Shout on! ye lift my heart up—higher—higher!
Octavian must be there—my husband! Soon,
Proconsul over Gaul! Joy, Norma, joy!
[Exit
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