 | Attila, My Attila! |  |
91
ACT IV
Scene—The private chapel of the royal palace at Ravenna. It is rich with mosaic-work and gold. A flight of steps leads up to the altar: two chairs of state are placed below the steps to the right.Placidia, now white-headed, sits on her throne; before her, at a little distance, stands Eugenius.
Placidia
You know, Eugenius, why I sent for you?
Eugenius
Empress, when they unloosed my chains, I stammered—
Did it mean pardon; and they said in jest,
I know it must have been in mockery,
Something about Augusta and myself.
Placidia
They did not jest; I summoned you to wed
Augusta—no, the woman you betrayed:
I summon you to make my child a wife.
Eugenius
(In blank amazement)
And she—she wishes this?
Placidia
She does not know.
92
Then I refuse.
Placidia
You cannot.
Eugenius
I refuse.
And now I am beyond your threats; my life
Is a loathed burthen—
Placidia
Torture?
Eugenius
That is grown
Familiar, that I suffer every day:
It cannot now unnerve me.
Placidia
Then it fails.
Eugenius
What do you want? Honoria—
Placidia
Your old manners
At least! You were her servant.
Eugenius
That disgrace
Has been wiped out for ever. You may frown!
The girl I rave of in the moonlit nights,
Who comes with little, tripping feet, Augusta!
No, by my manhood, but Honoria, mine,
My love, my mistress!
Placidia
And to be your wife.
Eugenius
Never! She loved me fourteen years ago,
And I have gone on loving her. But she—
I know she has been loathing me, unless . . . (With sudden agony)
Unless she has been wanton and again . . .
Empress, why did you summon me—to cloak
Some lover's insult?
93
Yes, to be her shield
From utter infamy.
Eugenius
Again—O God!
I will not shield her.
Placidia
She has sent a ring
To Attila; he took it, and demands
Her person and her dowry. We must either
By Christian marriage put her beyond reach
Of his unlawful claim, or give his lust
And avarice their victim.
Eugenius
Madam, why
Am I raked up for this?
Placidia
How natural!
You who have once possessed her.
Eugenius
Once! How often
Have others?
Placidia
She has lived in strict seclusion
Since you were parted; but this ring she sent
To Attila removes her from all hope
Of human sympathy and help, but yours.
Save her, if you repent.
Eugenius
That I betrayed her,
Yes; that I loved her, that she gave herself,
No, never! But it seems her heart is set
On this disgusting Hun, a rival, Madam,
Less to your taste than I.
Placidia
She has not seen him.
Eugenius
Then it grows clear. This was a childish trick
94
For any finger. After fourteen years,
So little changed!
Placidia
You recognise the need?
We must protect her by a formal rite.
Eugenius
And have you thought what it will be to me?
I love her; in your cursèd mines I learnt
To love her as a man: I have won freedom,
Chipping your gold and swearing. Do not trust me
With any formal part.
Placidia
I cannot save her:
I made her an Augusta in the hope
Of keeping her from misery; she plunges
Into the vortex and she calls me hard.
Save her—you can.
(Coming up to him, she lays her hands clasped in supplication on his breast)
Eugenius
I shall get little thanks
For this salvation.
Placidia
When she sent the ring,
He said—it was reported through the camp—
That Roman women have no modesty.
How will he treat her, if we give her up?
Eugenius
You shall not give her up.
(Valentinian enters)
Placidia
Then take your place
Beside the altar till I summon her.
95
Eugenius
(By the altar)
Ho, ho! And now we shall clasp hands again;
No man has clasped her hand. How I have cursed her,
In these hot mines and called on all the devils
To take her: but this devil, Attila . . .
(Honoria enters; she is dressed simply in white as on the morning of her birthday.
The same—except the faded hair, except . . .
No, I have lost the little girl who tripped
Down to me in the mines—lost her for ever!
(He covers his eyes)
Honoria
(Speaking very low and with great sweetness)
Why have you sent for me? I am contented,
Quite happy now, though I am in Ravenna,
And kept so strict a captive.
