 | The Crown Jewel |  |
Scene 5.
Hall of Justice— The Bench occupied by three Judges. Count Vicente and Lady Meranie on trial. Procureur-general, avocats, soldiers, macers, &c. The trial supposed to have been proceeded with up to a certain stage.1st Judge.
Touching the arraignment, procureur,
We are at fault. The wording of it bears
That with the appearing pannels Lord Vicente
And Lady Meranie, one named Gonseres
Should stand consorted?
Pro.
The Crown hath waived,
In the meantime, its charge against this man;
As an approver, not as one accused
We are instructed to regard him.
1st Judge.
Good!
This is our King's desire. We so accept it;
And in this bearing, we shall question him.
That he is in commitment and at hand
We take for granted. Bring him into court.
[Gonseres is led into court by soldiers.
Hold up your hand and after me repeat
The oath we dictate. “By th'Almighty God!
Who knoweth all things and the hearts of men,
I swear to speak the truth—the truth entire,
As I shall answer at His Judgment Seat.”
[Oath administered, repeated by Gonseres.
(Judge
proceeds.)
Your designation on th'roll before us
Is incomplete—simply amounts to this—
You held engagement with the Lord Soartes.
In what capacity is vaguely stated.
Rumour asserts you were his protégé
Advanced for some small service you had done him
To post of confidence! Further than this,
(But we are slow to credit what is thrust
Upon the common ear), that there is tie of blood
Betwixt you; anywise, you hold
His special favour. On the point of kinship,
You are at freedom to enlighten us,
Or leave us in the dark. We need not say,
The more of cloud you help to dissipate
Surrounding you and your pretensions,
The clearer you let in the light upon us
Whereby to estimate you tell the truth.
The name assumed by you, among his vassals,
Holds not. It is consorted, or we err,
With titles claimed by him of old descent.
Gon.
I am Soartes' son.
Judge.
In wedlock born?
Gon.
I have no reason to say otherwise.
Yet how should I know? or what matters it?
It is no fault of mine. His noblest souls
With bastard bodies God incorporates
Oftener, than with legitimacy blends,
To make a farce of which and a contempt—
Judge.
Silence! you run before the wind too quickly—
Are libertine in speech, and would defame
Your mother, sire, and self, man's law and God's,
All in one breathing. Such respect of things
We warn you, argues disrespect of Truth,
And to the scales of judgment bringeth weight.
We beat the bush round, coming to the point;
Now, straight to it, without a tack or halt
Our purpose bear us! Lay thine accusation
Gon.
I am coerced to make appearance here.
In what capacity? Approver? Witness?
Why settle all the burden upon me?
The King, the Prince, and their surrounding court
Were equally approvers to the fact.
Her crime stood blazing on that woman's brow.
All saw it that had eyes. Did I accuse her!
It needed not. The evidence hung there,
Clear as a star bound on the brow of night
When nature and the high heavens are serenest.
2nd Judge.
That it behoved her and took fitting part
On this occasion of imperial joy,
Nor drew especial notice from the King,
Until provoked by your audacious presence,
Creates suspicion you were at the root
Of a conspiracy against this ladye—
Before we further task you on the matter,
A simple statement from the Count Vicente
Claims our regard:
[Enter a herald.
Herald.
The King and Prince approach!
[Enter King, Prince, and nobles.
King.
To the court assembled
And our puissant judges heading it
We offer kindly greeting. Let our presence
Act not in interruption of proceedings.
The point this vexing trial hath attained to
A glance takes in, and to re-iterate
Is not required. An opportunity
Is given to the noble Lord Vicente
To vindicate his loyalty and honour,
So we have been apprized. With wistful ear
We would attend him and a hopeful heart.
Vic.
Dear Sovereign! the whole of my defence
Rests on a simple narrative—so simple
And yet (proceeding from the mouth of one,
Trusted as an adviser to the State
Whose over-weening judgment should have led
To more correct conclusions) so unlike
A thing of likelyhood, as to make clear
To some, there is contrivance at the root.
Not so to you my gracious Sovereign!
Yet, did this fanlt of judgment compromise
None but myself, I would kneel down to it
And ask disgrace and exile for my weakness,
Great happiness, the knowledge of my favour
In the King's eyes, my prizing beyond price
The pride and flawless jewel of my heart
All had to do with it. Such extasy,
Delirium call it, will occasion take
In every man's experience to o'er-ride
At happ'ning times, the clearest of his senses.
My narrative is shortly told. A week
After our joyful nuptials, while as yet
The crescent of our honeymoon of love
Was on the ascendant, I had occasion
To pass into my study about sunrise,
And in so doing, all at once my eye
Lighted upon an arrow fast ennailed
In the oak pannel opposite a casement
Which over-looks the lawn before our castle.
