University of Virginia Library

SCENE II.

An apartment in Norma's house. Chairs placed for two. Enter Norma and Bertha.
Nor.
Now, girl, thy story. (Sits.)
Why this mystery?

Ber.
Are we not overheard?

Nor.
That risk be mine!

Ber.
No tale-bearer am I; but, when a maid,
Pledged to the temple's service, strays so far
From duty as to listen to a man
Protesting love, 'tis time for me to speak—
That you'll allow.

Nor.
Well.

Ber.
Adalgisa, lady—

Nor.
What of her?

Ber.
She's the culprit. She's in love.

Nor.
Is't true? Poor thing!

Ber.
(Aside.)
Poor thing? And is that all?
Won't she be hung, or burnt, or drowned in a sack?
Poor thing! I'll fall in love myself to-morrow.
I've had temptations—quite enough of them—
As well as other folks—I'm no more marble
Nor snow than they—but honest flesh and blood.
Poor thing indeed!

Nor.
What art thou muttering, girl?

Ber.
Only a pray'r that you'll be merciful
To Adalgisa. Must she die?

Nor.
The day
Is gone when such offence could be so punished.
Under the Druid rule it might have been.

Ber.
But she'll be scourged?

Nor.
When wert thou privileged
To question my intents; and how art thou
Concerned to know her punishment?

Ber.
(Aside.)
I would know
If 't will be such as I could bear.

Nor.
Her fault
Is doubled by concealment. Canst thou tell me
What man has dared address her?

Ber.
That is what
Will most amaze you, seeing that Adalgisa
Is no way notable for sense or beauty,
But quite inferior in both to many
Of her associates. Then she has no style—
No—I cannot describe it—loftiness
Of manner, which we some have.

Nor.
Cease thy prating.
Tell me her lover's name.

Ber.
You'll be—

(Enter Adalgisa.)
Nor.
But here
She comes to answer for herself. (To Bertha.)
Begone.

Ber.
(Aside.)
“Poor thing!” Mayhap, I'll be a poor thing, too!

[Exit
Nor.
(Aside.)
She's mute with apprehension. How can I
Rebuke her, needing as I do myself
An equal exculpation? (To her.)
Adalgisa,
Draw near—be seated—I have heard thy story. (Adal. sits.)


Adal.
And have no anger for me—no reproaches?
But how—but when—what have you heard?

Nor.
That thou
Hast dared to hold discourse with one who urges
A lover's suit.

Adal.
O! let me tell you all.
He has my word to fly with him this day.

Nor.
Imprudent! And thou'st ventured—

Adal.
(Kneels.)
Could you know
With what renewals of thick-coming tears,
What vigils, supplications, I have striven
To root from my heart the passion driving me
To this conclusion, you'd be pitiful,
Perchance would pardon.

Nor.
(Aside.)
So did I contend—
So yield! I almost feel the same wild throbs
That then made tumult here. I almost see
Him at my feet again, and hear his voice—
His music-shaming voice—that pleaded so
That I relented and surrendered all—
A cheap exchange for love.

Adal.
Dismiss me not
Unpardoned, unreleased.

Nor.
Have all thy wish.
I pardon; I release thee with this kiss
Upon thy brow from all there is of bondage
In thy religious state.

Adal.
(Rises.)
O! joyful freedom!
Without a crime now can I love and be
Beloved. O! Norma, you so pure, so true,
In your self-abnegation, your adhesion
To vestal sanctity, say, how can you
Have such quick sympathy with one whose weakness
Could not withstand her first, her only trial?

Nor.
Norma claims no preëminent exemption
From human frailty, girl; the strongest of us
May one day find that her security
Is based on air. But come, thou hast not told me
Aught of thy lover.

Adal.
'T was no outside bravery
That won me first, but words that found their way
Straight to the heart—uplifting it and showing
Affinity with all in thought and deed
That we can best admire in our best moods.

Nor.
(Aside.)
Such was the path my own affections followed.
(To her.)
Who spake such words?

Adal.
No countryman.

Nor.
A Roman?

(Enter Octavian.)
Adal.
Behold him here!

Nor.
(Rising.)
Octavian!

Oct.
(Aside.)
All is ruined!

Nor.
Girl! Do thy wits wander? He thy lover? He?
Thou must be blinded. Look again. (Laughs.)
Octavian,
What a mistake!

Adal.
'T is he! no other, Norma.

