University of Virginia Library

SCENE X

[The Study of Prince Lucifer. Night. He stands at the open window, gazing at the sky.]
LUCIFER.
(alone).
What an opprobrium is sleep, that robs
Poor life of half its value! Covert thief,
That art the accessory before the event
To all-defrauding death! To-night I sleep not,
But once again with questioning wonder scan
The unsurrendering silence of the stars.
Eve, too, is wakeful, bending o'er the babe,
Or kneeling by the semblance of the Mother,
With downcast eyes and folded suppliant hands.
Is it in vain, then, that the eagle mind
Full on the light of things unblinking stares?
Its gaze, its eyrie, are for it alone;
Or if to that vague altitude it lifts
The innocents of the vale, they come as victims.
[He turns, and slowly paces the chamber.]
Yet, yet what strength within their weakness lurks,
To prove, at pinch, the weakness of our strength!
She begs and weeps; and, undermined by Love,
See Reason's fortress blown into the air
By my own fuse!

[Eve rushes in.]
EVE.
She will not hear me pray.
My lamb is worse. You must go seek the shepherd.

LUCIFER.
Be calm, my child, nor wail yourself in space,
That hath nor ear nor bowels for your grief,
A deaf for endless void. If you must pray,
Petition me; be sure that I will listen.

EVE.
Then send for Father Gabriel!

LUCIFER.
What can he?
He hath nor craft nor medicine, and 'tis certain,
Who will not hear you, sweet, would not hear him.

EVE.
O, but my woe is weighted with my sin,
And cannot rise to Heaven. His voice is pure,
And so will pierce the ether. Send for him!
My breasts are poisoned, and my milk is drugged
With deadly doubt. I—I, in suckling it
Am but its murderer. My noxious womb
Gave it the venom that is withering it.
How should She hear me, me who heard Her not,
Until I needed Her! I need Her now.
Send, send for Father Gabriel! beg him come!
You said that you would hear me if I prayed,
And this—this—this—this is my prayer—my prayer!
My love! my Lucifer! my morning star!
Be, as you've told me, evening star as well!
And you, the glittering jewel of my dawn,
Illumine this my twilight, and prevent
The pall of utter darkness!

LUCIFER.
'Tis deep night.
Will you not wait till morning?

EVE.
Wait! when its life
Hangs on the fragile seconds! At once! At once!
Whom shall we send?

LUCIFER.
Myself will go for him.

EVE.
I knew you would! Then, then, you love me still!
Is the night very dark? Let me go with you.
I know the track so well.

LUCIFER.
And well I know it.
Stay by the cradle.

EVE.
How you bear with me!
And never think I do not love you best,
You first, you last. But you, you are so strong,
It is so weak;—as I am! See! a kiss
To speed my Prince. Another I refuse,
To lure him swiftly back.

[Eve returns to the Child.]
LUCIFER.
(alone).
Some deeds there are,
Best done in darkness, without company:
And such a deed is this I now must do.
Farewell, my lofty visions! I descend,
A mountain mendicant, to sue the vale
For alms to brand me beggar for my life.
Life! that uneasy dream from which we wake,
To find it nothing!

[He hurries down the mountain.]