University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV.

A Street.
Orooko, Sebi, and Antonio.
Orooko.
What would the crowd with all these pitched brands?

Sebi.
They think that when the waves o'erwhelm the queen,
Yamos will then restore our ancient rites,
And bid the town be fir'd.

Orooko.
Who told them that?

Sebi.
Tis but their fancy.

Orooko.
And yet they prepare,
As if th'ordonnance of it were proclaim'd!
Such strong assurance in the public mind,
Denotes some feeling in the frame of things,
That proves the pregnant future almost ripe
With some great offspring in the line of fate.
'Tis as the sadness that pervades the air,
Before the coming thunder. In the town
Far-stretching necks from the close-crowded windows,
And all eyes turned the same way in the streets,
Do not more certainly presage th'approach
Of solemn pageants, than parentless rumors,
Foretell th'occurrence of some high event.

Sebi.
You seem alarm'd—I thought you would rejoice.

Orooko.
Hast thou heard this, Antonio?

Sebi.
He's entranc'd,
And hears not what is said.

Orooko.
Antonio?

Ant.
Well!

Orooko.
See'st thou the throng so busily intent—
Look how the young men cleave the splint'ring pine,
While in the seething pitch their fathers dip,
The riven fragments which the children gather,
And serious women in their aprons bring.
What think'st thou of this solemn preparation?

Ant.
O righteous Heaven! now is my doom complete,
Must that blest germ which I had planted here,
For my aggression be so soon destroy'd.

Orooko.
Who told thee that?

Ant.
You to the truths I taught,
Ascribe the guilty working of my blood,
And to suppress the truth will burn the town.

Orooko.
Antonio!

Ant.
Speak, what mean you!

Orooko.
I believe,
If that which thinks in us survives the tomb,
That thou wast right in teaching us to rise
Still more and more out of the sensual life,
Into th'intelligence which after death
May raise our being to a higher state.

(Ant. kneels.)
Sebi.
What sudden blessing dissipates his gloom,
And makes him thus in thankful transports kneel.

[Enter Arak.]
Arak.
Unhappy Yamos, wand'ring in his mind,
And with the crowd wild-mingling on the shore,
Commands you to attend.

Orooko.
Antonio rise.
Alas, I would thou might'st remain behind.
For at the sight of thee his rage again
May burst in outrage fatal to the wish,
Which my expanding heart begins to cherish.

Ant.
Come let us go. Whatever may befall
Cannot be evil, if on you descends
Th'inspiring mantle of immortal truth.
Yes! o'er the funeral ashes of the town,
A pure celestial light shall ever shine,
To which the scatter'd tribes will oft return,
In holy pilgrimage, if you will guide
Their wand'ring spirits in the devious way
Of knowledge, which, alas, so slipp'ry winds
Through tangling brakes, where many a serpent lurks.

[Exeunt.