 | Orra |  |
SCENE I.
The ramparts of the castle. Enter Orra and Cathrina.Cath.
(after a pause, in which Orra walks once or twice across the stage, thoughtfully).
Go in, I pray; thou wand'rest here too long.
[A pause again.
251
The sun is set. I pray thee now go in.
Orra.
Ha! sets the sun already? Is the day
Indeed drawn to its close?
Cath.
Yes, night approaches.
See, many a gather'd flock of cawing rooks
Are to their nests returning.
Orra
(solemnly).
Night approaches!—
This awful night which living beings shrink from;
All now of every kind scour to their haunts,
While darkness, peopled with its hosts unknown,
Awful dominion holds. Mysterious night!
What things unutterable thy dark hours
May lap!—What from thy teeming darkness burst
Of horrid visitations, ere that sun
Again shall rise on the enlighten'd earth!
[A pause.
Cath.
Why dost thou gaze intently on the sky?
Seest thou aught wonderful?
Orra.
Look there, behold that strange gigantic form
Which yon grim cloud assumes; rearing aloft
The semblance of a warrior's plumed head,
While from its half-shaped arm a streamy dart
Shoots angrily! Behind him too, far stretch'd,
Seems there not, verily, a serried line
Of fainter misty forms?
Cath.
I see, indeed,
A vasty cloud, of many clouds composed,
Towering above the rest; and that behind
In misty faintness seen, which hath some likeness
To a long line of rocks with pine-wood crown'd:
Or, if indeed the fancy so incline,
A file of spearmen, seen through drifted smoke.
Orra.
Nay, look how perfect now the form becomes:
Dost thou not see?—Ay, and more perfect still.
O thou gigantic lord, whose robed limbs
Beneath their stride span half the heavens! art thou
Of lifeless vapour formed? Art thou not rather
Some air-clad spirit—some portentous thing—
Some mission'd being—Such a sky as this
Ne'er usher'd in a night of nature's rest.
Cath.
Nay, many such I've seen; regard it not.
That form, already changing, will ere long
Dissolve to nothing. Tarry here no longer.
Go in, I pray.
Orra.
No; while one gleam remains
Of the sun's blessed light, I will not go.
Cath.
Then let me fetch a cloak to keep thee warm,
For chilly blows the breeze.
Orra.
Do as thou wilt.
[Exit Cath.
Enter an Outlaw, stealing softly behind her.
Out.
(in a low voice).
Lady!—the Lady Orra!
Orra
(starting).
Heaven protect me!
Sounds it beneath my feet, in earth or air?
[He comes forward.
Welcome is aught that wears a human face.
Didst thou not hear a sound?
Out.
What sound, an't please you?
Orra.
A voice which call'd me now: it spoke, methought,
In a low, hollow tone, suppress'd and low,
Unlike a human voice.
Out.
It was my own.
Orra.
What wouldst thou have?
Out.
Here is a letter, lady.
Orra.
Who sent thee hither?
Out.
It will tell thee all.
[Gives a letter.
I must begone, your chieftain is at hand.
[Exit.
Orra.
Comes it from Falkenstein? It is his seal.
I may not read it here. I'll to my chamber.
[Exit hastily, not perceiving Rudigere, who enters by the opposite side, before she has time to go off.
Rud.
A letter in her hand, and in such haste!
Some secret agent here from Falkenstein?
It must be so.
[Hastening after her, Exit.
| Orra | |