Was a small casket freighted with this stone
Of evil destiny; and on the shaft
Fluttered a label scrawled by feigning pen
Whose purport was the pressing for acceptance
As bridal gift, on Lady Meranie,
The jewel now in question.
To put construction on so strange a happening—
To interpret it in any other light,
Taking into account the diamond's worth,
Than as a royal token of regard,
All notion of conspiracy at work
Unentertained, were treason in itself.
Yet, Sovereign! a diviner power, believe me,
To deal with strong temptations and work out
Problems in human motives, is bestowed
Upon our loving helpmates than ourselves,—
A higher intuition, greater tact.
Had I but hearken'd to my better angel
And the dissuasion of her fragrant lips.
Not urging on her my insane conceits,
Oh! what humiliation had been saved us!
King.
A strange relation this, my Lord Vicente,
But with its very strangeness, if we err not,
The proofs of its veracity are bound.
Where are this shaft and its appurtenances?
We are desirous to examine them.
Pro.-Gen.
They lie before the Court, your Majesty,
Placed in production for the Count's defence.
Judge.
Macer! remove and lay before the King
These depositions of the Lady Ella
And the retainers of the Lord Vicente
Taken and sworn to in judicial presence;
Also this arrow and its rude direction.
The evidence is irrefragable,
[Documents and arrow laid by Macer before the King.
And with the declaration of the accused
Tallies in every point and circumstance.
With your high sanction, honoured Sovereign!
Of the grave crime imputed to the arraigned,
This esteemed lady and her noble consort,
We would pronounce acquittal and discharge.
King.
Most noble Judges! 'tis with gratitude
We give approval to your grave decision.
This clearing from all doubt of loyalty,
On part of Lord Vicente and his lady,
Removes a heavy burden from our heart.
Now that they stand assoilzed, we are hopeful
The evil influence of this diamond
Hath passed away and with it every cloud
Boding disaster and calamity.
But here remaineth over for disposal
This false accuser. To be merciful,
Upon occasions which the outward eye
Regards, as counselling opportunity
To deal out justice with unsparing hand,
And vindicate the Majesty of Law,
Is our rejoicing. A man's lost repute,—
His life, the future of his race and kin,—
All the sore forfeitures incurred by him
And provocations leading to his crime
Require to be considered, weighed, and rated.
And foul asperser of a lady's honour,
No loop-hole of escape can we espy,
Nor an excuse for exercise of mercy.
Among the documents submitted to us
In form of depositions, meets our glance
One carrying relation to this arrow,
Our Forest ranger recognizes it,
As fashioned by the approver, who, it seems,
Is skilled as an artificer of weapons
Made use of in the chase, and traded with
Largely on that account. More evidence
We hold in hand, which bears upon the fact
That he was party in the jewels' abstraction;
But in the darker and more devilish scheme,
Sole actor and contriver. Fellow! speak
[to Gonseres.
And make confession ample of thy crime!
The little that is left us of our patience
Take vantage of to better any one
Thou hast regard for and reduce the shame
And infamy accruing to thy name.
Gon.
To have prejudged and doomed me, let suffice;
What need of more? To coax confession from me
Or with the rack extort it, I defy thee!
That in the seizure of the regal jewels
I was accomplice of the Lord Soartes
You have adduced no proof; and your conclusions
Come of the simple fact he was my sire.
As hostage to detain me for his crime
Your laws give no direct authority.
For his escape, be thanked his better stars!
I hav'nt such divinities to thank
In my behalf, and when the King resolves
Against me with his batch of hired judges
My duty—the extremest of my duties,
Which hath no will of soul or body in it,
Is to submit.
King.
One spark of grace in thee
Might, but we wrongly deemed, have led to make
Some small atonement for thy heinous crimes.
Dastard and perjured! hast thou no relenting?
We make one more—the last appeal to thee
And if it move thee not, thy soul be pitied!
[To the heralds—
Hie, heralds! to the Prison of the State
And summon forth the Warder and his charge.
A fitting retinue there is provided.
Conduct all here with due solemnity.
Judge.
Throw ope the gates and let a space be cleared
In front of the approver. Macers! ho!
Advance and range yourselves, with staves of office
Lowered, on each side the entrance.
[A flourish of trumpets is heard, succeeded by solemn music; the dead-march and misereres. A train headed by the heralds, warder, and six monks chanting a requiem, enters. Following these, are carried, each by eight soldiers, the bodies of Lord Soartes and Inora, covered over with cypress boughs; an officer in rear with sword depressed. Two tressels are brought forward and placed in front of Gonseres, the King and nobles occupying a throne and benches opposite.
(to Gonseres)
Prepare thy hardened heart and insolent eye,
If in the former ever nature dwelt
And from the latter ever sprung a tear,
To combat with a spectacle of horror
So terrible, the angels, Death's excepted,
Encircling us for better or for worse,
Shudder and hide their faces in their wings.
