University of Virginia Library

ACT II.

SCENE I.

The outer room of a cottage in the fortified marsh of Athelney. Alfred's harp hanging up; and a time-candle on the mantel of a hearth, near which is a settle-like table and stools. Edward and Ethelward, the boyprinces, are making a toyboat, with a little bow and arrows near them and a paper kite, &c.: sordidly dressed, as in distress, and looking hungry: playing not for pleasure but for employment: perhaps one reading a missal, or writing on a board.
Bertha discovered comforting Queen Elswitha, who is crying over a little curlyheaded 3-year-old daughter: and a large mastiff in the room.
Bertha.
Dear heart, take comfort; hope for brighter days
The likelier to dawn upon us now
For this long night of sorrows,—nay, my Queen,
My sister, do not weep so.

Elswitha
(sobbing violently).
—For the children
My Alfred's darlings, England's royal stock,
Mated with poverty, pale, hungerbitten,
O Bertha, Bertha!

Bertha.
He will soon come back,—
And bring back happiness and plenty with him;
He hath but gone a little while and way
To get (and Heaven is kind) a little food,—
And he had hope to meet some score of friends
Some brave and worthy men of Somerset
Who have got clue to us at Athelney:
Cheer up, dear Sister-Queen,—

Elswitha
(listening intently).
Hark! that's his step,
I know my Alfred's step among a thousand!

[she runs to meet him at the door, which is central.
Alfred.
How are the children, wife?—what, crying eyes?
Nay but I come to kiss the tears away:
Love,—have no fears—for He who fed the ravens
Careth for us,—lo now, wife, wine and bread!
A noble friend hath spared us from his need
(A noble friend in own extremity
Yet did I make him eat and drink himself)
Hath spared me—(it was for the children's sake
And yours', dear wife and sister)—bread and wine:
Look, this half loaf and flask,—Thanks be to God!
Here, Edward, eat my boy,—drink, Ethelward,
Take some, dear wife, dear sister,—

Elswitha.
Not until
Thy precious lips have blest the precious food:
Alfred, not I, but England bids thee take
All that her widowed poverty hath left
To feast her King withal!

Alfred.
One morsel, wife,
For England's dearest sake and thine,—one drop.
Now, feast, my darlings! Nay—it was our bargain.
And, Edward, hither! hither, Ethelward,—
Come to the better bread, for starved in knowledge
A man, an Englishman, is starved indeed:
Come, pretty ones;—see, I have found some nuts,
A squirrel's hoard in an old hazel-stem,
To share between my lads for doing well
Their reading and their writing:—hither, boys.

[he teaches them at the table: Elswitha and Bertha come to him with the bread and wine.
Elswitha.
Now, dearest Alfred, eat.

Bertha.
Come, king and brother,
A little wine, for thou art very faint.

Alfred.
Well, an ye will, my treasures:
[he eats and drinks a little. A knocking at the closed door startles them all. Bertha runs to see before Alfred has prevented her.
Hark! who knocks?
Stop, sister!—O the brave and venturous girl!

Bertha,
(throwing the door open, and discovering a whiteheaded and picturesque old man.)
It seems a poor old beggar, very old
And very poor, and famishing, he says,
And praying in the holy name of Christ
A bit of bread.

Alfred.
Here, sister, give him this.

[Alfred gives Bertha the remainder loaf and flask.
Elswitha
(running up).
What, this, this—husband? all, our little all?
Think of the children and to-morrow,—this?
Why, this is all we trust to for to-morrow!

Alfred
(looking upward).
Wife,—for to-morrow I have trusted God!
He is our Help tomorrow as to-day;
And if to-day doth bring a duty close,
We must fulfil it, trusting for the morrow.
Here, my poor gaffer, eat,—nay, eat it—drink.

[gradually, as he speaks, the backscene changes, and to Alfred's mute astonishment (no one else seeing anything of this,—for Bertha and Elswitha are taken up by watching Alfred's entrancement, and the boys are happy over their nuts and toys, &c.) “the Vision” comes, with distant supernatural music, shewing the old man changed into the Guardian Spirit of England blessing Alfred, but nothing said: only music. As it fades away, and the cottage wall comes back again,—
Alfred
(in an awed whisper).
Is this a dream? O wife, O sister, speak!
Tell me, my boys; who saw it,—and who heard?

Elswitha
(earnestly embracing him).
Husband, sweet Alfred, do not look so wild,—
This is some feverish ecstasy of hunger
Such as St. Simeon and those eremites
Took to be gleams of heaven. Eat, love, eat!

Bertha,
(runs to the door for the food, and in astonishment calls out,)
O sister, what a miracle! look, brother,
The loaf is whole, the pitcher is abrim!

Alfred
(slowly).
Elijah,—David! I do see in this
Your God and mine; I, the anointed King
And Prophet of my people, take of Him
The blessed food his mercy giveth me.

[he eats and drinks,—as also do the children and Bertha and Elswitha, and they give pieces to the dog. Then Elswitha speaks.
Elswitha.
Dear husband, rest awhile, for thou art wearied
And hast the eyes of one who seeth visions:
Rest thee, and go to sleep, love.
[a child cries within.
There's the babe
Calling me: Bertha, bring the boys away,
[in a low voice.
And let him sleep:—nay, thou canst leave the hound:
Dear Gael, most faithful friend!—there, lie thee down!
To be our Alfred's royal bodyguard.

