University of Virginia Library

ACT V.

SCENE I.

—THE PALACE.
THE KING, MAJONE, OFFICERS, &c.
MAJONE.
'Tis unexampled treachery; beyond
The reach of thought! my foolish easy nature
With false compassion pleaded for his life;
Joined in Eudora's suit; nor would believe
Strong proofs of guilt: but these heart-piercing words,
These sacred orders of my dying prince
Strike full conviction on my soul!—I fly
To see his murderer pay blood for blood
With ample retribution.

THE KING.
Yes! let him expire
In tortures equal to his guilt! but thou!
Stay thou, my good Majone! to support
The fainting spirits of thy aged master!
Tho' all my prayer was to revenge my son,
A thousand thoughts embitter my revenge,
And make the justice, which I longed to do
Most grievous to my soul: the mild Eudora,
And old Verino cannot share his falsehood:
Worn out with battles nobly fought for me,
He could not enter into hellish leagues,
Against his master, and his friend: Inform me,
Where is Verino?

OFFICER.
Passing to the palace
But now my liege, I heard the unhappy chief
Rave in wild frenzy to the pitying croud,
Who pressed to gaze upon him: now in scorn
He curst his foes: and now with bitter groans,
That pierced the heart, he cried, “my murdered Raymond!”
And ever as he spoke that much loved name,
Rent the white locks in anguish from his head,
And drenched them in his tears.
Anon, a sudden swell of frantic joy
Appeared to drown remembrance of his grief,
And lift his soul to Heaven; but sunk as sudden,
And plunged him deeper in the gulf of horror.

THE KING.
What! my companion! my old faithful soldier
Could he distracted wander in our streets,
Without a friend to lead him to his home?

OFFICER.
Many, my liege, with kindest art have tried
To guide him to a place of rest; but still
He slighted all.—And some of warmer zeal
With gentle force endeavoured to compel him:
Then raged he more, and instantly a number
Of angry veterans interfered, who oft
Had fought beneath him in the fields of glory,
In pity mingled with religious awe
They gazed upon him, swore he should not suffer
Constraint so painful, and thus forced his friends
To give his madness way—but see! my liege,
See! where with frantic and triumphant gesture
He rushes on toward you!

SCENE II.

THE KING, MAJONE, OFFICERS, &c.
Enter VERINO. (distracted)
THE KING.
Poor Verino!

VERINO.
Hang up fresh garlands on the palace gates!
Let the young virgins scatter flowers before him—
And swell their voices to the victor's praise!
Let their sweet songs to listening Heaven proclaim,
That valiant Raymond, old Verino's son,
Returns triumphant from the vanquished Moors—
See! see! he comes—
Twelve Moorish Princes drag his golden car,
And crouch beneath his frown!
But see! behold a hellish fiend, whose breath
Would blast the brightness of the mid-day sun
Has seized him in his course: ah me! she tears
His laurel crown, and in its place inscribes
Infernal characters; see! round his brow,
Whence beamed the radiance of a God, she spreads
A hideous gloom, and brooding in the midst
Sits haggard Shame:—avaunt detested slander!

THE KING.
Alas! the fate of his unworthy son
O'erwhelms his mind, and drowns in deepest horror
His nobler faculties.

VERINO.
Will you believe it?
Will you, ungrateful, credit such a tale?
Is that a countenance of guilt? that face
Where honor sits enthroned! where from the dawn
Of earliest youth each opening virtue bloomed!
Ah me! they hear me not—Ingratitude
Has steeled their hearts; they have forgotten all
My boy's exploits, the glories of his youth:
Slander has cancelled all, and see they send
Their brave deliverer to a dungeon's gloom,
To die disgraced, to perish like a robber!

THE KING.
This piteous spectacle will rend my heart:
I cannot bear his wretchedness: Majone,
Try thou to sooth him—and with mild persuasion
To lead him hence!