Eugenius
Oh, her voice!
Honoria
I live, though I am buried in the earth;
A power has touched me that is like the sun,
And every little fibre of my body
Is beating with the spring. You cannot hurt me;
I love the salt air from the marsh, I love
The deep seclusion.
Valentinian
Then your country's groans
Have never reached you?
Honoria
I can hear no sound . . .
I know the surface of the earth itself
96
There are black ridges on the empire's verge.
Valentinian
You do not know there has been one campaign
Already, that our kingdom is laid waste
By you . . .
Honoria
(A doubtful eagerness brightening her face)
By me?
Valentinian
I tell you, in your name
Cities are burned, the harvest trampled down:
Vicenza and Verona, Bergamo,
Milan, all left as poor as villages—
Honoria
(Involuntarily)
He must have been in Italy!
Valentinian
And women
You are not fit to touch through you were forced
Into the devilish arms for which you long.
Honoria
He has been here!
Valentinian
You flush!
Honoria
And as my portion
Claims . . . Italy?
Valentinian
To strike you in the face!—
He claims half of my kingdom.
Honoria
Yes—and?
Valentinian
You
To be his bride.
Honoria
The bride of Attila!
(Eugenius comes nearer)
My ring has virtue, and my hope has virtue,
97
I felt the dream I had to be so great
That he must act it. Bride of Attila!
Valentinian
The Tanjou vows unless we give you up
In spring he will descend on Rome itself,
And burn the holy city. Give you up!
No, not if God or man can keep you ours.
Smile, like a vampire, do! You will not win me
To tolerate your ghoul, with greedy hand
Halving my sceptre, rolling from his lips
Counter-commands to mine, and getting children,
With noses broad as tents, to take his place
Above the Roman world.
Honoria
I never yet
Have needed to contend: I do not think
That words can settle anything. O mother,
Why do you care to keep me still in bonds,
When you are quite defeated?
Placidia
No, I am not.
I send for you to do my will as simply
As when I sent for you to take the crown
And title of Augusta. You are here
By Christian marriage to be made a wife;
And by that bond I shall defeat your hope
Of ever being bride to Attila.
Honoria
But nothing can prevent it.
Placidia
Yes, God can—
The Church of God, its holy sacrament.
98
(Laughing softly)
A sacrament can keep me from him—try,
Oh, let it try!
Placidia
Blaspheming girl, it can.
For you are to be married, to be joined
Securely to another, who will be
Your sole possessor.
Eugenius
(Between his teeth)
Yes, your sole.
Honoria
Ha. . . . married?
(She laughs ringingly)
To whom?
Eugenius
(Coming to her with extended hands)
My unforgotten, you forget.
To me, in name.
Honoria
(Blankly)
To you—
(Recognising him)
To you! The pity
That you should take a truth of long ago
And turn it into falsehood.
(Keeping him back with a gesture of her hands)
You are nothing,
No more to me than is my father's grave,
That does not sway a motion of my life.
Leave me!
Eugenius
I cannot, till, my service done,
The servant is dismissed.
Honoria
To play at marriage—
You who have been my lover!
Eugenius
And betrayed you,
Have you forgotten that? Through all the years
99
As women must not love, you dragged my heart
Through hell for you; but not to see your face,
Though it is like the upper light to me,
Do I stand here.
You shall not be betrayed
Again—and by a man who could not suffer,
Who could not love you. . . . I, at least I love,
At least I suffer. I am here to save you
From even a viler traitor than myself.
Placidia
By making you a wife.
Honoria
Oh—anything!
Call me what names you will, Eugenius' wife,
Augusta: I have learnt what titles mean.
You cannot scare me with such shadows while
I see the Tanjou with a naked sabre
Flashing before him as he rushes forth
To make the lands his own. I am the bride
Of Attila whatever you may do,
And am secure against these forms and rites
Because the love that knitted up the world
Is with me—love, love, love!
