University of Virginia Library

Scene 3.

A vast feudal hall in the castle. At the extreme end, the carved screen work of later date, supporting the minstrels' gallery (similar to that in Hampton Court). The opening in the screen is made the principal entry on the scene. In another part of the hall a high Gothic casement forms a recess, over which a curtain is drawn aside. In the recess a tressel, serving as a bier for the remains of the dead, which are covered with a cloth. At each side of the screen entry, a halberdier in the service of Sir Godfrey Seymour, officiating as constable. Alton kneeling before the tressel in the recess.

In front of the stage, a table, before which Sir Godfrey Seymour seated. A Clerk employed in writing. Sir Grey de Malpas standing near Sir Godfrey. Falkner a little apart.

Sir Godf.
(to Falkner.)
Be patient, sir, and give us ampler proof
To deem yon undistinguishable bones
The relics of your friend.

Falk.
That gentleman
Can back my oath, that these, the plume, the gem
Which Vyvyan wore—I found them on the cliff.

Sir Godf.
Verily, is it so?

Sir Grey.
(with assumed reluctance.)
Sith law compel me—
Yes, I must vouch it.

Enter Servant.
Servant.
(placing a chair of state.)
Sir, my lady comes.

Sir Godf.
Let not that sight appal her.

Sir Grey.
And her son.

[Servant draws the curtain round the recess, leaving Alton still kneeling within, and exit.
Enter Lady Montreville, and seats herself.
Sir Godf.
You pardon, madam, mine imperious duties,
And know my dismal task—

Lady M.
Pray you be brief, sir.

Sir Godf.
Was, this time year, the captain of a war-ship,
Vyvyan his name, your guest?

Lady M.
But one short day—
To see my ward, whom he had saved from pirates.

Sir Godf.
I pray you, madam, in his converse with you
Spoke he of any foe, concealed or open,
Whom he had cause to fear?

Lady M.
Of none!

Sir Godf.
Nor know you
Of any such?

Lady M.
(after a pause.)
I do not.

Sir Godf.
(aside to Falkner.)
Would you farther
Question this lady, sir?

Falk.
No, she is woman,
And mother; let her go. I wait Lord Beaufort.

Sir Godf.
Madam, no longer will we task your presence.

Enter Lord Beaufort, breaking from Marsden, and other Attendants.
Lord B.
Off, dotard, off! Guests in our hall!

Lady M.
He is ill.
Sore ill—fierce fever—I will lead him forth.
Come, Clarence; darling, come!

Lord B.
Who is this man?

Falk.
The friend of Vyvyan, whose pale bones plead yonder.

Lord B.
I—I will go. Let's steal away, my mother.

[Sir Grey intercepts the retreat of Beaufort, and, with bye play intimating remonstrance and encouragement, urges him forward.
Falk.
Lost friend, in war, how oft thy word was ‘spare.’—
Methinks I hear thee now. (drawing aside Lord Beaufort.)

Young lord, I came
Into these halls, demanding blood for blood—
But thy remorse (this is remorse) disarms me.
Speak; do but say—(look, I am young myself,
And know how hot is youth;) speak—do but say,
After warm words, struck out from jealous frenzy,
Quick swords were drawn: Man's open strife with man—
Passion, not murder: Say this, and may law
Pardon thee, as a soldier does!

Sir Grey
(to Marsden.)
Call Eveline,
She can attest our young lord's innocence.

[Exit Marsden.
Falk.
He will not speak, sir, let my charge proceed.

Lady M.
(aside.)
Whate'er the truth—of that—of that hereafter,
Now but remember, child, thy birth, thy name;—
Thy mother's heart, it beats beside thee—take
Strength from its pulses.

Lord B.
Keep close, and for thy sake
I will not cry—‘'Twas passion, yet still, murder!’

Sir Godf.
(who has been conversing aside with Sir Grey.)
Then jealous love the motive? Likelier that
Than Alton's wilder story.
Enter Eveline and Marsden.
Sweet young madam,
If I be blunt, forgive me; we are met
On solemn matters which relate to one
Who, it is said, was your betrothed:

Evel.
To Vyvyan!

Sir Godf.
'Tis also said, Lord Beaufort crossed his suit,
And your betrothed resented.

Evel.
No! forgave.

Sir Grey.
Yes, when you feared some challenge from Lord Beaufort,
Did Vyvyan not cast down his sword and say,
‘Both will be safe, for one will be unarmed?’

(Great sensation through the hall. Falkner and Sir Godfrey both.)
Unarmed!

Evel.
His very words!

Falk.
Oh, vile assassin!

Sir Godf.
Accuser, peace! This is most grave. Lord Beaufort,
Upon such tokens, with your own strange bearing,
As ask appeal to more august tribunal,
You stand accused of purposed felon murder
On one named Vyvyan, Captain of the Dreadnought—
Wouldst thou say aught against this solemn charge?

Evel.
Murdered!—he—Vyvyan! Thou his murderer, Clarence,
In whose rash heat my hero loved frank valour?
Lo! I, to whom his life is as the sun
Is to the world—with my calm trust in Heaven
Mantle thee thus.

Lady M.
(aside.)
Be firm—deny, and live.

Lord B.
(with a vacillating attempt at his former haughtiness.)
You call my bearing “strange”—what marvel, sir?
Stunned by such charges, of a crime so dread.
What proof against me?

Lady M.
(whilst Lady M. speaks, Sir Grey steals behind the curtain.)
Words deposed by whom?
A man unknown;—a girl's vague fear of quarrel—
His motive what? A jealous anger! Phantoms!
Is not my son mine all?—And yet this maid
I plighted to another. Had I done so
If loved by him, and at the risk of life?
Again, I ask all present what the motive?