MAJONE,
to VERINO.
Come my good lord, be comforted!
Compose your spirits—all will yet be well!
Let me attend you to—

VERINO.
No! Raymond, no!
Thou shalt not to the rack! should we endure it,
Oh should I suffer thee, my son, to finish
Thy days of glory, by a death so vile,
The gallant soldiers, our great ancestors,
E'en in their very graves would shake with horror:
And their pure spirits in the realms of bliss,
Would scorn to join in fellowship with ours,
Nor own us for their line—it shall not be!
I will preserve thee yet—still in my bosom
I wear a faithful guard against dishonor:
Tis but a blow—I've struck it—thou art free!

(Wounds Majone and exit.

SCENE III.

THE KING, MAJONE.
THE KING.
O fatal deed! the blindness of his frenzy
Has murdered good Majone:

MAJONE.
No! my liege!
Thanks to my better stars! I yet am safe:
The guardian swiftness of my ready hand
Turning his dagger's point, has made its wound
Most trivial.

THE KING.
Blessed chance!

MAJONE.
My gracious master!
I tremble still to think your sacred life
Stood in his frenzy's reach. Our love and duty
To you, and to the state enjoins us all
To press for Raymond's death, and the confinement.
Of this old maniac, whose distempered mind
May spread sedition.

THE KING.
Thou say'st true Majone.
See him safe lodged under some gentle guard,
And swiftly bid the stroke of justice fall
Upon his guilty son! I shall not rest
Till thou return'st with tidings, that his blood
Has flowed in just atonement to thy prince.

(Exit with Officers, &c.

SCENE IV.

MAJONE,
(alone.)
My proudest hopes are realized, and sovereignty
Appears already mine:
To MAJONE, enter SICARDI.
What now Sicardi?

SICARDI.
My prosperous lord our provident Uberto
Anxious to aid us with the giddy rabble,
And hurry Raymond's fate, has reached the city.—
Before a litter with the prince's body,
Bare-headed, and denouncing heavenly vengeance
On all we hate, he fires the gathering croud,
And guides the maddening tumult to our wishes.

MAJONE.
Excellent priest! His presence will prevent
What most I feared, the rescue of our foe;
Haste, and direct his holy voice to pour
Its potent thunders round the important spot,
Where Raymond at this moment is led forth
To public death. Expect me in that scene!
There the rich banquet of revenge awaits us!

(Exeunt.

SCENE V.

RAYMOND and EUDORA, WITH GUARDS, &c.
Dead March.
RAYMOND.
Take this last kiss!—yet once more let me bless thee!
And now farewell! O haste my love to leave me!
And hide thy killing softness from my sight!
'Tis there I feel the anguish of my fate.

EUDORA.
No! no! thou dear supporter of my being,
I cannot, must not leave thee.

RAYMOND.
Spare thine eyes
This horrid scene of blood!

EUDORA.
'Tis not in absence
To save me from the sight—these wretched eyes
Will see thee ever—till they close in death
Still must they have thy mangled form before them.

OFFICER.
My lord you must prepare.

EUDORA.
Bind! bind these arms!
If he is guilty I am guilty too;
And beg to perish with him.

RAYMOND.
O! my love!
Collect thy noble fortitude! and raise
Thy drooping soul to better thoughts! remember
Thy virtue taught my mind a due submission
To Heaven's high will, and saved my hands from guilt:
Thou my angelic monitor prepared'st
My soul for future bliss, and O if ever
Departed beings may to earth repair,
Still as thy guardian will I hover round thee:
And here my latest breath shall beg of Heaven
To give thee peace, and heal thy wounded spirit.

EUDORA.
Pray not to Heaven to punish me with life
When thou art severed from me!

OFFICER.
Good my lord,
Excuse me! but fresh orders are arrived,
That claim my prompt obedience.

RAYMOND.
Friend, forgive me!
I will but fold her once more to my heart:
To quit this bosom is indeed to burst
My strings of life: The rest is but a form,
That will be briefly past—nor feared, nor felt.

EUDORA.
Judge of the world! desert not innocence!
Yet save him—yet preserve—

A loud Shout is heard,
AND A VOICE BEHIND THE SCENES EXCLAIMS
He shall not die,
The blood of Raymond shall not stain our city.

The Shouts are redoubled.
EUDORA.
Transporting sounds! ye just, ye generous people!
Ye will restore him yet to life and glory!