Placidia
O misery,
To hear one's child as she will rage in hell!
(She sinks on her throne).
Valentinian
(Laying hold of Honoria)
You serpent, I will hold and never loose you
Till you are knotted fast. You do not care
100
Honoria
Years ago
I think she would have killed me, if she could.
(Turning to Eugenius)
She killed our child. Eugenius, you consent
Now to obey her will? I have no care
For anything they do to me: but you,
Can you be base again?
Eugenius
Give me your hand.
I do this for your sake and . . . damn your mother!
Honoria
(Slowly)
Then I forgive you. Oh, what cruelty
You deal yourself!
Eugenius
My ring upon your hand,
I only wish to live to keep it there,
While the long, famishing and awful years
Number my exile.
Valentinian
(Taking her by her shoulder)
I am urgent now.
Summon the priest.
Honoria
No violence! If you need
A victim for your altar, I am ready.
While you are jabbering prayers I shall appeal
To the great wizard God is sending forth
To overthrow you. I am with the storms,
Nature's own incantations, devilry
That heaven itself unlooses: I appeal
To the seven, deadly plagues, to flood and fire,
To the invisible, destroying hosts
101
I do not plead my cause—I plead myself,
Forbidden my own nature: such a cry
Is shriller than the raven's.
(She takes Eugenius' hand, and, laughing a low, wild laugh, goes up to the altar. Placidia lifts her head and sees Valentinian)
Placidia
How it echoes,
That laughter like a child's laugh, through the church.
O Valentinian, I shall soon be dead.
Valentinian
I do not like her curses.
Placidia
Go to her.
(Valentinian ascends the steps with the priest and several courtiers and women, among them Marsa. Placidia sits rigid as stone)
He thinks she cursed me. Can it be that children
Have any power to curse? I thought that parents
Alone could strike that mortal way. I thought—
(Faintly)
Marsa.
(Marsa comes from among the women and stoops over Placidia)
Marsa
Yes, Empress, yes! But are you ill?
Placidia
I suffer, that is all. Marsa, you said
Once that your daughter should be made a nun;
But now, if I command, you will obey?
Marsa
Empress, in everything.
Placidia
But tell me first
Whether your girl desires to leave the world?
102
I cannot hope she does.
Placidia
Then marry her
Where she is drawn to marry, and, while young,
Plant her in soil that brought you happiness.
Remember! Fan me, Marsa!
(Pointing toward the altar, but not looking)
Is it done?
God, if this marriage should be farce on farce,
And Attila possess her after all.
For he rejects our sanctions, he is bound
By nothing we are bound by. It is strange
I never thought of that, and I will never
Allow it can be thought of.
(She closes her eyes as if dead—then opens them suddenly)
An alarm!
How startling! What can cause it?
Marsa
Shall I ask?
(Advancing toward the door)
It grows; the guards no longer bar the way.
Empress, my husband!
(Anthemius, conducted by soldiers and courtiers, reaches Placidia's throne and falls at her feet)
Anthemius
Attila is dead.
Placidia
But . . . Are you sure of this?
Anthemius
The Hun is dead.
Placidia
(Grasping the arms of her chair and rising)
Then I am not defeated. Sin is sin,
And God opposes fierce idolators.
103
Is dead.
All
Deliverance! Attila is dead!
(The whole chamber rings with the cry as Honoria turns her back on the priest and Eugenius, the marriage having been consummated. On hearing the news Eugenius raises his arms with a gesture of thanksgiving toward the altar. Honoria's face as she turns is rapt and glorified, but slowly fixes in horror)
Honoria
It is a lie, a fearful piece of jesting
To follow such a marriage. Oh, I know
When there is truth in anything—I feel it,
And this is quite outside me. All you say
And do is lying.
(She advances)
Attila is dead
As truly as Eugenius is my husband.
But this is acted bravely—nuptial games
To follow our espousals!
(She laughs)
Shout again
Your frantic chorus Attila is dead!
See, I will lead you!
