University of Virginia Library

SCENE II.

An Apartment.
Yamos and Arak, and Attendants.
Yamos.
Heard ye that shriek? It came upon my ear
As the quick lightning flashes on the eye,
Startling the soul—How awful is this silence
Which has succeeded to that glance of sound!
Methinks it has affinity with death,
And should be named with epithets of blackness.
Where is Orooko?

Arak.
At the sacrifice.

Yamos.
What sacrifice! Why dost thou turn away—
It was the victim's cry then that I heard?—
O 'twas my Idda, loveliest, still belov'd!—
But I forget that justice claim'd her doom,
And Guilt with clammy and opprobrious clutch,
More hideous than the mouldering grasp of death,
Tore our incorporated hearts asunder.
[the shells sound.
Hark! again, O Idda! down my heart, lie down.
Summon the choristers, bid them sing shrill,—
Wake all your instruments of wildest sound,
And drown th'afflicting discord of her cries.—
[Music]
No more, no more—Tell me, is it yet done?
Has the bright star, that should to night arise
At the returning of the tide, appear'd?

Arak.
It just begins to glimmer o'er the sea.

Yamos.
O ere the tide shall reach its wonted bourn,
The beauteous orb, that crown'd my life's fair dawn,
Must set for ever in the gloomy wave.—
Has not Orooko come?

Arak.
We have not sent.

Yamos.
Why am I not obey'd, wherefore is this,
That you deny the duty of your place?
Go bring him instantly—yet stop—not yet.—
She may not yet have reach'd the fatal rock.
How long time thinkest thou?—

Arak.
What would you, sir?

Yamos.
No matter, Arak—we'll towards the shore,—
Command Antonio to attend me there.

[Exeunt.