CASIMIR.

EMERICK.

66

EMERICK.

CHEF RAGOZZI.

ZAPOLYA.

EMERICK

CASIMIR.

Thus long I have listen'd—Guard-ho! from the And let this darkness
Palace.

Be as the shadow of thy outspread wings
The Guard post from the Guard-House with To hide and shield us! Start'st thou in thy slumbers!

CHEF Ragozzi at their head, and then a Thou canst not dream of savage Emerick. Hush! number from the Palace-Chef Ragozzi de- Betray not thy poor mother! For if they seize thee, mands KIUPRILI's sword, and apprehends him. I shall grow mad indeed, and they'll believe

Thy wicked uncle's lie. Ha! what? A soldier? O agony! (T. EMERICK). Sire, hear me!

[She starts back-and enter Chef Ragozz

CHEF RAGOZZI. [To KIUPRILI, who turns from him. Hear me, Father! Sure Heaven befriends us. Well! he hath escaped

O rare tune of a tyrant's promises

That can enchant the serpent treachery Take in arrest that traitor and assassin! Who pleads for his life, strikes at mine, his sovereign's. O brave Ragozzi! Count! Commander! What not ?"

From forth its lurking-hole in the heart. Ragozzi ! RAAB KIUPRILI.

And all this too for nothing! a poor nothing ! As the co-regent of the realm, 1 stand

Merely to play the underling in the murder Amenable to none save to the States,

Of my best friend Kiuprili! His own son—monstrous! Met in due course of law. But ye are bond-slaves, Tyrant! I owe thee ihanks, and in good hour Yet witness ye that before God and man

Will I repay thee, for that thou thought'st me too I here impeach Lord Emerick of foul treason, A serviceable villain. Could I now And on strong grounds attaint him with suspicion But gain some sure intelligence of the queen: Of murder

Heaven bless and guard her!

ZAPOLYA (coming fearfully forward).
Hence with the madman!

Art thou not Ragozzi!
RAAB KIUPRILI.

Your Queen's murder, The Queen! Now then the miracle is full! The royal orphan's murder: and to the death I see Heaven's wisdom in an over-match Defy him, as a tyrant and usurper.

For the devil's cunning. This way, madam, haste ! (Hurried off by Ragozzi and the Guard.

Stay! Oh, no! Forgive me if I wrong thee! Ere twice the sun hath risen, by my sceptre This is thy sovereign's child : Oh, pity us, This insolence shall be avenged.

And be not treacherous!

[Kneeling

CHEF RAGOZZI (raising her).
O banish him! Madam! For mercy's sake!
This infamy will crush me. O for my sake,
Banish him, my liege lord !

But tyrants have a hundred eyes and arms !
EMERICK (scornfully).

What! to the army? Take courage, madam! "Twere too horrible,
Be calm, young friend! Nought shall be done in anger. (I can not do‘r) to swear I'm not a monster!
The child o'erpowers the man. In this emergence Scarce had I barr'd the door on Raab Kiuprili
I must lake counsel for us both. Retire.

[Exit Casimir in agitation. Kiuprili! how? EMERICK (alone, looks at a Calendar). The changeful planet, now in her decay,

There is not time to tell it. Dips down at midnight, to be seen no more.

The tyrant call'd me to him, praised my zeal With her shall sink the enemies of Emerick,

(And be assured I overtopt his cunning Cursed by the last look of the waning moon;

And seem'd right zealous). But time wastes : in fine And my bright destiny, with sharpen'd horns,

Bids me dispatch my trustiest friends, as couriers Shall greet me fearless in the new-born crescent.

With letters to the army. The thought at once [Eril.

Flash'd on me. I disguised my prisoner-
Scene changes to another view, namely, the back of the
Palace - Wooded Park, and Mountains.

What! Raab Kiuprili?
Enter ZAPOLYA, with an Infant in her arms.

Yes! my noble general ! Hush, dear one! hush! My trembling arm disturbs I sent him off, with Emerick's own packet, thee!

