University of Virginia Library

ACT IV.

Scene I.

—A Chamber in the Bucoleon.—Nicephorus, the Patriarch, and the Abbot of St. Conon's.
Abbot.
I cannot but commend your Grace's course;
She is a woman of ungoverned spirit
And were she in her helplessness so urged
Might do some violence to herself, which still
Men's minds, more prone to scandal than to faith,
Would fix upon the Church. Count Lyra's death
Is yet a question and a calumny
Rife in men's mouths, despite the miracle.

Patriarch.
It pleaseth God to hasten no man's hour
But straight our Order is impeached, as we
Could make men linger.

Nicephorus.
For our present need
Reserve we force until devices fail.

Abbot.
All shall be ordered with the strictest heed
To what your Grace directs.

Nicephorus.
Yet have regard
To what runs counter, what occasions serve.
In this time's mutability, the pleas
That rule one hour the next may abrogate.
Wherefore, by due observance of the times
Mould thou the means as best to work my end.
A woman and a child are easy dealt with.

Abbot.
To work your Grace's will and save the shrine
From the reproach of violence, I will try
All gentle and benign devices first . . .

Nicephorus.
And should these fail to draw the culprits forth
Expect my further will. Enough is said.
They wait you in Sophia's.

Scene II.

—A Suburb.—Alexius, his Lieutenant, and Soldiers.
Alexius.
Stand fast. The Sunian suburb is on fire.
Send word to Eulas to advance and storm
The Atrian gate; with half his force—no more;
The troops that guard it will but feign to fight;
They're won. With t'other half do thou thyself
Rejoin Count Isaac. There is nought to fear.
The famed Varangian brawlers led the flight,
Their leader leading them. His father, Anx,
Our prisoner, saw it and his bald head blushed.
Begone! Remember—half his force.

Lieutenant.
The rest
I carry to Count Isaac.

Alexius.
Ay, at once.
Now with our ladders to the walls, my friends.

Scene III.

—Interior of the Church of St. Sophia.— Thuriferi swinging censers on each side of the altar. A number of Priests holding tapers and performing from time to time the ritual deosculations of the images. A congregation of old men and women. The Patriarch is descending the steps of the altar.
Patriarch.
As many goats as sheep.—No more of this—
Ye do but bring each runaway and skulk
Hither to seek a shelter. Quench those lights.

Enter Theodora.
Theodora.
What doth this people here? What, know they not
The battle rages to the very walls
And none to man them?

An old Man.
Princess, we are old.

Theodora.
Old! and how is it then ye know no better
Than thus to cupboard up your vapid dregs
Like something precious?

Patriarch.
Said I not? Lo, there!
The very women cry out shame. Away!

Enter a Soldier.
Patriarch.
Whence comest thou?

Soldier.
From Phenar in much haste.
The Emperor is sore beset, and saith
Unless some aid be brought that all is lost.

Patriarch.
Who feareth loss that fighteth for the Lord?
Why arms he not the citizens and the slaves?

Soldier.
They will not arm; I saw them in the streets;
Prostrate before the images they lay,
Stricken with fear; the ways were filled with monks
Passing in long processions to the shrines.

Patriarch.
Oh, God! raise up thy people. Lo! I take
A blessed relic from Sophia's shrine!
This sword contains a scraping of the steel
Of that spear's head which pierced the side of Christ;
What host shall stand against the Lord of Hosts?
Arm ye, my children, arm ye for the fight!
St. Theodore, St. Maurice, and St. George
Shall strike with them that strike with this dread sword.
Cast down your lights; find weapons where ye may—
What host shall stand against this sacred sword?

Scene IV.

—The City near the Walls.—A Soldier keeping ward. To him enter another running.
1st Soldier

From what side comest thou?

2nd Soldier.

From Petræum, covered with laurels. There is nothing in war so glorious as a successful
retreat. I have left the dead, but brought off the baggage.

[Exhibits articles of plunder.
I'll give thee this ring an' thou'lt show me the nearest
way into the sewers.

1st Soldier.

