University of Virginia Library

SCENE VII.

GWENDYLEN, CLYFFORD.
GWENDYLEN.
I lose him, and the world's a stony desert,
That seems to petrify my heart within me.
O that kind Heaven would, in the very moment,
When his freed spirit flies from this base earth,
Release me from a life, that now affords me
No hope to form, no duty to fulfill.

CLYFFORD.
Dear victim of barbarity, my soul
Still in fond unison with thine, partakes
Thy filial wish, regarding life with scorn.

GWENDYLEN.
O generous Clyfford, grant me one request:
While yet my father breathes, O grant me still
To gaze upon him; and forbid, I pray thee,
Forbid officious care to force my weakness
From the attractive scene of death! I hear,
Surely I hear a pitying angel's voice,
That kindly tells my sympathetic heart
That, in beholding, I may share his fate.

CLYFFORD.
An heavenly impulse seems against my reason
To force me to obey thee.

GWENDYLEN.
Haste, my friend!

CLYFFORD.
I will conceal me in a peasant's garb;
And thou shalt choose the spot, where we will stand,
In mutual awe and agony to catch
The latest accents of thy sacred sire!

(Exeunt.