Haste, and post haste-Prepared to follow himThou, the Protector of the helpless! thou,

ZAPOLYA. The widow's Husband and the orphan's Father,

Ah, how? Is it joy or sear? My limbs seem sinking Direct my steps ! Ah whither? O send down Thy angel to a houseless babe and mother,

CHEF RAGOZZI (supporting her). Driven forth into the cruel widerness !

Heaven still befriends us. I have left my charger, Hush, sweet one! Thou art no Hagar's offspring: A gentle beast and fleet, and my boy's mule, thou art

One that can shoot a precipice like a bird, The rightful heir of an anointed king!

Just where the wood begins to climb the mountains. What sounds are those? It is the vesper chant The course we'll thread will mock the tyrant's guesses, Of laboring men returning to their home!

Or scare the followers. Ere we reach the main roari Their queen has no horne! Hear me, heavenly Father! The Lord Kiuprili will have sent a troop

ZAPOLYA.

CHEF RAG022I.

ZAPOLYA.

ZAPOLYA.

CHEF RAGOZZI.

ZAPOLYA.

To escort me. Oh, thrice happy when he finds
The treasure which I convoy!

PART II.

ZAPOLYA.

One brief moment, THE SEQUEL, ENTITLED “THE USURPER'S That, praying for strength I may have strength. This

FATE.”
babe,
Heaven's eye is on it, and its innocence
Is, as a prophet's prayer, strong and prevailing!

ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS.
Through thee, dear babe! the inspiring thought

MEN. possess'd me, When the loud clamor rose, and all the palace OLD BATHORY, a Mountaineer. Emptied itself—They sought my life, Ragozzi !) BETHLEN Bathory, the Young Prince Andreas, sup Like a swift shadow gliding, I made way

posed Son of Old Bathory. To the deserted chamber of my Lord.

LORD RUDOLPH, a Courlier, but friend to the Queen's [Then to the infant.

party. And thou didst kiss thy father's lifeless lips, LASKA, Steward to Casimir, betrothed to Glycine. And in thy helpless hand, sweet slumberer! PESTALUTZ, an Assassin, in Emerick's employ. Still clasp'st the signet of thy royalty.

WOMEN As I removed the seal, the heavy arm

LADY SAROLTA, Wise of Lord Casimir.
Dropt from the couch aslant, and the stiff finger

GLYCINE, Orphan Daughter of Chef Ragozzi.
Seem'd pointing at my feet. Provident Heaven!
Lo, I was standing on the secret door,

Between the flight of the Queen, and the civil war Which, through a long descent where all sound which immediately followed, and in which Emerick perishes,

remained the victor, a space of twenty years is sup Let out beyond the palace. Well I knew it posed to have elapsed. But Andreas framed it not! He was no tyrant !

CHEF RAGOZZI.

ACT I. Haste, madam! Let me take this precious burden!

SCENE T. (He kneels as he takes the child.

A Mountainous Country. Bathory's Dwelling at ZAPOLYA.

the end of the Stage. Take him! And if we be pursued, I charge thee,

Enter LADY SAROLTA and GLYCINE. Flee thou and leave me! Flee and save thy king!

[Then as going off, she looks back on the palace. Well, then! our round of charity is finish'd.
Thou tyrant's den, be call’d no more a palace!
The orphan's angel at the throne of Heaven

Rest, Madam! You breathe quick.
Stands up against thee, and there hover o'er thee
A Queen's, a Mother's, and a Widow's curse.

What! tired, Glycine ! Henceforth a dragon's haunt, fear and suspicion

No delicate court dame, but a mountaineer Stand sentry at thy portals! Faith and honor, By choice no less than birth, I gladly use Driven from the throne, shall leave the attainted na- The good strength Nature gave me.

GLYCINE.

SAROLTA.

tion:

GLYCINE.

SAROLTA.