(She pauses on the top of the steps and looks round)
You are silent now,
You dare not speak that falsehood to my face;
For Attila, you know, will never die—
That is the terror. I have summoned him
To break my bonds: he will destroy you all.
104
Who told this poor, weak, flimsy tale?
Valentinian
Ha, ha!
You do not recognise the messenger.
Honoria
(Hurrying down the steps)
Who is it? No . . . Anthemius, you have always
Been faithful and a friend to me. Speak truth,
While I can hear. You do not understand
How life itself grows hollow as you jest,
And leaves me undefended—
Anthemius
I speak truth;
I would not lie, a soldier's word!
Honoria
Oh then
It is report; often such mighty falsehoods
Grow up around the mighty—a report
With something in it, and you do not know
The Scythian tongue; you misinterpreted.
He may have fallen sick, but is not dead,
For that would be mere chaos and collapse.
(Turning to Eugenius, who stands now on the top of the steps)
He has my ring—Eugenius, do you hear?—
For troth-plight on his hand: I am his bride—
These are realities.
Anthemius
(Desperately)
I saw him dead
With my own eyes, Augusta.
Honoria
Saw it . . . oh!
105
Where's Satyrus? . . .
(She lifts her hands for help; Eugenius hastening down the steps tries to support her, but she rejects his help, and props herself against a column as if she were bound to it)
Now tell me . . . all the rest.
Anthemius
Dead in his tent, his warriors riding round
In eagle-rings, and further off the women
Raising their shrill lament.
Honoria
(With vague exultation)
A cry comes up
As from the bosom of the earth—farewell!
And they have lost their god: my Attila!
(With glowing face, she spreads out her arms as if to receive a divinity; Eugenius sinks down on the lowest step of the altar)
Valentinian
How did he die? From gorging?
Anthemius
He was murdered.
Valentinian
Some rebel . . . ?
Anthemius
No, his bride—
Valentinian
How's that?
Eugenius
(Springing up)
His bride?
Honoria
(With a shriek)
His bride!
Anthemius
The captive Ildico. I sat
At table with him:—horror, drunkenness,
And merriment of savages! I saw
His victim dragged on to the nuptial couch,
Piled high above the throne; and caught a glimpse
106
As the girl passed, a shudder followed her;
Although the host of warriors roared and stamped
Acclaimingly, they knew she had been forced.
Honoria
(Her face rigid and threatening)
Forced! and while he was asking . . .
Placidia
Do not publish
Your shame, for your own sake. You must be conscious
Of your mad folly now.
Anthemius
Yes, every one
Knew that the girl was forced, but no one dreamed
That such a deed was trembling at her heart.
Honoria
They did not . . . Oh, go on!
Anthemius
And when next morning
He did not leave his tent, as was his custom,
The army laughed; but as the daylight spread
One glitter on the plain, and still no sound
Broke through the folds, the jesting died away.
His warriors clashed their spears against their shields;
He did not wake: they cried about the tent
Like wolves and jackals . . . but he did not wake.
At last they caught the tent-skirt in their hands
And entered one by one. The bride was seated,
White, with malicious and abandoned eyes,
Nursing a laugh, her veil wrung round her chin,
And Attila lay prostrate in a mass
Of frozen blood!
(During all this while Honoria's face and attitude
107
Honoria
(Sharply between her teeth)
Killed? Are you sure?
Anthemius
(Terrified)
Yes, murdered.
Honoria
Not merely dead, but murdered? You are sure?
Anthemius
By Ildico.
Honoria
I never had a sister—
Ildico, Ildico! I have one now.
Ildico!
(She throws up her arms, shrieking the name, and falls a senseless heap on the ground. Eugenius stoops to lift her)
Placidia
Do not touch her; I forbid.
She is no wife of yours except in name.
Return to exile.
(To the guard)
Take her to her cell;
She must be hidden.
(A cry goes up on all sides without and within the palace, Attila is dead!)
| Attila, My Attila! | |