[they go to the inner room at side door: and as Alfred is just reclined on a rude couch of skins, Ethelnoth and Hereward run in at centre door. He starts up.
Ethelnoth.
Good news, O King! Five hundred at our backs,
Noble, though lowly, patriot Englishmen,
Armed as they best could make or muster weapons
But sturdily resolved to play the men
Have found thee out with us.

Alfred.
How didst thou find me?
We missed each other suddenly and strangely,
Hunted and well-nigh taken: since that hour
Hither escaped where I had stowed my treasures,
I have lain close, for many foes are nigh.
Lain close, and well-nigh starved: how did'st thou find me?

Ethelnoth.
One that hath lately (and we found him dying)
Shared his last loaf with England, seeing us
And knowing us to stand for thee and thine,
Told me—(it was his blessed thought at death)
That he had saved the King! he would not tell
Alfred himself that he discovered him
Lest that the King should seek elsewhere for safety;
For well the good man trusted, under God,
This labyrinthine quagmired Athelney
As Alfred's surest refuge: so he stayed,
And never told the King that he was known.

Alfred.
A gentleman, a glorious Englishman!
Heaven give him rest,—didst thou not say he died?
But, but that passes.
[with enthusiasm.
England and five hundred!
Gideon had fewer men at Meroval!
—Is the foe near, the Dane?

Hereward.
At Ethandune;
With scores, alas, of England's false great lords
Playing the courtiers to King Guthrom there.

Alfred.
How many seem the foe? stand they prepared?

Hereward.
I wot not: it were easy for the birds
To oversee their strength, but beyond hope
For us that creep afoot.

Alfred
(after a pause of thought).
I am resolved.—
Ethelnoth, rest thou here with Hereward,
And those five hundred,—how are they provisioned?

Ethelnoth.
Well: for we drove in herds of cattle with us.

Alfred
(earnestly).
Non nobis, Domine!—yes, Ethelnoth
To know aright the blessedness of plenty
A man must once have felt how hunger gnaws.
For those five hundred, thank them heartily
And bless them from their King: guard well my Queen,
Guard the dear children, England's royal Princes;
And I the while will see and guage this Dane.

Ethelnoth
(falling on one knee).
O King, be sparing of that precious life
In which all England lives, and with thee dies:
I know thy countless courage; well I know
That thou against ten thousand would'st advance
Alone, and in thy spirit battle down
Their myriad host,—yet is the body something,
This wretched, hungry, weak and crushable body,—
O King, trust not to that.

[Bertha comes in unseen and quietly through the side door.
Alfred
(raising him kindly).
I trust in God;
And, under Him, in Mind, and in my Right.
Hearken, good Ethelnoth: I have some skill
In harping and our national melodies:
And, with disguise, (this is no lie, but wisdom)
[he takes down his harp.
I will search out this Dane in his own camp,
Will there discern his powers, judge my false lords
Whose love of peace—the craven hypocrites!—
Hath betrayed England,—and will know the time
When my five hundred shall recover England!

Hereward.
A great good thought, and worthy of our King.
For us, depend; nothing in earth or hell,
While one of us is living, shall do harm,
Shall not do good, to Cerdic's royal stock:
[Bertha retires.
The Queen, the Princes, and the Crown are safe.
Go then, great Alfred! go, without a care
And test the Dane: all blessing on thee there.

[they all go out through the central door.—Scene changes.

SCENE II.

The inner room: a humble nursery, Elswitha rocking a cradle. Bertha runs in.
Bertha.
He's gone!—I wot not whither; took his harp
And spake of some disguise.

Elswitha.
Gone? left us, sister?

Bertha.
In charge of yonder gallant gentlemen,—
And he is gone alone to seek the Dane.

Elswitha.
O brave, rash, noble deed!—nay, let me go,
I'll follow him, and guard him with my prayers
His ministering angel under Heav'n,—
Some ill might else befal,—

Bertha.
And leave the children?

Elswitha.
Ah, sister! when a mother and a wife
Hath to elect between her little ones
And him who made them hers, marvel thou not
If in the wrestling anguish of her soul
She choose her husband!—Bertha,—let me go,—

Bertha.
I, I will go: see here, I have my cloak,—
And look, the baby is awake and wants thee!

Elswitha.
My precious!—Bertha,—nay, thou shalt not go,—
Ah me,—my very heart is torn in twain!
Stay with the children!

Bertha.
But the babe, dear sister,—
Think of its asking mouth, its little face
Pining with hunger, if thou wert away;
The path is perilous, and may be long,
And those marauders—

[she runs off.
Elswitha
(calling after her.)
Sister—stay!—Brave girl,
She's gone or e'er I was aware; O heaven,
Shield her, and him, and these!
My precious babe,
Dear Alfred's fairest, last, and best-beloved—

[she sobs broken-heartedly over the cradle, and the Act ends.
(The music between this Act and the Third, may include hints of the tunes, “Home, sweet home,” and “There's a good time coming,” &c.)