And, for the iniquity that houses in thee,

That last cottage False glory, thirst of blood, and lust of rapine Is built as if an eagle or a raven (Faieful conjunction of malignant planets),

Had chosen it for her nest.
Shall shoot their blastments on the land. The fathers
Ilenceforth shall have no joy in their young men,

So many are
And when they cry: Lo! a male child is born!
The mother shall make answer with a groan.

The sufferings which no human aid can reach,

It needs must be a duty doubly sweet For bloody usurpation, like a vulture,

To heal the few we can, Well! let us rest. Shall clog its beak within Illyria's heart.

GLYCINE. Remorseless slaves of a remorseless tyrant!

There? [Pointing 10 BATHORY's dwelling SAROLTA They shall be mock'd with sounds of liberty,

answering, points to where she then slands And liberty shall be proclaim'd alone

SAROLTA.
To thee, O Fire! O Pestilence! O Sword !
Till Vengeance hath her fill.- And thou, snatch'd

Here! For on this spot Lord Casimir

Took his last leave. On yonder mountain ridge hence, Again to the infant.) poor friendless fugitive! with I lost the misty image which so long Mother's wailing,

Linger'd or seem'd at least to linger on it.
Offspring of Royal Andreas, shalt return
With trump and timbrel clang, and popular shout And what if even now, on that same ridge,
In triumph to the palace of thy fathers! (Exeunt. A speck should rise, and still enlarging, lengthening

As it clomb downwards, shape itself at last
To a numerous cavalcade, and spurring foremost,
Who but Sarolta's own dear Lord return'd
From his high embassy ?

GLYCYNE.

SAROLTA.

GLYCINE.

SAROLTA.

SAROLTA.

Yea, e'en in thy simplicity, Glycine, Thou hast hit my thought! A fine and feminine grace, that makes me feel All the long day, from yester-morn to evening, More as a mother than a mistress to thee! The restless hope flutter'd about my heart. Thou art a soldier's orphan ! that—the courage, Oh, we are querulous creatures! Little less Which rising in thine eye, seems oft to give Than all things can suffice to make us happy; A new soul to its gentleness, doth prove thee And little more than nothing is enough

Thou art sprung too of no ignoble blood, To discontent us.—Were he come, then should I Or there's no faith in instinct ! Repine he had not arrived just one day earlier [Angry voices and clamor within, re-enter GLYCINY To keep his birth-day here, in his own birth-place. GLYCINE.

Oh, madam! there's a party of your servants, Bat our best sports belike, and gay processions And my Lord's steward, Laska, at their head, Would to my Lord have seem'd but work-day sights Have come to search for old Bathory's son, Compared with those the royal court affords.

Bethlen, that brave young man! 'l was he, my lady, SAROLTA.

That took our parts, and beat off the intruders; I have small wish to see them. A spring morning, And in mere spite and malice, now they charge him With its wild gladsome minstrelsy of birds, With bad words of Lord Casimir and the king. And its bright jewelry of flowers and dew-drops Pray don't believe them, madam! This way! This Each orbed drop an orb of glory in it),

way! Would put them all in eclipse. This sweet retirement Lady Sarolta's here.

(Calling without Lord Casimir's wish alone would have made sacred : But in good truth, his loving jealousy

Be calm, Glycine. Did but command, what I had else entreated.

Enter Laska and Servants with Old BATHORY. GLYCINE. And yet had I been born Lady Sarolta,

LASKA (to BATHORY). Been wedded to the noblest of the realm,

We have no concern with you! What needs your So beautiful besides, and yet so stately

presence ?

OLD BATHORY
SAROLTA.

What! Do you think I'll suffer my brave boy
Hush! innocent flatterer!

To be slander'd by a set of coward-ruffians,
GLYCINE.

And leave it to their malice, yes, mere malice !
Nay! to my poor fancy To tell its own tale ?
The royal court would seem an earthly heaven,

(LASKA and Servants bow to LADY SAROLTA Made for such stars to shine in, and be gracious. SAROLTA.

Laska! What may this mean? So doth the ignorant distance still delude us!

