University of Virginia Library

SCENE II.

A Druidical grove.—A raised altar—, crowned with wreaths of flowers, evergreen, &c. Norma on the steps— Adalgisa, and female attendants near. Druids on either side, and an outer circle of Gallic soldiers, standard bearers, chiefs, &c.—Rudiger, Gontran, Ambron, present.— A short strain of music as the scene opens.
Norma.
Thus do we consecrate your banners, soldiers!
Not from an altar stained with human blood,
Nor yet with sacrifice of beasts. The gods
Abhor the ignorance which would win their favor
By cruelty. No more of that!—We bring
Flowers of the spring-time, roses, blossoming boughs,
And, wreathed o'er all, the sacred misletoe;
Not as gifts needful to the gods, who have
Their amaranthine bowers of endless bloom,—
But as the symbols of our gratitude,
Our worship, our dependence,—of the faith
That keeps its living green 'mid desolation
And clings, though storms would tear it, to the creed
Of life in death—of immortality!—
Not silent are the oracles; the omens
All smile propitious on you, and the answers,
Vouchsafed my prayers, promise an easy triumph
If—if you seize upon the instant time.
Wait not beyond to-morrow! In delay
Thenceforward there's a gloom impenetrable.
(Norma descends from the altar.)
Then rally, Gauls, and rush upon the foe!
For homes, for hearths, for wives and babes, you strike,—
For your free altars and your sacred groves,—
And, above all, for priceless liberty!
You go not forth to ravage, but to rescue;
Not to make desolate a smiling land
And give to the sword old men and shrieking virgins;
But to avert from your own native soil
Such horrors. Then each heart's resolve be this:
No footstep backward till the field is won.
The benedictions of the gods be on you!
Like bucklers be our prayers! The rites are ended.

[Music.—Norma and her train pass out; after them Druids and soldiers, except Rudiger, Goutran, and Ambron; the latter in the background.
Rud.
The rites, the rites! Gontran, she said the rites!
Music for shrieks, and flowers for hecatombs!
Water for blood, and prayers for mystic orgies!
And these are all the rites to win the gods
To favor Gaul's last stake! By such girl's pastime
We hope to make our fathers' gods propitious!
O, Gontran, you and I have seen the day,
Beneath that oak, festooned with roses now,
Fit for a lover's, not a warrior's tryst,
A hundred human lives were offered up
And all this ground was crimson.

Gont.
I remember.
Did it avail though, all that blood and anguish?
Did we not lose the battle?

Rud.
Ay, we lost it.
But—but we had not heeded well the omens
I tell thee, we may date the swift decline
Of Gaul and of the Druids from the day,
Beguiled by Norma, we refused the gods
A human life in sacrifice. What I,
What all the Druids now? unheeded idlers,
Superfluous to the system that a woman
Is building up!

Ambron.
(Who has approached.)
That's very true.

Rud.
Ha! Ambron?

Amb.
Since you deplore the past
And think the gods are craving human blood.
What if I give them some of yours? You shrink!
Ere now I've heard your mutterings. You're of those
Who're ever prating of the good old times
When the priest's function was to play the butcher.
And he could juggle fools with consultations
Of reeking entrails. Now, the country's ruined
Because your filthy shambles are denied you;
Because (so you'd persuade us) the great gods
Are coy for lack of carrion. Do ye hope
Again to sink us to such idiot frenzies?

Rud.
Frenzies? Without the Druids and the culture
They gave the people, you and yours had been
Slaves, savages! Our fathers wrought those frenzies.

Amb.
Our fathers dwelt in caves, went clad in skins,
Roamed like wild beasts for forage. Thanks to Norma,
Your day of blood is over.

Rud.
For the present,
I do admit it, Norma has the power.

Amb.
How gained she it? How gained the people's trust,
The army's reverence? Where you told us lies,
She told us truths. Where you did prophesy
Falsely and wantonly, her careful words
Found their fulfilment. Where to wounded men
You brought your incantations, she brought skill
In bandages and herbs and applications
That soothed and healed, while you could only mutter.
Tempt me no farther by maligning Norma.
I do endure you only, not approve.
Beware lest I do sever with this sword
The slender hold you yet have on the people.
I know you—they shall know you, if you tempt me.

[Exit
Rud.
Are we not fallen indeed, constrained to hear
And to endure such contumely? We—
Your Druid teachers, Gontran—once supreme!
How long is't since Gaul's proudest chief would kneel
To kiss our garment's hem! And now—All this—
All this is Norma's work! Ambron himself
How docile once and reverent! Hear him now!
She has bewitched him!

Gont.
With an honest witchery,—
Her charms!

Rud.
Ha! Should there be a mutual spell!
Should she, in her supremacy, infract
Her vestal vow!—

Gont.
Well: she is absolute—
The people would believe no wrong of her.

Rud.
I know not that. Give us that hold, and then—
Let her be watched! And Gontran, be thou sure
Thy star shall culminate as hers and Ambron's
Plunge in the wave. Come! We will bide our time—
The ancient Druid oak has some sap left.

[Exeunt