University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

A dark night under the Castle Walls;—Bertram appears in a state of the utmost agitation;—he extends his arms towards a spot where the Moon has disappeared.
Ber.
Thou hidest away thy face, and wilt not view me,
All the bright lights of heaven are dark above me—
Beneath the black cope of this starless night
There lurks no darker soul—
My fiend-like glory hath departed from me—
Bertram hath nought above the meanest losel—
I should have bearded him in halls of pride—
I should have mated him in fields of death—
Not stol'n upon his secret bower of peace,
And breathed a serpent's venom on his flower.
(He looks up at the casement of the tower, at which a light appears, he gazes on it)
—She is there—
She weeps—no husband wipes her tears away—
She weeps—no babe doth cheer the guilty mother.
Aldobrand—No—I never will forgive thee,
For I am sunk beneath thee—Who art thou?

Enter Two of Bertram's Band.
1st. Rob.
Why dost thou wander in the woods alone,
Leaving thy mates to play with idle hilts,
Or dream with monks o'er rosary and relic?
Give us a deed to do.

Ber.
Yes, ye are welcome,
Your spirits shall be proud—ho—hear ye, villains,
I know ye both—ye are slaves that for a ducat
Would rend the screaming infant from the breast
To plunge it in the flames;
Yea, draw your keen knives cross a father's throat,
And carve with them the bloody meal ye earned;
Villains, rejoice, your leader's crimes have purged you,
You punished guilt—I preyed on innocence—
Ye have beheld me fallen—begone—begone.

1st. Rob.
Why then, Heaven's benison be with you,
Thou'lt need it if thou tarriest longer here.

Ber.
How, slave, what fear you?

2d. Rob.
Fly; this broad land hath not one spot to hide thee,
Danger and death await thee in those walls.

Ber.
They'd fell a blasted tree—well—let it fall—
But though the perished trunk feel not the wound;
Woe to the smiting hand—its fall may crush him.

1st. Rob.
Lord Aldobrand
Holds high commission from his sovereign liege
To hunt thy outlaw'd life through Sicily.

Ber.
(wildly.)
Who—what—

2d. Rob.
We mingled with the men at arms
As journeying home. Their talk was of Count Bertram,
Whose vessel had from Manfredonia's coast
Been traced towards this realm.

1st. Rob.
And if on earth his living form were found,
Lord Aldobrand had power to seal his doom.
Some few did pity him.

Ber.
(bursting into ferocity.)
Villain, abhorred villain.
Hath he not pushed me to extremity?
Are these wild weeds, these scarred and scathed limbs,
This wasted frame, a mark for human malice?
There have been those who from the high bark's side
Have whelmed their enemy in the flashing deep;
But who hath watch'd to see his struggling hands,
To hear the sob of death?—Fool—ideot—ideot—
'Twas but e'en now, I would have knelt to him
With the prostration of a conscious villain;
I would have crouched beneath his spurning feet;
I would have felt their trampling tread, and blessed it—
For I had injured him—and mutual injury
Had freed my withered heart—Villain—I thank thee.

“1st. Rob.
What wilt thou do? shall we prepare for blows?

“Ber.
Behold me, Earth, what is the life he hunts for?
“Come to my cave, thou human hunter, come;
“For thou hast left thy prey no other lair,
“But the bleak rock, or howling wilderness;
“Cheer up thy pack of fanged and fleshed hounds,
“Flash all the flames of hell upon its darkness,
“Then enter if thou darest.
“Lo, there the crushed serpent coils to sting thee,
“Yea, spend his life upon the mortal throe.”

1st. Rob.
Wilt thou fly?

Ber.
Never—on this spot I stand
The champion of despair—this arm my brand—
This breast my panoply—and for my gage—
(Oh thou hast reft from me all knightly pledge)
Take these black hairs torn from a head that hates thee—
Deep be their dye, before that pledge is ransomed—
In thine heart's blood or mine—why strivest thou with me?
(Wild with passion.)
Lord Aldobrand, I brave thee in thy halls,
Wrecked, famished, wrung in heart, and worn in limb—
For bread of thine this lip hath never stained—
I bid thee to the conflict—aye, come on—
Coward—hast armed thy vassals?—come then all—
Follow—ye shall have work enough—Follow.

[Exeunt.