University of Virginia Library

SCENE V.

Night—Castle Gates.
The Porters, and a Crowd with torches.
1ST. PORTER.
Drive them from off the drawbridge—keep it clear.

2ND. PORTER.
Good people, stand aloof.

1ST. PORTER.
Nay, good or not,
They shall, or break my mace in twain. Hold now!
Pray which may you be?

1ST. CLOWN.
Faith, sir, pretty well—
Some have been better, sir, but good enough!

1ST. PORTER.
For what? Grimme, pitch him in the moat—off with him!
Being good, he shames his fellows—drown him first—
Your very well draws envy.

2ND. PORTER.
Let us halve them:
Thou drown the good, and I the other sort.

1ST. PORTER.
With all my heart—I shall have least to do—
Scarce one in twelve. So, sir, your quality?

2ND. CLOWN.
Why middling, master.

1ST. PORTER.
Stand between us here—
Knock for his brains on thy side, I on mine.
He shall declare his faction ere he swim.
These neutrals side with either that is nearest:
I hate a double face.

Enter RUDESTEIN.
RUDESTEIN.
Thou dost abjure
Thy mystery, then, and Janus.

1ST. PORTER.
We maintain—
This simple Grimme and I, sir, do continue
Our footing here, though neither out nor in;
Ill perched upon the threshold, yet we tarry!
While some there be left-handed, swivil-sighted,
Smooth-spoken, supple-witted, seven-fold gifted,
Who scarce can bide in peace, though locked and barred!

RUDESTEIN.
Dame, take those children farther back—dost hear?

1ST. PORTER.
She should belong to me—a strange good woman!
A widow too, and poor enough for grace.

RUDESTEIN.
Why dost not keep thy babes at home?

WIDOW.
They have none.

1ST. PORTER.
Marry, I doubt her now—she is too brief—
The best have ever much to say.

2ND. PORTER.
Poor soul,
Her tears have choked her! Dame, be comforted!
Thy benefactress is with God.

WIDOW.
I know it.

2ND. PORTER.
He pities all, but most the fatherless.

1ST. PORTER.
The buttery dole is stopped since yesterday.

2ND. PORTER.
It will begin again.

RUDESTEIN.
Then what dost grieve for?

1ST. PORTER.
Have patience, dame!

WIDOW.
I have.

RUDESTEIN.
We all lose friends.

WIDOW.
Hast lost thy best and last, as I have done?
God grant thee patience too!

RUDESTEIN.
They come—stand wide!
Hark! 'tis the anthem!

1ST. PORTER.
Take those bonnets off!
Keep the way clear there!—force them farther back!

Music heard through the gateway. Soldiers on foot. Heralds and trumpets on horseback. The banner supported, and followed by Knights mounted. Priests, Friars, and Choristers, singing and carrying torches. Father Philip supported, bearing the cross. The bier under a canopy. Ellen habited and veiled as a Nun between two others. Weilenberg, supported by Pages. Knights, Squires, Pursuivants, Servants, succeeded by Soldiers. The Procession passes over the drawbridge and descends toward the river, followed by the multitude. Rudestein, Screitch, Barbara, and Porters remain.
RUDESTEIN.
Why dost not follow, Seneschal?

1ST. PORTER.
He stands
Beyond the confines of his kingdom now,
Sinking his royalty.

SCREITCH.
Hast seen this foot
Outside the drawbridge till to-night?

RUDESTEIN.
I have.

SCREITCH.
Not since my horse was borrowed.

RUDESTEIN.
I have seen
No wise man look so like a satchel-carrier
Descending from his martyrdom of birch—
A pocketer of pippins newly whipped.
Thine eyes have drowned thy manhood!

SCREITCH.
Tully wept,
And Naso, heavily—they both record it.

1ST. PORTER.
Not for a nobler lady whosoe'er.

BARBARA.
Grimme's huge red head hangs dripping all awry,
Like sun-flowers after thunder storms.

1ST. PORTER.
Bethink thee,
There fall no wardrobe legacies to us—
As mantles laced and lined with martin-skin:
No, nor yet petticoats, nor smaller matters—
Rings, chains, and clasps—bequeathments suaging sorrow.
It will require a skin of last year's brightest
To set my legs as stiffly underneath
As they were this day week.

BARBARA.
The rest find hope,
And hope finds comfort.

1ST. PORTER.
Where may these be found?

BARBARA.
Where liquor runs the fastest.

1ST. PORTER.
In the Rhine!
My hope falls flat again.

BARBARA.
The hall, thou cuckoo.
Our guests have left enough for temperance.

RUDESTEIN.
We bar excess. Ask thou the Seneschal.

SCREITCH.
There must be civil order every-where:
I will observe these feeders in the hall.
Do ye watch here.

RUDESTEIN.
Like skeletons in stone—
The bare-ribbed guardians of some monument,
Ill fed by gluttonous Death their seneschal—
Each at the archway grinning, stand apart,
And watch who comes the next.—Look, this is learning!
It makes men's hearts like mill-stones.

