University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

Freeman's House.
Charlotte sleeping, and Young Freeman by her.
Y. Freeman.
If there are ministers of heav'n to guard
The innocent, and virtue is their care,
Here let them take their charge:
From your cœlestial citadels descend,
And from her seat of thought
Drive ev'ry image of affliction; there
Let no appearances admittance gain
But what are fruitful of delight; to her mind's eye
Shew the fair prospect of our future loves;
And let no traces of her former griefs
Be lurking there; but let her wake to joy.
She smiles; and on her lips a thousand beautys sit.
(He kisses her.
Was ever kiss so sweet!

Charlotte.
My Freeman and my father hand in hand!
Then they are friends.
Alas! where am I, or where have I been?

Y. Freeman.
You're with your husband, you're with him to whom
You've plighted everlasting truth and love,
With him who ne'er can entertain a wish
That is repugnant to your own desires.

Charlotte.
O! what delusive visions round me play'd,
Which plac'd before my eyes my loving father!
My slumbers flatter'd me with happyness;
They clos'd my senses, which were tir'd with sorrow,
And plac'd before me images of joy;
But, now awak'd from the fallacious dream,
I find myself again a fatherless child,
Left with my weeping mother, to bemoan
A parent murder'd by my husband's sire.

Y. Freeman.
Soul of my soul, wound not my ears and heart
With your reflections on my injur'd father:
I have been with him,
And have exhausted almost all my tears
Over his sufferings: he's innocent,
Tho strong the evidence against him;
And if he dys, he dys for an offence
Which he cou'd ne'er commit:
But what his fate is we shall know 'e're-long.

Charlotte.
If he is innocent, forbid it, heav'n,
That he shou'd suffer more:
But, innocent or not, so strong I find
Is the affection of my heart to Freeman,
I wou'd endeavour, if I survive this shock, to admit
of joy,
That I may be the cause of joy to you.

Y. Freeman.
Then all the study of my days to come
Shall be to grow superior in my love:
Yes, I will stretch invention to contrive
Variety of pleasures for my bride;
For ev'ry day shall, like the bridal day,
Witness to my extravagance of fondness.