 | Isaac Comnenus |  |
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.
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.
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
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
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.
| Isaac Comnenus | |