Soldiers! Remove these leafy coverings—
(aside.)
Bear up, my heart! Sustain me, heart and brain!
I have a monarch's duty to perform.
[The soldiers remove the cypress branches and expose the bodies of Soartes and Inora.
Gon.
Is this the cruel end of it? Oh, mother!
The high conclusions of thy scheming brain
Are come to with a vengeance. Listen, King!
I owe thee a confession, and thou owest
The grace to me, and so do all assembled,
To hearken to it. The one tender part
Surviving in my nature thou hast touched,
And by this touch set free the hidden springs
Which I had thought to choke and fasten up.
Oh, Monarch! be indulgent to my woe!
No utterance of it struggling through my lips
Can give thee apprehension of its depths
Nor of the whirlpool with its eddying clutch
That downward drags me—downward to perdition!
Could I wring words from these cold effigies,
It might abate my torture, and my crimes
Shew in another light. Oh, mother! speak,
And answer why the issue of thy womb
Thou did'st not stifle at its bringing forth?
Better thou had'st done so, than let the sun
Take cognizance of what hath come to pass
From such irresolution and forbearing.
King! it was but as yesterday gone by,
I came to know my worthy parentage;
And with the revelation of this tie,
In our design upon the royal jewels,
Rests my complicity. The Lord Soartes,
Until this light was let in on my mind,
I knew but as my patron and protector,
Her as a moon-struck woman, witch regarded,
That shunned all converse with humanity.
Our grasping project was devised by her,
As but a means to re-instate the man
On whom she had bestowed her all already—
The jewels of her heart and precious crown
Never to be restored, of chastity!
This revelation of the tie betwixt us
Was made occasion of to urge on me
Acceptance as a partner in her scheme;
In which capacity I pledged myself
To recommend it to the Crown custodier,
As an expedient opportune and simple
Whereby to mend his fortunes and repair
The wrongs done to the lady Meranie.
That I lent greedy ear to her proposal,
As suiting my ambition, I deny not.
To Lord Soartes, as I knew him then,
I also had some measure of attachment.
Another bond there was; of it, anon.
And plied my patron so with arguments,
No shadow of resistance there remained.
King.
Go on with your confession. Once we looked
For better endings from our ancient gossip;
But brittle staffs are those which Kings lean on.
What we require to know and be assured of
Is, not so much the part enacted by you
In this conspiracy, as to have set
Before us and made clear the mystery
Pertaining to the ranker of your crimes;
For so we hold the attempt to implicate
A noble and most estimable lady
In the award of treason.
Gon.
Sovereign!
Upon so grave and solemn an occasion,
In presence of these authors of my being
Whom violence hath slain (nor do I seek
The manner of their fates to have set forth,
For on my inner vision bursts to light
The closing chapter of this tragic tale,
And I can read it, in its every page
Sentence and letter to the dire conclusion)
In presence of these silent witnesses,
Upon whose faces vacated by life
The cruel hand of Death bedaubed with gore
Hath token set—before this Court assembled—
Before the King and his surrounding nobles;
They too regarding me whom in fierce hate
And frantic jealousy I would have made
Sacrifice of, without remorse or quailing,—
In presences so telling and august
Moved by some pow'r sent down from heaven to move me,
I have declared to make a full confession.
What prompted me to embrace my mother's scheme
Was, as already told, a strong desire
To help, in his extremity of fortune
The Lord Soartes; not for his own sake,
Nor yet in gratitude for favours dealt me.
These were at best but secondary motives.
The baron had a niece, his ward as well,
In whose bright eyes I though to 'stablish favour,
And under this delusion, made advances
In my own boisterous fashion, which, repelled,
I sought her guardian's ear; and flattering it
With promise of my zealous services.
In his behoof, (the advantage of our project
Also set forth in eulogistic terms,)
So won upon him that he undertook
To enforce his ward's submission to my claims.
At this auspicious juncture, there stepped in
Another, in whose stepping in I read
As 'twere the death warrant to my soaring hopes,
The Count Vicente, an accepted suitor,
Who had been absent upon state affairs,
Up to this date, pressed forward on the stage
And carried all before him. Lord Soartes
Her wronger and betrayer fain would back
Out of our compact; but I held the reins,
And when to slacken or to tighten them,
Knew well. His helping to my high ambition
Was now beyond all possibility;
Yet to cry quits and let our project die
A natural death, it was not in my nature.
The jealousies within my bosom roused
Had no compunction. My revenge was settled,
And out of hell I summoned witnesses
To put their mark to it. Never occurred
Such opportunity to work a vengeance;
And strung to the considerate working of it
Were every nerve and thew of energy.
Of this dark episode, you know the ending.
