 | The sons of Usna |  |
SCENE VI.
A beautiful Grove in the vicinity of the Palace of the King of Duntrone. Enter Eogan Mor, bringing in Darthula.DARTHULA.
Oh! good Eogan Mor! what shall be done?
EOGAN MOR.
What done? You heard your father's dread commands?
DARTHULA.
I did. But would you, in cold blood, do what
He had commanded in the heat of passion?
EOGAN MOR.
That I must do, or die!
DARTHULA.
Then I must die!
Can you not save me from this cruel fate?
EOGAN MOR.
I would do anything to save your life—
Lay down my own!
DARTHULA.
Then save me from this death?
EOGAN MOR.
But what good turn will I receive?
DARTHULA.
Thanks—thanks—
Eternal thanks! deep gratitude through life,
And blest remembrance after death!
EOGAN MOR.
Fine pay.
But one thing can resist a King's commands.
DARTHULA.
Yes, there are two,—the love of innocent truth.
EOGAN MOR.
Nothing but love could brave his dread commands.
This love I feel for thee—long, long have felt!
For thou art dearer to my soul, than is
The ruby stream that waters this sad heart!
DARTHULA.
Then you will set me free?
EOGAN MOR.
Then I must die!
For to resist his dire commands, is death!
This I would do for thee, because I love!
Which makes me know my love is not returned.
DARTHULA.
Alas! save me from this impending fate!
And I will love you all my life till death!
EOGAN MOR.
There is but one way I can save your life—
By your becoming mine—then you are safe.
DARTHULA.
Where will you go?
EOGAN MOR.
Fly—fly to some far land,
Where we will live until the King relents.
DARTHULA.
Suppose we join with Usna's Sons?
EOGAN MOR.
No—no!
Better unite with Ulster than the Sons.
DARTHULA.
No, let us join great Usna's Sons; they will
Protect us, with the prowess of their arms,
Forever from the fury of his wrath!
EOGAN MOR.
No, I would rather join with Ulster's troops;
For Usna's Sons I hate as I do Hell!
DARTHULA.
Then follow his commands; perhaps, at some
Less passionate hour, he may relent.
EOGAN MOR.
Relent!
A word not found in the whole Book of Kings.
DARTHULA.
Then what am I to do?
EOGAN MOR.
Do as I say?
DARTHULA.
No, if you love me, as you say you do,
Join, then, with Usna's Sons.
EOGAN MOR.
Well, then, come on.
[Aside.
Now will I start, but never to return!
Nor will I ever join with Usna's Sons.
50
Come, my Darthula! fairest flower on earth!
I will not prove unworthy of thy love.
Now, then, for the Tent of Usna's noble Sons.
DARTHULA.
Remember, that I pledge myself to go,
Only on this condition,—that you bear
Me quickly from this Palace to their Tents?
EOGAN MOR.
I will. Come on. We must not tarry here;
For you must know our fate, should we be found
Loitering in conversation here.
DARTHULA.
I do.
Farewell, my father! most unkind—farewell!
I go to join my fate with Usna's Sons.
When we do meet again, I hope to find
Thine iron hate turned into softest down of love.
EOGAN MOR.
Farewell, old Palace! never more will thine
Old walls echo again the footsteps of
Eogan Mor!—farewell! a long farewell!
Now, then, that you have promised me to go,
I know your heart was in your mouth. Come on.
DARTHULA.
Eogan Mor, one thing I wish to know:
Why do you hate the Sons of Usna so?
EOGAN MOR.
Because they killed my father—brothers too—
The wolf of my revenge howls for their lives!
Like to a new-dug grave, as deep as wide,
My soul now hungers, thirsting for their souls.
For, know, I would be broken on the wheel,
Or suffer any torment under Heaven,
But to have full revenge upon their lives!
DARTHULA.
But was it not in battle they were slain?
EOGAN MOR.
It was—fighting for Conor's noble lives.
DARTHULA.
But were they not defending their own lives?
EOGAN MOR.
Just as you will—if you compare such lives
As theirs with my dear father's—brothers slain!
They are but plebeians at the best—mere slaves—
Aping to be what they can never be;
Living in tents, yet wishing to be Kings.
DARTHULA.
You only see the outside of their Tent—
Within sits Royalty divinely arrayed.
EOGAN MOR.
The David who has stolen Uriah's wife.
I left old Eman for thy father's house—
Waiting as vigilant as the Eye of Heaven,
Watching while shedding light on his great flock
Of Stars, peopling the unfenced Fields of Heaven,
Night after night, with pyrotechnial joy—
The day when Conor should exile them hence—
Throwing them in my power. That day has come—
Which I will make a Day among all days—
More noted than the rest of all the year—
Baptizing it, in name of kindred dear,
In the black blood of Usna's murderous Sons.
DARTHULA.
Eogan Mor! you frighten me with talk of blood!
EOGAN MOR.
What would you have me do? Submit to them?
Live tamely under mountain-loads of crime,
Piled on my soul as high as Heaven? foul deeds,
That cry from this high Mountain-top to God—
Revenge! revenge! revenge! What is this life,
Without the lives of those most dear to me?
Shall I walk earth—the same blest earth they walked—
Left desolate now that they are gone—baptized
In their most precious blood! they walk here too?
No! no! I tell thee—never! they must die!
The Earth lifts up her hands to Heaven in prayer,
Rethundering back God's Judgment,—Blood for blood!
The Heavens pour down their lightnings on my head,
Eternally, by day as by the night, in one
Immortal deluge of imperious wrath—
“Revenge! revenge thy father's—brothers' death!”
The prompting killing me with daily death,
Because I do not scourge them from the earth—
Usurping lives long forfeited to Heaven!
Enter Lavercam, unperceived.
LAVERCAM.
Beware of false Eogan Mor! Go not
To Ulster. Ardan waits for thee. Farewell.
[Exit.
51
What voice was that which spake to me? What? gone?
I hope I do beware of him.
EOGAN MOR.
I heard no voice.
What is the matter now? Thinking of Usna's Sons?
Is Ardan in thy soul? or Ainli? which?
[Aside.
If either, by the God of Heaven, or Hell,
Thou wilt repent that he was ever there!
For I do nourish scorpions in my soul—
Nestled in hot Hell-fire—to think of them!
[Alarums without.
What noise was that? the voice of Usna's Sons?
DARTHULA.
The voice of battle! my dear father's troops!
Coming to take revenge on his dear child!
Come, let us fly!
EOGAN MOR.
We will—to Erin's Isle.
Come on—we must not tarry here! Come—come!
[Exeunt.
| The sons of Usna | |