Dost take me for a scavenger? Thou art for slinking off.

2nd Soldier.

I! perish the thought! 'Tis a point of generalship. Didst never hear of a city being surprised through the sewers. If I were there, I could keep the
pass against a thousand.

1st Soldier.

Indeed, thou wouldst keep it all to thyself, for the thousands are coming the other way—over the walls. But I'll take thy ring, for methinks I know
what way thou camest by it; thou hast been killing and
rifling thy wounded comrades; I'll take thy ring, and
show thee the way to a safer place than the sewers—
there—

[Turns round suddenly and stabs him.
Get thee underground and give me up thy ill-gotten
gear.

Enter several other Soldiers.
1st Soldier
(as he rifles the body).

Good soul! wounded
to death, I fear me! The best of friends—a military
testament—left me all he had—alas!

3rd Soldier.

Truly and no little either—ha! Come, let's have fair play,—we will all go shares.

Enter an Officer: the soldiers quit the dead man and gather round him.
Officer.

How fares it here?

4th Soldier.

The same as everywhere—ill fare; it fares foully; the sally is beaten back to the walls.

Officer.

There was a rumour with us that a miracle had been wrought.

4th Soldier.

The miracle of making live men dead; I saw no other. But there was the old Patriarch among
the foremost soldiers, with a rusty sword that came from
Jerusalem.

Officer.

What did he with it?

4th Soldier.

Why, he held it up before the ranks and prayed lustily. The enemy were shy of it till Comnenus
rode up and brake it in twain with his lance, and then
they all fell on and the sally was driven in.

Officer.

They say the Emperor was there himself.

4th Soldier.

No man in the field fought better. This day has made a soldier of him again.

5th Soldier.

Here is some one coming this way.

Officer.

It is the Emperor and the Eparchs. Jump on to yon wall; you were best not be found doing
nothing.

[Exeunt.
Enter Nicephorus, followed by Eparchs and other Officers. Also the Patriarch.
1st Officer.
The sum of all is, he will have no truce.

Nicephorus.
Ay, but I'll bring him to another mind:
Return and say a Synod hath been called
Which doth adjudge that by the Nicene canon
The Church affords no sanctuary to those
She theretofore detruded from her pale.
Add that in such sort as he grants conditions
Which may spare innocent blood, so shall I deal
With his heretical kindred. Get thee gone.
[Exit First Officer.
The last attack told hardly, my brave friends;
Yet was it fairly faced.

1st Eparch.
To speak God's truth,
I think, my Liege, we had better sped at last
Had there been none but soldiers to bring off.

2nd Eparch.
When first the monks came out, they gave some spur
To the fight; but after, when our line broke up,
They were a questionable aid: some stood
Like landmarks, others knelt, most ran
With more of haste than speed, and shook to air
The order of retreat.

Nicephorus.
The Patriarch's troops
Find little favour with my soldiers.

Patriarch.
Yea;
Harlots find favour with thy soldiers; feasts,
Riotous feasts, find favour with thy soldiers;
And therefore favour find they not with God.

Nicephorus.
Nay, nay, Lord Patriarch, let's not charge each other
With aught that hath befallen. Both did well.
May we so aid each other to the end.

Re-enter First Officer.
1st Officer.
May it please your Majesty, upon the road
I learned the Count Comnenus had been lost.
The last who saw him said it was apart
From the main body, with the troop of horse
That drave some friars through the Eastern breach,
And thereabouts they found his shield and spear.

Nicephorus.
Then go proclaim thine errand on the walls,
And say, unless an hour shall bring reply
St. Conon's is no sanctuary thenceforth
For any of his kin. Now to the ditch.

[Exeunt Officers, Eparchs, etc. (As the rest go out, the Patriarch detains Nicephorus.)
Patriarch.
An evil hour were this, should we invade
The Church's privilege to prop her creed
Or spare her sons.

Nicephorus.
Extremity, my Lord,
Will ever force the cures that wound; 'tis vain
To blink them.

Patriarch.
Vain, if other there were none.