Alton.
(advancing from the recess with Sir Grey.)
Rank, fortune, birthright. Miserable woman!

Lady M.
Whence com'st thou, pale accuser?

Alton.
From the dead!
Which of ye two will take the post I leave?
Which of ye two will draw aside that veil,
Look on the bones behind, and cry, “I'm guiltless?”
Hast thou conspired with him to slay thy first-born,
Or knows he not that Vyvyan was his brother?

[Lady Montreville swoons. Till now Eveline has held to Beaufort—now she rushes to Lady Montreville.
Lord B.
My brother! No! no! no! (clutching hold of Sir Grey.)

Kinsman, he lies!

Sir Grey.
Alas!

Lord B.
Wake, mother, wake. I ask not speech.
Lift but thy brow—one flash of thy proud eye
Would strike these liars dumb!

Alton.
Read but those looks
To learn that thou art—

Lord B.
Cain! (grasping Falkner.)
Out with thy sword—
Hew off this hand. Thou calledst me “Assassin!”
Too mild—say “Fratricide!” Cain, Cain, thy brother!

[Falls.
Evel.
It cannot be so! No. Thou wondrous Mercy,
That, from the pirate's knife, the funeral seas
And all their shapes of death, didst save the lone one,
To prove to earth how vainly man despairs
While God is in the heavens—I cling to thee,
As Faith unto its anchor! (To Sir Grey.)
Back, false kinsman!
I tell thee Vyvyan lives—the boy is guiltless!

Falk.
Poor, noble maid! How my heart bleeds for her!

Lady M.
(starting up.)
Sentence us both! or, stay,—would law condemn
A child so young, if I had urged him to it?

Sir Godf.
Unnatural mother, hush! Sir Grey, to you,
Perchance ere long, by lives too justly forfeit,
Raised to this earldom, I entrust these—prisoners.

[Motions to the halberdiers, who advance to arrest Beaufort and Lady Montreville.
Mars.
O, day of woe!

Sir Grey.
Woe—yes! Make way for us.

[Trumpet.
Enter Servant.
Servant.
My lord of Essex just hath passed the gates;
But an armed knight who rode beside the Earl,
After brief question to the crowd without,
Sprang from his steed, and forces here his way!

Enter Knight in half armour—wrapped in his horseman's cloak, his vizor three parts down.
Knight.
Forgiveness of all present!

Sir Godf.
Who art thou?

Knight.
A soldier, knighted by the hand of Essex
Upon the breach of Cadiz.

Sir Godf.
What thy business?

Knight.
To speak the truth. Who is the man accused
Of Vyvyan's murder?

Sir Grey.
You behold him yonder.

Knight.
'Tis false.

Sir Grey.
His own lips have confessed his crime.

Knight.
(throwing down his gauntlet.)
This to the man whose crushing lie bows down
Upon the mother's bosom that young head!
Say you “confess'd!” O tender, tender conscience!
Vyvyan, rough sailor, galled him and provoked;
He raised his hand. To the sharp verge of the cliff
Vyvyan recoiled, backed by an outstretched bough.
The bough gave way—he fell, but not to perish;
Saved by a bush-grown ledge that broke his fall;
Long stunned he lay; when opening dizzy eyes,
On a grey crag between him and the abyss
He saw the face of an old pirate foe;
Saw the steel lifted, saw it flash and vanish,
As a dark mass rushed thro' the moonlit air
Dumb into deeps below—the indignant soil
Had slid like glass beneath the murderer's feet,
And his own death-spring whirled him to his doom.
Then Vyvyan rose, and, crawling down the rock,
Stood by the foe, who, stung to late remorse
By hastening death, gasped forth a dread confession.
The bones ye find are those of Murder's agent—
Murder's arch-schemer—Who?—Ho! Grey de Malpas,
Stand forth! Thou art the man!

Sir Grey.
Hemm'd round with toils,
Soul, crouch no more! Base hireling, doff thy mask,
And my sword writes the lie upon thy front.
By Beaufort's hand died Vyvyan—

Knight.
As the spell
Shatters the sorcerer when his fiends desert him,
Let thine own words bring doom upon thyself!
Now face the front on which to write the lie.

[Casts off his helmet.
[Sir Grey drops his sword and staggers back into the arms of the retainers.
Evel.
Thou liv'st, thou liv'st—

Vyv.
(kneeling to her.)
Is life worth something still?

Sir Grey.
Air, air—my staff—some chord seems broken here.
[Pressing his heart.
Marsden, your lord shot his poor cousin's dog;
In the dog's grave—mark!—bury the poor cousin.

[Sinks exhausted, and is borne out.
Vyv.
Mine all on earth, if I may call thee mine.

Evel.
Thine, thine, thro' life, thro' death—one heart, one grave!
I knew thou wouldst return, for I have lived
In thee so utterly, thou couldst not die
And I live still.—The dial needs the sun;
But love reflects the image of the loved,
Tho' every beam be absent!—Thine, all thine!

Lady M.
My place is forfeit on thy breast, not his.
[Pointing to Beaufort.
Clarence, embrace thy brother, and my first-born.
His rights are clear—my love for thee suppressed them—
He may forgive me yet—wilt thou?

Beau.
Forgive thee!
Oh mother, what is rank to him who hath stood
Banished from out the social pale of men,
Bowed like a slave, and trembling as a felon?
Heaven gives me back mine ermine, innocence;
And my lost dignity of manhood, honour.
I miss nought else.—Room there for me, my brother!

Vyv.
Mother, come first!—love is as large as heaven!

Falk.
But why so long—

Vyv.