Nor.
Idiot! he—he thy lover? Wilt thou mock me?
Octavian, undeceive her with thy voice.

Adal.
It is the truth.

Nor.
The truth? Audacious wanton!
Never was lie blacker begot in hell.
Hear him with but a word transfix it such,
And make thy crazy freak matter for scorn.
Speak it, Octavian!

Oct.
Leave us, Adalgisa. (She is going.)


Nor.
Stay, girl!

Oct.
I charge thee, go!

Nor.
And I, remain!

Oct.
Wilt thou obey?

Adal.
Not while this mystery
Involves me—frights my reason—menaces
I know not what of dreadful. Ah! what is it?

Nor.
Come hither: is this he who has played thy lover
And planned to fly with thee this very day?

Adal.
As I do hope for mercy, he it is!

Nor.
O, Adalgisa! (Covers her face with her hands.)


Adal.
Norma, do not weep.

Nor.
O, would that I could weep!

Adal.
What great distress
Has come to thee I know not, but I share it.

Nor.
Thou dost! The blow is double, smiting both.
In that man see my husband!

Adal.
Ah! (Retires and sits.)


Nor.
To me bound
By all that law could lend of sanctity—
By all of multiplied and tender bonds
Honor could feel and cherish. I so loved him
I would have plucked my heart out to uphold him
In health and safety—would have looked on death
As a slight thing, encountered in his service.
And now. ... O! fool, fool, fool! what thou hast spurned
Was such a treasure as a god might roam
On earth long years to win—was such a sum
Of deep, devoted, deifying love
As would have crowned with its felicity
Thy life, and shed celestial radiance on it.
Now, like a star hurled from its sphere and lost
In utter gloom, 'tis gone—gone—gone! O, day
Of anguish insupportable! O, hour
To which none darker can succeed, tho' death
Come black with every horror!

Oct.
Hear me, Norma.

Nor.
Ay, I have waited long. I'm all attention.

Oct.
I would have spared thee this abrupt disclosure—
Would have untied with gentle, cautious hand,
The knot to thee so sacred.

Nor.
To me sacred?
Only to me? Well: what wouldst thou have done?

Oct.
I would have waited till time's gradual power
Had weaned thee from me—one by one unclasped
Most tenderly the tendrils of thy love—
Ere thou hadst known what this unheeding maid
Has rashly uttered.

Nor.
For thy kind intents
All gratitude.—O, miscreant! Could such words
Issue from any heart that ever loved!
“Time's gradual power!” “Weaned!” “Tendrils!” Think you love—
(Love! the immortal, amaranthine flower!)
Is but a creeping ivy which the winter
May loosen from one tree, the spring re-fasten
On to another?—But I interrupt you.

Oct.
Thou know'st the worst—and all that I would say
Is to assuage—console.

Nor.
Console! O, mockery!

Oct.
One circumstance, if 'twill not justify,
At least may serve me in extennuation.
Arnulf spake truly: when I came to woo thee
'Twas in my country's service; and my marriage,
Ordained by state necessity, was binding
Only while that might last. So do not blame
Me, but the system by which Rome would win
Dominion here in Gaul.

Nor.
I live to hear it!
Dupe that I was! self-seeking, wretched dupe!
Myself abandoned, and my country sold
To my betrayer!—All your honeyed words
Were then a lie—a trap—to ruin me
And to enslave my people. You could play
The matchless hypocrite in what's most holy
To compass my perdition!—But, your pardon!
Rome's the offender—Rome!
O! how convenient, when a man concurs
In a foul wrong, to spread the shame of it over
An unaccountable, uncertain mass,
A state—a public body—as if he
Could thereby make his individual share
Attenuate past the weighing! I deny
Thy plea—'tis false—ignoble—he but sins
In magnified proportion, who would help
A nation in its crime!— (Her ring suddenly attracts her notice.)

That ring—look on it—
And recollect the words with which you gave it.
O! hollow, hollow, hollow! Take it back.

(Takes off ring and offers it to Octavian, who receives it.)
Oct.
Before I met thee, I had met and loved
(As she'll attest) this maiden. (Adal. rises.)
How I strove to
Displace her shrined image with thine own,
Only my heart can know. In vain I strove;
And when I found that in her breast was kindled
An answering flame, mine swept that way to join it,
And both became as one.

Adal.
(To Norma.)
Ah! do not weep.

