University of Virginia Library

SCENE, RATIBOR'S Apartment.
He sitting, with a book.
By this the deed is done! how still the Palace!
Rudolph will soon be here to tell me all!
He dies then, and the black tale dies with him.
This can seal down the most loquacious tongue.
[Shews a poniard.]
My brain now akes with expectation—O!
The foot, that brings ambition to his aim,
Should be as swift as the keen northern wind,
And as invisible! I'll read awhile!
In vain! my eye courses o'er words and words,
From which no meaning strikes the wand'ring mind.
How, if he fail!—I hear a noise—He comes!
How weak was my alarm!
(triumphantly)
Enter WIRTEMBERG.
Well Rudolph? ha! my brother! Wirtemberg!

WIRTEMBERG.
I wonder not at your alarm, my brother,
To see me thus, by miracle I think,
Sav'd from the swords of an assassin band,
Who rush'd upon me, as, with slender train,
I journey'd through the wood.

RATIBOR.
You bleed, Sir,
Are you not hurt?

WIRTEMBERG.
But triflingly, I think.
Thanks to this mail within my outer garment.
The villains wore the habit, as it seem'd,
Of the associates to our secret Judges.
They might mistake me for some chief proscrib'd,
And thus attempted to inflict the sentence,
Which, usually, in unfrequented tracts,
Strikes the lost victim.

RATIBOR.
Rather say, my liege,
Some traitorous attempt to cut you off,
And instigated by a hidden foe.

WIRTEMBERG.
I do not think I have one; for my power
Has still pursued alone my people's good.
Where is my nephew Herman?

RATIBOR.
Did he not
Return with you? He went, he said, to meet you,
And I fear—

WIRTEMBERG.
Speak plainly, brother,
Has Herman's conduct giv'n you ground to think?
I tremble to enquire—He hesitates!—
Unnatural boy—I lov'd him like a parent.

RATIBOR.
Sir, you outrun my fears, they pointed not
That way, although of late his conduct much
Is chang'd for dissolute and unbridled manners.
But who comes thus in haste?

Enter SOLDIER.
My liege, I grieve my duty bids me speak,
A most unwelcome truth—Our young Prince, Herman,
We o'ertook near the place of your attack,
With his sword drawn and bloody.—He demands
To speak, in explanation, 'fore your grace.

RATIBOR.
What, has the devil work'd him to my toils?
This is beyond my hopes.

(aside)
WIRTEMBERG.
Accomplish'd villain!
Tell him, in me, his interest is gone.
Let him address himself unto our brother.
O, poison to the soul, obdurate vice,
Let but ambition touch the chords of feeling,
The strings relax and shrivel in the blaze,
And nature's stifled in the unnatural fire.
Dear Ratibor pity me, and take the seat
Of judgment more impartial than my own.

[Exit.
RATIBOR.
Bring up the Prince, and then attend without.
[Exit Soldier.
How! found so near, and thus a combatant,
Belike that Rudolph perish'd by his hand—
But he approaches.

HERMAN.
Where's the gracious Duke,
To whom my explanation is address'd?

RATIBOR.
His pow'r's in me, to bring thee to thy answer.

HERMAN.
Answer to thee! to a malicious foe,
And one, who, if appearances were righted,
Should stand suspected, not as I do wrongly.
Dar'st thou to breathe a doubt of my true love?
Look on me—shake not in the judgment seat.

RATIBOR.
An humbler tone would better suit the guiltless.
Wert thou not found, as they report the fact,
Near to the spot, where they attack'd the Duke,
And thy sword stain'd with gore?

HERMAN.
And this is true,
But yet you must not thence presume to think
Me the assassin.

RATIBOR.
Yes, and I accuse thee,
That, mov'd by hellish malice, thou hast suborn'd
A band of ruffians to assail the Duke—

HERMAN.
O that this arm were not now weaponless!
But what still hinders, naked though I am,
That I should rush thus on thy coward frame,
And trample calumny beneath my foot.

RATIBOR
. (stamps with his foot.)
Enter SOLDIERS.
Seize him, and bear him hence to close confinement.

HERMAN.
Hark thee, thou very wretch—At the Tribunal
Where I shall meet this charge, I'll tell a tale
Shall blank the impudence of accusation.
Till then, take my defiance—for I know thee.

[Exit guarded.
RATIBOR.
'Tis well, that threat has arm'd me, The Tribunal!
But I may cut thy pleadings briefly boy.
Rudolph is slain, and known by him perhaps—
I'll send to seek the body instantly.

Re-enter WIRTEMBERG.
From the sad couch of exquisite disease
I turn to listen to ungrateful treason.
Bear with me brother, if this tide of evil
O'er pass the manly boundaries of temper.
How brook'd the villain your interrogation?

RATIBOR.
As I expected, with outrageous fury:
Like some fierce savage struggling in the toils,
Whom the alarmed hunter views at hand,
He rush'd in powerless rage to seize my person;
The summon'd guards compell'd him then to prison.

WIRTEMBERG.
What urg'd he nothing in his mere defence?

RATIBOR.
Nothing; but on my head recrimination.
Unspotted truth makes malice impotent.
My personal wrongs shall not invade my justice.

WIRTEMBERG.
Give orders straight to bring him to his trial.
Now to my suffering love, o'er whom the dart
Of death yet menaces—not long in vain.
Though bred to horrors, in the school of battle
The soldier studies the grim tyrant's art,
And speculates innumerable wounds;
Restor'd to thy soft reign domestic peace,
He deeper mourns than others the decree,
Which tears his consolation from his arms.

[Exit.
RATIBOR.
Matilda must not live—should she recover,
A mewling Mammet might at length start up
And step between me and my promis'd good.
That Badendorff has prov'd a genuine leach;
Has pledg'd himself to push her from the verge,
If long she linger.—He shall be my physician.
No, hold you there—his conscience is too supple;
Another might outbid for his prescriptions.

[Exit.