Nicephorus.
See you not every outwork stands exposed?
Nought but an instant truce can save us now,
And he will grant it only to redeem
These women's lives; so they shall to the walls,
And if the Abbot fails to draw them forth
They must be brought by force.

Patriarch.
I grant they must;
But was't not said that near the eastern gate
The arms of Count Comnenus had been seen
And that himself was missing?

Nicephorus.
So they said.

Patriarch.
Then let these arms be found, for they will aid
Our holy end, to spare the sanctuary
From rude irreverent force, too needful else.
This must be looked to.

Nicephorus.
Ho! the signal sounds.
Let us not lag behind.

Scene V.

—The Convent of St. Conon's.—Eudocia and Anna Comnena.
Anna.
Hark! cousin.

Eudocia.
I know that sound. It is the Uri's horn.

Anna.
And look there: yon is not sunrise?

Eudocia.
No, 'tis the Greek fire on the other side of the hill.

Anna.
Heaven! is the attack begun, then?

Eudocia.
I trust in Heaven it is.

Enter the Abbot of St. Conon's.
Abbot.
I come, deputed by the Emperor
Upon a gracious mission. I am to say
He never warred with women and for you,
Whom he holds faultless of this vile revolt,
To see you driven like culprits to this strait
Afflicts him sorely; and with all respect
He proffers an asylum in the palace
Where honourable safeguard and respect
Await you.

Eudocia.
Let thy Emperor be told
They wait me from a greater far than he,
Isaac Comnenus, whom may God preserve!

Abbot.
I fain would be the bearer, with your leave,
Of a more seemly answer; it is fit
I bid you know you find not safety here;
Mine age, my holy calling, bid me stand
Betwixt you and that precipice's brink
Whither you . . .

Eudocia.
Hath your Emperor been pleased
To signify his further will through you?

Abbot.
He gave no further message.

Eudocia.
Nor do I.

[Exit Abbot.
Anna.
Why do you speak so fiercely?

Eudocia.
'Tis all one;
The time is passing and the term approaching;
When swords are drawn soft words are out of date.

Anna.
Would it were day!

Eudocia.
I would it were; this light
Shows the old monks like dead men walking.

Anna.
Yes;
None living do I dread as I dread them.

Eudocia.
Here comes another. Well, thine errand, monk?

The Monk enters.
Monk.
St. Conon's name be praised! Count Isaac's ours.

Eudocia.
Who sent thee with that tale? It is not true.

Monk.
St. Conon's name be praised! Lo! hither come
His shield and spear; it is the Emperor's will
That as a meet oblation they be laid,
With fitting rites, before St. Conon's shrine.

Enter Monks in procession, bearing the shield and spear, and chanting “Gratias agimus.” They lay them on the altar and with the customary genuflexions and thurifications pass off.
Eudocia.
Gallant Comnenus! and is such thy fate!
The boldest heart in Christendom was thine,
And thine, as was thy due, the fastest friends
And faithfullest soldiers. Now doth Ruin reign!
Now be our race extinct, for never more
A name so noble shall adorn its annals.
He said be bold and we should meet again;
And Heaven shall witness that I have been bold;
But never, never as a captive,—no,
Not in captivity shall we e'er meet.
The term of princely durance is but short.

Anna.
They cannot slay him—oh no, no, they cannot.
The fiercest soldier would not lift his hand
Against Comnenus.

Eudocia.
Tempt not thou thy heart;
Yield not to hopes, but arm thee with despair.
The stake was noble—'twas the eldest crown
In Christendom, and which, if worn by him,
Had grown in splendour through a glorious reign.
The loss is great;—so might have been the meed.
It was a cause worthy my brother's sword.

Anna.
Oh! holy Father, say they will not slay him.

Monk.
The Emperor is merciful in judgment;
Imprisonment may serve, with loss of eyes.
'Twere safe to blind him.

Eudocia.
Blind him! slave of slaves,
Unworthiest to give utterance to his name!
Low in the dust must be Count Isaac's state
When such as thou dare breathe thy blights upon him.