The tumultuous clamour encreases,
ANOTHER VOICE
BEHIND THE SCENE EXCLAIMS
Let Raymond die! 'tis Heaven demands his blood!
Perish the base assassin of his prince!

SCENE VI.

RAYMOND, EUDORA, GUARDS, &c.
Uberto enters before the litter, with the body of the Prince.
Dirge.

UBERTO.
Why sleeps the sword of justice? Heaven has sent me
Loudly to call it into instant action.
In me Sicilians, in my faithful voice
You hear your murdered prince. This sacred corse
Speaks thro' my organs and demands revenge.

THE GUARDS SEIZE RAYMOND.
EUDORA.
Hold yet a moment in the name of Heaven!
I feel inspired, for Truth and Equity
Two seraphs on my side sustain my soul
And with their searching spirit, bid me question
This recreant man of God, whose treacherous tongue
Turned agent to the fiend of murderous slander.

UBERTO,
(aside.)
Curse on this penetrating woman's voice!
It pierces thro' my heart; she must be silenced
Or we are lost indeed. Good citizens!
Who pity female wretchedness, convey,
This lady, frantic from her husband's crimes,
Safe to some quiet scene.

EUDORA.
Arch hypocrite!
'Tis not a frantic woman, whom thou hear'st;
It is thy warning genius speaks in me,
And bids thee not in thy career of guilt,
Pass on, beyond those barriers of perdition,
Which, if they close on thy encumbered soul,
The arm of heavenly mercy may not open.

UBERTO.
Away with her! my friends! away with her!
Some heavenly visitation would lay waste
Your populous city, could Palermo suffer
The church's holy sons to be insulted,
By the wild ravings of a troubled woman:

EUDORA.
Unhand me villains! if the living lose
All sense of right, the dead may be my friend;
O that in thee thou precious sacred corse!
The honest blood (they say such things have been)
Might at the touch of the concealed assassin,
Gush, and proclaim the real man of guilt.
This may not be—Yet will I fondly clasp
Thy clay cold hand, and gaze upon thy features,
Whence comfort used to beam on all the afflicted
(Uncovers the face of the Prince.
Benignant still in death!

UBERTO,
(aside)
Wretch that I am,
This pallid form appals me.

EUDORA.
I implore
The spirit from its seat of heavenly radiance,
To dart one beam of doubt-dispelling light,
And in this dreadful crisis here decide
'Twixt truth and falsehood calling both on thee.
But is thy spirit fled—

UBERTO.
O could I here discover
The slightest symptom of suspended life,
Thou wert indeed an angel of redemption!
No! there is none!—
Heaven prompts thee not to cancel, but to punish
Repented guilt. Thy words are brands of fire
Hell is already in the murderer's breast—
These torments tell thee I am he—Majone—
Majone's curst ambition was the tempter—
Release Lord Raymond, from his guiltless blood,
Still let me save my over-burdened soul!

EUDORA.
O blessed moment! merciful detection!
My heaven-protected lord!

RAYMOND.
My guardian angel!

UBERTO.
Seize me, ye ready ministers of justice!
Nothing can slake the flames around my soul,
But bathing in my own detested blood!

EUDORA.
Unhappy man be calm.

UBERTO.
Thou blest inquisitor, whom heaven inspires,
Fly, and reveal to the deluded king
Thy Raymond's innocence, Majone's crimes,
And my remorse, my anguish, my despair

EUDORA.
I go, and will entreat him to suspend
The doom, thou call'st for, and allow thee time,
To make, if possible, thy peace with heaven!

(Exit.

SCENE VII.

RAYMOND, UBERTO, GUARDS, &c.
RAYMOND,
(advancing to the litter.)
Friend of my heart, how does thy gentle nature
Reign in thy visage, still unmarred by death!

UBERTO.
O were there aught of life—
No, 'tis too late!—He's in the grasp of death,
And I in torture—bear him to the palace!
Thither, ye men of justice, follow me,
I am your willing, your determined victim!

(Exeunt.

SCENE VIII.