LASKA (pompously, as commencing a set speech).
Thy fancied heaven, dear girl, like that above thee, Madam! and may it please your ladyship!
In its mere self, a cold, drear, colorless void, This old man's son, by name Bethlen Bathory,
Seen from below and in the large, becomes Stands charged, on weighty evidence, that he,
The bright blue ether, and the seat of gods! On yester-eve, being his lordship’s birth-day,
Well! but this broil that scared you from the dance ? Did traitorously defame Lord Casimir:
And was not Laska there : he, your betroth'd ? The lord high-steward of the realm, moreover-

SAROLTA.
Yes, madam! he was there. So was the maypole, Be brief! We know his titles !
For we danced round it.
SAROLTA.

And moreover Ah, Glycine! why, Raved like a traitor at our liege King Emerick. Why did you then betroth yourself?

And furthermore, said witnesses make oath,

Led on the assault upon his lordship's servants; Because

Yea, insolently tore, from this, your huntsman, My own dear lady wish'd it! 't was you ask'd me! His badge of livery of your noble house,

And trampled it in scorn. Yes, at my Lord's request , but never wishid,

SAROLTA (lo the Servants who offer to speak). My poor affectionate girl, to see thee wretched.

You have had your spokesman. Tlucu know'st not yet the duties of a wife.

Where is the young man thus accused ?
GLYCINE.

OJ.D BATHORY.
Oh, yes! It is a wife's chief duty, madam,

I know not: To stand in awe of her husband, and obey him;

But if no ill betide him on the mountains, And, I am sure, I never shall see Laska

He will not long be absent! Bat I shall tremble.

SAROLTA.

Thou art his father ? Not with fear, I think, For you still mock him. Bring a seat from the cottage. None ever with more reason prized a son : (Érd GLYCINE into the cottage, Sarolta continues Yet I hate falsehood more than I love him. her speech, looking after her.

But more than one, now in my lady's presence, Sornething above thy rank there hangs about thee, Witness'd the affray, besides these men of malice , And in thy countenance, thy voice, and motion, And if I swerve from truth

GLYCINE.

LASKA.

GLYCINE

SAROLTA.

SAROLTA.

OLD BATHORY.

SAROLTA.

GLYCINE.

LASKA (aside).
Yes! good old man !

Yes, now 't is coming.
My lady! pray believe him!
SAROLTA.

Brutal aggressors first, then baffled dastards,

Hush, Glycine ! That they have sought to piece out their revenge Be silent, I command you. [Then to BATHORY. With a tale of words lured from the lips of ange. Speak! we hear you!

Stamps them most dangerous; and till I want
OLD BATHORY.

Fit means for wicked ends, we shall not need
My tale is brief. During our festive dance, Their services. Discharge them! You, Bathory!
Your servants, the accusers of my son,

Are henceforth of my household! I shall place you Offer'd gross insults, in unmanly sort,

Near my own person. When your son returns, To our village maidens. He could he do less ?) Present him to us. Rose in defence of outraged modesty, And so persuasive did his cudgel prove

Ha! what, strangers* here! (Your hectoring sparks so over brave to women What business have they in an old man's eye? Are always cowards), that they soon took flight, Your goodness, lady—and it came so suddenAnd now in mere revenge, like baffled boasters,

I cannot-must not let you be deceived. Have framed this tale, out of some hasty words I have yet another tale, but- [Then to SAROLTA aside. Which their own threats provoked.

Not for all ears!

OLD BATHORY.

SAROLTA.

SAROLTA.

GLYCINE.

GLYCINE.

Old man! you talk I oft have pass'd your cottage, and still praised
Too bluntly! Did your son owe no respect Its beauty, and that trim orchard-plot, whose blossoms
To the livery of our house?

The gusts of April shower'd aslant its thaich.
OLD BATHORY.