Monk.
Lady, 'twere good you were less splenetic;
If you could frame some more becoming speech
And audience of the Emperor were obtained
Or of the Lady Theodora, then . . .

Eudocia.
I ask not audience of either—Hark!
'Tis a mere incoherency of mind
That angers me with such as thou—attend—
Thou bring me to the presence of the Count
By any means thou wilt, and I bestow
This diamond thy reward.

Monk.
Then with all haste
Set forward to the palace.

Eudocia.
Who comes here?

Enter an Officer.
Officer.
I bear the Lady Theodora's signet
And have it from her Highness in command
To say her bidding here.

Eudocia.
Say on, Sir, speak.

Officer.
Her Highness gave command that to no ear
It should be uttered, save to yours.

Eudocia
(to the Monk).
Thou hear'st.

[Exit Monk.
Officer.
Your pardon, Lady, are there none else near?

Eudocia.
What fear'st thou? there is no one—none—speak out.

Officer.
I come from Count Comnenus.

Eudocia.
Thou from him!
Thou comest then from his prison. Tell me where,
That I may hasten thither.

Officer.
From his prison?
Far be the prison doors that close on him!
His cause is hopeful.

Anna.
Hopeful, say you? God
Be merciful and make that tiding true!
His cause is hopeful!

Eudocia.
And if it prevail,
The first and only boon I ask of him
Shall be to truss me up these lying monks
And sprinkle yonder altar with the blood
Of one most just and righteous sacrifice.
Where is Count Isaac, Sir?

Officer.
He bade me tell
How all things stood: A spy brought word at dawn
That Synods had been holden and some ill
There was devised which had respect to you.
The sallies from the gates to the south and east
Just at that hour grew hotter, but the Count,
Seeing the issue was on that side safe,
Called from the pursuit a few trusted friends
Of whom I rank myself the humblest; these
Of shields and spears divested them and crept
To some suburban hovels; there they drew
Above their armour the monastic garb,
Then sped as flying from the enemy
And through a breach found entrance to the streets.
To waive suspicion then from shrine to shrine,
With crosses and mock-relics held aloft,
Through awe-struck multitudes they took their way
With offerings for each altar. In due time
They will approach St. Conon's—whence the Count
Sware that no power should drive him till his flag
Were flying on Sophia's.

Eudocia.
A bold oath that!
Will he cast off disguise and stand on force
So soon as he gains entrance?

Officer.
When the horns
Sound from the steep of Ergon, not till then;
But when they capture Ergon, thence the troops
Can aid us in good time.

Anna.
Is he far off?
Where didst thou leave him?

Officer.
In the Kamian way:
There he was met by rumours that himself
Was captured, and not doubting whence they came
Nor knowing but they might work for ill to you
He bade me cast my weeds and with this sign
(A ring the Princess gave in days of old)
Gain access here.

Enter an Attendant.
Attendant.
Your guard is at the gates;
The Father waits your coming.

Eudocia.
Let him wait;
Tell him my mind is changed; I will not go.

[Exit Attendant.
Enter certain of the Brotherhood of St. Conon's, crying “Kyrie Eleison—an offering for the Shrine.” The Comnenians follow, cowled and stoled, with relics and crosses and their offering in a vase. They proceed down the stage and kneel before the curtain of the altar. Enter the Abbot of St. Conon's.
Abbot.
You must attend me to the palace.

Eudocia.
How!

Abbot.
Ay—instantly. A rescript hath arrived;
You and your younger relative must go.

Eudocia.
Invade the right of sanctuary! what words
Are these to hear from Churchmen!

Abbot.
It is vain.
A Synod hath been holden and decrees
Your heresy has forfeited the right.

Eudocia.
What if we dare dissent from such decree!

Abbot.
The secular arm is ready to compel
Instant obedience. Soldiers wait without.
'Tis true the Church hath alway reverenced
The rights of sanctuary when such protect
Offenders against human laws alone;
But when Almighty Heaven hath suffered wrong
The Church were but a patron of the sin
Should she protect the sinners. Ho! the guard!

