University of Virginia Library

Scene 5.

Exterior of Adzuma's house. Night time. A lamp is shining through a lattice.
Enter Morito, holding a naked sword.
Morito.
Aye! there's the light! And, when I slide the door,
She'll put it out, to show all's well. “All's well?”
“All's ill”—say rather! Oh, I know, I know
What cursed work I do, what bloody road
I follow to the fruitage of my love;
And yonder light shines out of Hell, I know,
To show my way. Well! if it gleam from Hell
It guides to Heaven, my Heaven with Adzuma.
Cut quick, fierce sword! I spit upon thy hilt
To get fast grip. Now, Lord Wataru! die!
[Morito enters; and, after a brief interval, emerges again, carrying a head in a bloodstained cloth.]
Devils of Hell! how easy 'twas to do,
This coward murderous deed! The head was wet,
The hair cropped close. I took his girdle-purse,
That it might seem a robber's deed. Now, naught
Lives 'twixt my love and me. How sound he slept
Who doth sleep sounder now; how soft it was,
That soldier's neck! I'll to the moon-light there,
And tie my burden better.

[Morito goes near to a corner in the street, and sitting down, opens the cloth; when there rolls out a severed head, which is seen to be that of Adzuma.]
[Morito starts to his feet: covers his face with his hands, and staggers paralysed to the wall.]
Morito
[re-approaching, after a time, the head.]
Not his! But Adzuma's! Adzuma's head!
What! have I murdered Adzuma? Hell's light!
Shrewdly thou beaconedst me! I have steered straight
To damnable perdition! Eyes! soft eyes!
Shut, lest they blight themselves with glimpse of me,
Yes, ye are Adzuma's; the pale cheeks her's;
The blanched, locked lips her's—her's the black hair cropped,
And tied Wataru's way. Oh, I see well
What snare she laid. The savage eagle's trussed
By the white dove's small foot. Fiends that do tempt,
You, Sakamune! chief—come hither and grin!
Your utter worst is wrought! Why then, she's true!
She never wrote the script! Gods! all reads plain
Writ in this pure bright blood. She could not put
Our cursed plots aside, unless she died,
And so she died, making of Morito
Servant and purger to her innocence.
Oh, miserable Morito! Oh, spite
Of sinfulness, mocked, to set Virtue right!
[Exit Morito, carrying the head.