University of Virginia Library

Scene 2.

The front of the castle. Enter Donaldus.
DONALDUS.
Ah, sinful Scotland! 'tis thine own offences
That toss thee now with tempests. Had thy sons
Been true to thee and to themselves, and proved
A hardy brotherhood, still leagued together
For mutual weal or woe, rather than prowled,
A horde of bandits, bent against each other
In predatory warfare—then, indeed,
What could have wrought them harm? had they not stretched
(Blinded by wrath) their hands toward the stranger,
To battle in their broils—the stranger, then,
Had not, as now, become the general spoiler,
In justest retribution! Watchful Edward
Hailed in disunion's hour his hour of triumph,
And to the horrors of the home-brewed storm
That lowered around the genius of the North,
Sent from abroad his thunders, to combine,
Gather and burst, in bolts of final ruin.
So his own Cornwall's craggy coast has shown
Yet harder hearts and rougher hands, to snatch
E'en from the shipwrecked prey of winds and waves
The refuse of the elements! So, too,
What time the frighted Lusian, forced to fly
From crash of falling tower, leaves all for life,
The daring robber rushes to his home
To rifle what the whelming earth had spared!
[Pauses, then starts and speaks.
Whence comes this darkling mist, that riseth round me
So chill and ominous? and—mighty powers
Of earth or air! what means that shadowy scaffold,
And those dim forms that fill it? Spare them, Edward!
But for the sake of thine own flesh and blood!
For thy soul's sake, be not the slaughtering Herod
To innocents like these! It all disperses.
Can this be fiendish juggling, or, indeed,
A boding from on high?