[Here one of the Comnenians, having advanced gradually to the front, steps between the Abbot and Eudocia.
Comnenian.
Brother, of this the doctrine thou deliverest
I cannot tell thee less than that 'tis false.
It is a lying doctrine, brother—yea,
A doctrine which the Devil hath inspired
Into thy Synod and which God abhors.

Abbot.
And what art thou that thou shouldst interpose?
Am I not highest of mine order here?

Comnenian.
I tell thee that thy words are not of God;
Nor shall the touch of secular force pollute
This holiest, as the best inhabited,
Of all God's dwelling-places here on earth.

Abbot.
Thou contumacious monk! what right is thine
To say to me this shall be or shall not?
Ho! the Imperial Guard! thou shalt see proof
How what I do in this is countenanced.
Dost see this writing? Seest the purple ink?
A warrant in the Emperor's very hand
Gives order for proceedings to this length.

Comnenian.
A stronger warrant in Count Isaac's hand
Arrests them.

[Throws off his disguise and draws his sword. The rest do the like.
Abbot.
Guards! Ho! Treason! Treason! Help!

[Exit.
Comnenus.
Defend the doors. My bravest of the brave,
Well met in any hour! and gentle Anna,
A fitter time for greetings shall be ours.
Form into line.
[The Comnenians form a line on each side, leaving a passage between them down to the altar.
My sister, not a man
You see before you but in this day's fight
Did champion's service. At the altar's foot,
Anna and you shall take your station; pass,
And as you pass extend a hand to each
Of these your soldiers, which, as he receives,
He in his martial heart will pledge his faith,
Long as it beats with life to fight your battles.

Eudocia.
My gallant friends, may fairer hands than this
Be your reward when this day's work is wrought.

[Comnenus leads Eudocia and Anna between the lines down to the altar. The clash of arms is heard without, and the Varangian trumpets. Comnenus draws aside the curtains of the altar.
Comnenus.
My sister, sit you here. Ha! what be these?
Behold a miracle, my spear and shield!
Now by the God of battles this is strange
Nor less auspicious. To the charge they go.

Guards at the doors.
We cannot keep the gates; they're not of strength.

Comnenus.
Back each man to his station. Keep them not.

[Varangians defile through the gates. Horns are heard in the distance.
Captain of the Varangians.
Behold the impious heretic himself!
Yield, or be hewn in pieces, thou and thine.

Comnenus.
If thou wilt do that office on but one
Of them thou seest, I pledge my royal word,
When I hang up thy rebel-kind to-morrow,
To grant remission of thy forfeit head.
Enough of talking. Hark! Comnenians, hark!
List ye the horns from Ergon. Now, fall on.
Down to the dust, idolaters.

[As the fight proceeds a cry of “Comnenus” is heard, and Alexius enters at the opposite gates with his soldiers. The Varangians are driven out.
Alexius.
Well fought, my friends! the last of this day's fight.
Behold our flag is flying on Sophia's
And ye may sheathe your swords; the day is ours.

[The Comnenians
shout.
“Isaac Comnenus! may he rule us long!
Long may the brave Comnenus wear the crown!”

[The common soldiers
are heard crying confusedly:
“Proclaim him Emperor. Go, bring the crown.
Where are the purple buskins?
Long may he live! Long live Count Isaac!”

Alexius.
And where is Count Isaac?

Several soldiers.
Where is Comnenus?

A soldier.
When I saw him last
He passed beside yon image of the Saint.

Another.
St. Conon's,—ay, and struck it as in sport
And split the marble with his glove of mail.

Alexius.
Gone doubtless to the front. Eudocia! Ah!
A happy meeting this! a joy of joys
To meet my sister, after all these years,
In Victory's hour, with Fortune at her feet.

Eudocia.
Alexius, God grant you rich reward
Of rare desert. A younger face is here,
Which you can brighten with a livelier grace.

Alexius.
My gentle cousin, be this homage yours
From all the Eastern Empire. Friends, repair
To the imperial palace; as you go
Proclaim Count Isaac Emperor through the streets.
Sound the Comnenian march. Now, all set forth.