A terrible confession thou hast made
And tingling to our ears. The which to hold thee,
Demon or maniac, or the twain combined,
We are in doubt. This only shall we say,
That the surrendering to thy better angel
And making revelation of thy guilt
And promptings to it, put more hopeful face
On the hereafter thou art entering on.
Forbid, that the insane presumption
Of mercy from our mouth should cling to thee!
The executioner is at the gate,
The rearing of the scaffold within earshot.
Our kingdom is too narrow to admit
Truculent men and graceless, such as thou,
To prosper in it. The purgation
Of yesterday insists upon completion;
And may such fates and unexampled deaths
The bitter fruits of unexampled crimes
Give warning to all men to put restraint
Upon their wollish passions and desires.
If thou hast aught to tag to thy confession,
Out with it quickly!
Gon.
King! there but remains
One grace to ask—one duty to perform,
Now, that my shrift is ended. From this lady,
Whom I have so maligned and sought to harm,
With foulest machinations compassing
Her honour and her life, I sue forgiveness!
And the same earnest grace, by word or sign,
To have accorded to me, I entreat
Her noble husband. So, my sovereign,
I shall have peace in parting with this world
And better passport to the one beyond.
Vic.
Far be it from me to refuse to thee
So small a boon, if it will give thee peace
And make thy penitence of aught avail.
With sanction of the Church, our loving Countess
Appoints, that masses for her uncle's soul
And thine be offered for a twelvemonth's space,
The King consenting.
King.
Generosity (to Gonseres)
Flowing so largely from so wronged a source
Hath rarely had its like. With coals of fire
Heaped on thy head and at thine own beseeching,
To meet thy righteous doom it is ordained.
This Christian example we are moved by
And shall remit in part, the penalties
Our laws assign to Treason. Thy beheadal
Will satisfy the stern demands of Justice.
In the same condemnation we include
The mute insensate form that was Soartes;
For such disfigurement is justly due
To every wretched felon, dead or living,
Who tampering basely with his post of trust,
As did this treacherous and degraded man,
Works to the hurt of Order and of Peace.
The quartering of his body we dispense with,
Calling to mind our former fellowship.
And now Prince Amored, our beloved son!
Judges and peers assembled! ere we part,
One duty yet remains to be performed
Which as the wind-up on this sore occasion,
Takes worse with us than dealing to the others
Their due award. Of all catastrophes
Most woful in our life's experience,
Was this weird woman's end. 'Twas martyrdom
More than self-murder, and the deed of blood
Preceding it, a brave, heroic act!
Too late, she came to knowledge of her shame,
And of the vile and heartless paramour
To whom, upon the altar of his lust,
Were sacrificed her reason and her virtue.
Nevertheless,
Holding in view each terrible temptation,
(An erring love the strongest reck'd of all),
It is our duty to refuse to this
Void shell, its rest in consecrated ground;
And to appoint that it be carried out
Beyond the precincts of the city walls
Into the Forest's heart; and at a spot
Where three paths meet, be solemnly interred.
The stake which law and usage do adjudge
To be thrust through the hapless suicide,
That poignard in its place shall represent.
[Pointing to the dagger sticking in Inora's heart.
Soldiers! restore these leafy coverings
And bear her forth to her appointed home.
Let toll the prison bell! A funeral march
With muffled drums, strike up! Bearers! advance
And lift this quondam image of a man
Transmuted to a fiend! The more we think on't,
More monstrous grows the thought, he was our gossip,
And held the royal ear in command.
To execution prompt, lead out Gonseres;
The self-same axe that lops that traitor's head off,
Unwiped, will satisfy its other purpose.
[The bodies of Inora and Soartes are carried out, and Gonseres, under guard, led forth to execution; solemn music, and the tolling of a bell, accompanying the march of the procession.
Observe, my lords, how work the avenging Fates!
The murderous dagger and the headsman's weapon,
In the commingling of these savage bloods,
Are brought to bear and silently are loud
In their proclaim of an o'erruling Power.
And now, dear friends! be notched upon your minds
The bringings forth of this eventful day,
And in red letters on your calendar,
Let it be scored, whether for feast or fast,
For gratulation and high thanksgiving,
Or as a day of humbling and confession;
Both purposes it will subserve and answer.
Nor shall the diamond that hath led to this
Disturbance in our fair dominions
Be reconsigned to darkness and neglect.
The new custodier of our Regalia
We now establish in his post of honour,
In person of the noble Count Vicente;
In the full faith, he will discharge his trust
With unimpeachable fidelity.
We also do appoint that once in the year
Solemn procession from our palace gates
To the Cathedral, shall be set on foot;
In front of it the Cross, and following
A silver salver with the Jewel graced
And rubied round with all our choicest peers;
Also this guard of honour shall include
The fairest virgins in our broad dominions
Plumed and attired in robes of modesty.
[Curtain falls.
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