Nor.
Who weeps? Give me thy hand.
(She leads Adalgisa to Octavian.)
Take her, my lord.
But, if ye prize each other's life, begone
At once—without a pause—putting such speed
Into your flight that the celerity
Of vengeance shall be slack. I'm almost calm
Now; but, another moment, such a frenzy
May come to unpoise me, 'twill be dangerous
To abide its wildness. Go! without a word!

Oct.
Now thou'rt thy noble self; now thou art Norma!
Fear not but thy control in Gaul's affairs
Shall still be paramount; that thou shalt keep
Her freedom unimpaired, her welfare ever
The first concern. The friend of my successor,
Lucilius Lollius, I will so commend
To him thy worth, no other counsellor
Shall be so heeded. He is young, unmarried,
Noble, discreet: perhaps, a happier tie
Than that we sunder now, may consecrate
In a brief while your friendship.

Nor.
Execration
Upon thee for that thought!
What! Would'st transfer me like a common wanton
From one to the other? Thou hadst seemed to reach
The utmost height of all potential wrongs—
But there was one, conception could not scale—
Inhuman, gross, o'ertopping all the rest—
And thou hast added that! Beware! Remember
My blood is half barbarian, and despair
Makes doubly strong. Go! I abjure compunction.
This heart, so late the paradise of love,
Is now a desolation for the Furies,
And they are here. Fly ye! Fly both, before
Their sport begins!

Oct.
Time shall abate thy grief
And show me as thy friend, do what thou wilt.
Come, Adalgisa! All is ready.

Adal.
Back,
Roman!

Oct.
Delay not. Solitude shall bring
Composure to her soul.

Nor.
Thee I blame not,
Poor child. Farewell! Be happy.

Adal.
And could Norma
Suppose, but for a moment, I could be
The recreant wretch to leave her in her sorrow—
Leave her for him—her husband—her betrayer!
Those high and holy lessons that she gave me
From childhood up, by precept and example,
In every nobleness, in every virtue,—
Thinks she they were so fruitless, I can stoop
To such a partnership in wrong and shame
As he would take me to—be happy in it!

Nor.
Thou'rt my own pupil!

Oct.
Thy constraining presence
Drives her to this. I fear not for the issue
When she is free.

Adal.
There's such a separation
Betwixt us twain, that neither gods nor men
Can close it up. You think me meek and yielding,
And so I am, except where conscience bars,—
Then, not the firmament less moveable
By human hand! Be undeceived in that.

Oct.
Women! ye drive me to the inmost trench.
I'm still proconsul! Ye shall find it. I
Have tried forbearance; if ye spurn it, there's
Another way, and that my purpose takes
Rather than fail. The maiden goes with me
To Rome. Be sure of that. I'll hear no more
Of your hysterical ravings. My resolve
Is fixed. Prepare to see its execution.

[Exit
Nor.
What wilt thou do?

Adal.
Die, Norma! Have I not
This steel, to baffle outrage?

Nor.
Hapless maid!

Adal.
What are my griefs to thine? what to thy wrongs?

Nor.
O! for some way to save thee! to defeat
His violent purpose. War and havoc! welcome,
If ye'll do that! Methinks with this right hand
I now could smite him to the earth. Alas!
My own weak confidence has here undone me,—
Transferred to him my power—disbanded all
Our Gallic men of battle—driven to caves
The Druid foes of Rome—reposed in him
The means to enforce his threat!

(Enter Arnulf disguised.)
Arn.
There's yet a way
To foil him.

Nor.
Who art thou?

Arn.
Rome's enemy.

Nor.
My friend, then! In aught else be spy or traitor,—
Deliver us from the proconsul's power,
Thou'rt my good genius!

Arn.
Soon his guards will be
Around this house to cut off your retreat.
Fly instantly. I'll lead you where the name
Of Norma is a spell to rouse and rally
Thousands. In his security through thee
The Roman has sent home the better part
Of his late army.

Nor.
True!

Arn.
Thou'lt have at once
A force about thee, equal to resist,
If not o'erwhelm him.

Nor.
Hah! Through fire and flood
I'll follow thee. Lead on! Come, girl! Thy hand!
'Tis firm.

Adal.
Not firmer than my will.

Nor.
Lead on!
[Exit Arnulf
Not every hope is gone! One's left! It beckons
From yonder cloud of blood, and smiles revenge!

[Exeunt