University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV.

Seashore; early twilight; mouth of a burial-cave.
Vivia and Felicitas watching.
FELICITAS.
This tarrying, with the strangeness of the place,
Dear lady, sorteth not with one like thee.

VIVIA.
There is a spirit haunts about the cave
That holds me rooted, as I were a plant
Had found a rest beneath the rocky arch.
No strangeness is there, save that it is strange
I should feel none.

FELICITAS.
Think you that Saturus
Would choose the seaward way?—some new-fall'n rock
Hath thwarted him, and sent him through the city.

VIVIA.
How still and black it lies!—death without hope!
While yonder red, unsteady pharos-light
Gleams like an earthborn and earth-dying joy,
Fitfully wavering with each passing breath:
The sea beneath, its restless chronicler,
Time's mighty clepsydra, that marks his pace
By wave on wave emptied upon the shore.
Brief joys, light flames, that scarce do burn ere die;
Blackness of death, and restlessness of time,
If that were all.—
The heav'ns! Up to the heav'ns for hope, for light.
Yon crescent moon, and those intelligent stars,
Sure they are in communion. Are they rapt
In the eternity they promise?—these
Ling'ring (while all those countless multitudes
Have left the sky unto the coming dawn),
Lost in their converse deep. Ye beautiful!
That draw up what was pain from out the heart,
And fill the empty void with heavenly peace.
For ever there! Ye are the very same
That o'er the lowly home in Nazareth
Have nearer come, to light the silent vigil
Of Him who slept not, while he sought the way
To bring our souls to everlasting rest.

FELICITAS.
Lady, it is an awful thing to think
That all yon sleeping city should be heathen.

VIVIA.
And yet the stars of heav'n shine over all.
What are ye, that ye clasp us to your light?
Too far for knowledge, yet how near for love!
Ye sing to us. A harmony divine
Goes on the while I look, as though I listen'd,
As though ye heard and answer'd to the choir
Of seraphs praising round the throne of God—
Glory to God alike their song and yours:
O earth, hast thou no echo for such strain?
What comes? Voices there are—no! not i' the air;
It sings beneath my feet.

FELICITAS.
Lady, thy fancy sings.

VIVIA.
Nay, bend thine ear, and listen.

FELICITAS.
True; 'tis they
Within the cave: sure Saturus is there.

VIVIA.
Hush!—'tis his footstep—fleet, yet even-pac'd;
I know it well.

Enter Saturus.
SATURUS.
Here!—ye have waited long?

VIVIA.
'Twere meet we wait for thee, not thou for us.

SATURUS.
Pause ere ye enter; for within this hour
I have both heard and seen that peril waits.
If thou didst know the passage to yon cave,
That leads to life in Christ, were pav'd with death,
Wouldst enter it?

VIVIA.
I would.

FELICITAS.
What hath befall'n?

SATURUS.
Quickly within, and there thou shalt know all.
The rock is hewn into descending steps;
They are rough—plant firm your foot; there's light beyond.

[They enter the cave.