BARBARA.
Prithee, Screitch,
Be sociable, and let us tarry here,
While these two eat and drink awhile.

RUDESTEIN.
Begone—
Beckon your fellows ere the pasties cool;
Let every man be wise in liberty.
We three will tarry for you here.

1ST. PORTER.
Come in.
Hoist up the drawbridge, Grimme.

RUDESTEIN.
What need of that?
There may be messengers for things neglected;
We will not quit the gate.

1ST. PORTER.
Behold a sign!
They last not long that grow so quick in grace.
I look for his departure. Grimme, ask patience.

[Exeunt Porters.
RUDESTEIN.
How fares thy gentle mistress, mistress Bab?
She is unused to grief, but all must season.
Who stays behind as comforter?

BARBARA.
Not one.
Her face is paler than her mother's was!
What should I speak? I know not how to speak,
Nor what is wisely written to that end.

RUDESTEIN.
Who walks with sorrow, should tread tenderly.
Now, where is Ursula?

BARBARA.
Ursula is a fool:
No matter where she is. Well, so then, Ursula!
And who, forsooth, is Ursula? Wonderful!
Is Ursula's breeding clerkly more than mine?

RUDESTEIN.
Bab, thou art made of charity, but still
Nature can profit little by herself.
There needs, for grief and comfort, art and study.

BARBARA.
In all this house, there is but one that sees
What counsel suits a Christian, what an owl:
That knows the kinds, and forms, and rules of grief—
Nor, trust me, is that Ursula.

RUDESTEIN.
Who then else?
Is it the Father Philip?

BARBARA.
Nor he, nor thou.
Philip is great with Chrysostom and Cato—
But is he here at hand?

RUDESTEIN.
This Screitch were nought:
His studies lie away from human letters;
Nor be they deep elsewhere.

SCREITCH.
Who told thee so?
Thou didst not sound my shallowness thyself.
Are Philip's deeper?

RUDESTEIN.
Ay.

SCREITCH.
Bring out thy scales,
Then hang thyself, with all thou hast, beside him,
And see which kicks the beam.

RUDESTEIN.
Philip is chaste.
Go, feed thyself and bacons in the hall!

BARBARA.
He shall not go! There may be prodigals
As fain to eat 'midst swine, with greater need.

SCREITCH.
Bravely, sweet Barbara—right upon the comb!
His jest will shake its feathers, marry will it!

BARBARA.
Thou shalt go comfort Ellen—I myself
Will see to peace and order in the hall.

(Exeunt Screitch and Barbara.)
RUDESTEIN,
alone.
This were a merry world, were laughter mirth—
But part of it is treachery, more is scorn!
Screitch has his learnèd triumphs every day;
While Barbara laughs at Screitch, and I at Barbara.
This baggage would be baroness!—'Tis strange
That hearts exempt from fear should beat so hard!
Is expectation stronger than remorse?
I have, in childhood, ventured thrice as greatly—
With one hand trusting to a wallflower's toughness,
Ill-balanced o'er these battlements, hung down
To thrust the other 'twixt the corbeils under—
Full three-score fathoms sheer above the Rhine—
All for a starling's egg or two:—have climbed
Some nook unthought of since the builders left it,
To sit amidst their maze of masonry,
Screamed at by daws. 'Twas slip and perish then!
My kinsman's tyranny was but some dislike
To some loose practices of mine—at times
A sharp authority in his own house—
Therefore I turn him out of it!—This world
Moves likes a Tartar waggon drawn by mares:
The first are right and wrong—then force and fortune.
Who drives may change their order either way,
And harness as he will. So now they come!—
Count Albert first.

Enter Count, Hubert, and Soldiers.
COUNT.
Stop here, and breathe awhile!

RUDESTEIN.
In absence of the baron, welcome, Sir!

COUNT.
We gain the castle, as you gained your Barbara—
Almost too easily. Pass on and halt.
Eustace, secure the gates. Where be these porters?

RUDESTEIN.
With Barbara in the hall.

COUNT.
And where is Ellen?
Let us deal tenderly—she need not know
Whose house she lives in yet.

RUDESTEIN.
Are all embarked?
The rest is ordered so, we cannot err.
Run, Gregory, up the stream—take these behind thee—
Thou wilt find boats prepared within a mile:
Get in, and let the current float thee back;
Then land upon the isle, and bring the barges,
But cut the flats and ferry-boats adrift.

COUNT.
Collect their oars—make haste!

[Exit Gregory.
RUDESTEIN.
And now, sir page,
Put fetters on the impatient in the hall.
Suppose me dead, and say so—what dost wait for?
I must be missed awhile.

HUBERT.
Your highness sends me?
I serve none else.

COUNT.
Quick! quick, man! hold them fast.

[Exit Hubert.
RUDESTEIN.
This cock must lose his spurs—Divide the rest—
One half may man the walls.

COUNT.
Lift up the bridge!
Our numbers will be more by break of day:
The horse are left below. Bring torches hither!
Be watchful, Eustace!—Now I am at home!

[Exeunt.