University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

A Private Apartment in the Palace of the King of Duntrone. Enter King and Darthula, his daughter.
DARTHULA.
Oh! God! dear father! let me kneel to thee!
Have mercy on me! do not have me slain!
But pity me! have mercy on my soul!
I am your child—your first-born, only child!
Blood of your blood—bone of your bone—whose life
You have the power to take away from me,
But will not, I do trust in God in Heaven!

KING.
Trust not—thy life is forfeited! for thou
Hast done a deed worthy of death!

DARTHULA.
Oh! no,
Dear father! loving cannot be the deed
Of death, but living. I should live for that!
As it was love which made you put her there,
So, it was love which made me set her free.

KING.
You said you loved your father better far—
Why did you do it then?

DARTHULA.
Partly for love
Of her, because she was Naisa's wife—
(Knowing how I had thanked her for the same)—
And partly that I loved his brother so.

KING.
Whose brother?

DARTHULA.
Ardan—one of Usna's Sons.

KING.
Ah! now I see it all. Then you do tower
Far out of sight—above all power of thought—
In wickedness! Where saw you Usna's Son?

DARTHULA.
Here, at my own dear home.

KING.
Vile traitress!
Did you not know they were my enemies?

DARTHULA.
No, but true friends—thy truest friends.

KING.
My friends?
Who told you so?

DARTHULA.
The youngest—Ardan called.
They are the enemies of Ulster's King—
Thine enemy—usurper of their throne;
For they are Kings—Sons of a King by birth—
All having sworn never to rest again,
Till they have wrested from his hands their crown.
I tell thee, father! they are friends to thee—
Would join thee here, this day, against thy foe,
Wouldst thou but say the word.

KING.
How know you this?

DARTHULA.
From Ardan's lips—who never spoke but truth.

KING.
Confirm these words by sending them to me,
Where I can hear them from their own proud lips,
And I revoke the sentence of thy death!

DARTHULA.
I will—I pledge my life that he will tell
You what I say—perform what he will pledge—
And all for my sole sake, if nothing more.

KING.
Then you are pardoned. Bring him here this night,
And all my former love returns again;
But if you fail, you are no child of mine.

DARTHULA.
If I do not perform, I would not be.

KING.
Then I am thy dear father still.

DARTHULA.
Thank God!
As mountains were uplifted from the Vales
By God's great will—leaving the Vales behind;
So does this towering Tree of Good spring up
From evil soil.

KING.
I sowed the seeds—you reaped
The golden fruit.

DARTHULA.
A Diamond crop—great Usna's Son.

[Exeunt.