The Scene changes.
Enter VERINO, attended by LELIO.
VERINO,
Old foolish eyes! will you not cease to pour?
These unavailing streams! not all the tears
That penitence has shed, since crimes began,
Can make atonement for such guilt, or wash
My child's blood, from my hand.

LELIO.
Be comforted!

VERINO.
Talk not of comfort! hence and teach the world
To hate my name, and tremble at my crimes,
For it shall feel their weight! my monstrous deed
Will fright domestic happiness from earth,
With filial love—The son no more shall live
In sweet dependance on a father's care,
But fear to meet a dagger from that arm
Whose every sinew should be strained to—Hark!
What cries of vengeance! 'Tis the righteous people
They come to tear me piece-meal:—bid them plunge
In some infuriate whirlpool of the deep
This savage heart, not worthy to find rest,
In earth's parental bosom.

SCENE IX.

VERINO, LELIO, OFFICER.
OFFICER
(entering with a drawn sword.)
Noble veteran!
The wretches, who have toil'd to crush thy house,
Have hurried quick perdition on themselves;
The generous people, raging for thy wrongs,
And now apprized of all Majone's crimes,
With a precipitate justice have destroyed
Him, and his creature, the corrupt Sicardi!

VERINO.
There's comfort yet—the hero's slanderers
Can stab his fame no more—lend me thy weapon!
When his assassin, whom thou know'st not, soldier
Has at the stroke of retribution yielded
His forfeit life to this thy honest sword—
We still in happier worlds—

EUDORA,
(Entering behind him and snatching the sword as he attempts to destroy himself
Forbear! forbear!
Thou tender father! blest be heaven! I save thee!
For O! I come to banish thy deep anguish,
And raise thee up to joy!

VERINO.
My daughter! O!
Speak not of joy, Eudora to a wretch,
Weighed down with guilt! nor wear that kind concern!
No! no! my daughter! take a different form!
Come like the angel of eternal wrath,
Arrayed in terrors from avenging heaven!
And with a voice, whose horror-striking sound
May penetrate the earth, demand thy husband!
Thy murder'd Raymond! bid the guilty father
Restore the son he slew!

EUDORA,
Alas! my Lord!
A fatal error clouds your troubled sense
My Raymond lives—

VERINO.
My poor deluded daughter!
He might have lived; long years with glory lived;
Nor envy, fraud, nor slander could oppress
His stronger innocence, but O Eudora!
There is, there is, my child, a curst assassin,
Whose base unnatural heart—

EUDORA.
Soon undeceived,
Again my father shall embrace his Raymond:
He comes to say how providence has saved
The son so worthy of his glorious sire;
See, my dear Lord, he comes!

SCENE X.

VERINO, EUDORA, LELIO, RAYMOND, &c.
VERINO.
It is good heaven!
It is his form: O mock me not!

RAYMOND,
(entering)
My father—

VERINO.
He speaks! he lives! I have not killed my child.

RAYMOND.
My honored father! yes! thy son yet lives,
To heal thy wounded heart and bless thy age

VERINO.
Witness ye spirits! friends to human kind!
Witness the father has not slain his son!
What miracle preserved thy precious life
From my despair, my guilt?

RAYMOND.
Behold my Lord:
Behold the dear preserver of your son!
'Twas this celestial monitor, inspired
By pitying heaven, who taught me to defy
Impending torture with superior courage.

VERINO.
Angel of safety, let me fold thee close,
Close to my panting heart! O I will sit,
Whole days to hear of thy amazing worth,
And bless thee o'er and o'er! but say my son
Has Heaven revealed the murderers of the prince?

RAYMOND.
Revealed and punished—but the King expects us,
His noble heart finds generous consolation
Under the bitter loss, which justly claims
Our deepest sympathy, in blessing Heaven
That saved him from the horror of destroying
The prince's bosom friend, for his assassin!

VERINO.
Away then to the palace! the old fathers
Shall mingle tears of blended grief and joy;
Nor will we e'er forget, thou lovely angel!
All that we owe to thee; thy fortitude
Shall be our daily theme!

EUDORA.
O! may the mercy
So signalized on us, when hope seemed lost,
Restrain the wild precipitance of man
In hours of misery, and through the world
Teach patient virtue, to confide in Heaven!