Come, you shall show it me! And while you bid it
Even such respect

Farewell, be not ashamed that I should witness As the sheep's skin should gain for the hot wolf

The oil of gladness glittering on the water That hath begun to worry the poor lambs !

of an ebbing grief.

(Bathory bowing, shows her into his cotlage LASKA. Old insolent ruffian!

LASKA (alone).

Vexation! baffled! school'd!
GLYCINE.
Pardon! pardon, madam!

Ho! Laska! wake! why? what can all this meani
I saw the whole affray. The good old man She sent away that cockatrice in anger!
Means no offence, sweet lady!—You, yourself, Oh the false witch! It is too plain, she loves him
Laska ! know well, that these men were the ruffians! And now, the old man near my lady's person,
Shame on you !

She'll see this Bethlen hourly!
SAROLTA (speaks with affected anger).

[Laska flings himself into the seat. GLYCINE What! Glycine! Go, retire!

peeps in timidly. [Erit GLYCINE, mournfully. Be it then that these men faulted. Yet yourself,

Laska! Laska! Or better still belike the maidens' parents,

Is my lady gone? Might have complain'd to us. Was ever access

LASKA (surlily). Denied you ? Or free audience? Or are we

Gone. Weak and unfit to punish our own servants ?

Have you yet seen him? So then! So then! Heaven grant an old man patience! Is he return'd? And must the gardener leave his seedling plants,

(Laska starts up from his seat Leave his young roses to the rooting swine,

Has the seat stung you, Laska ? While he goes ask their master, if perchance

LASKA.
His leisure serve to scourge them from their ravage ? No! serpent! no; 'tis you that sting me; you!

What! you would cling to him again!
LASKA.
Ho! Take the rude clown from your lady's presence!

GLYCINE.
I will report her further will !

Whom?
SAROLTA.
Wait, then,

Bethlen! Bethlen. Till thou hast learnt it! Fervent, good old man !

Yes; gaze as if your very eyes embraced him! Forgive me that, to try thee, I put on

Ha! you forget the scene of yesterday !

Mute ere he came, but then-Out on your screams, A face of sternness, alien to my meaning !

[Then speaks to the Servants. And your pretended fears! Hence! leave my presence! and you, Laska! mark

Your fears, at least, Those rioters are no longer of my household !

Were real, Laska! or your trembling limbs If we but shake a dew-drop from a rose,

And white cheeks play'd the hypocrites most vilely! In vain would we replace it, and as vainly Restore the tear of wounded modesty

• Refers to the tear, which he fees starting in his eye. The To a maiden's eye familiarized to license.

following line was borrowed unconsciously from Mr. Wor Rut these men, Laska

worth's Excursion.

OLD BATHORY.

LASKA.

GLYCINE.

me!

BETHLEN.

GLYCINE.

LASKA.

GLYCINE.

GLYCINE.

LASKA.

LASKA.

LASKA.
I fear! whom? What I

You dare own all this?
GLYCINE.

Your lady will not warrant promise-breach.
I know, what I should fear, Mine, pamper'd Miss! you shall be ; and I'll make
Were I in Laska's place.

you LASKA.

Grieve for him with a vengeance. Odds, my fingers What ?

Tingle already! [Makes threatening signs.
GLYCINE

GLYCINE (aside).
My own conscience,

Ha! Bethlen coming this way! for having fed my jealousy and envy

(GLYCINE then cries out as if afraid of being beaten With a plot, made out of other men's revenges, Oh, save me! save me! Pray don't kill me, Laska! Against a brave and innocent young man's life!

Enter BETHLEN in a Hunting Dress.
Yet, yet, pray tell me!

BETALEN.
LASKA (malignantly).

What, beat a woman!
You will know too soon.

LASKA (lo GLYCINE).
GLYCINE.

O you cockatrice !
Would I could find my lady! though she chid me-
Yet this suspense-

[Going. Unmanly dastard, hold !
LASKA.

LASKA (pompously).
Stop! stop! one question only—

Do you chance to know I am quite calm,

Who-1-am, Sir ?-(S'death how black he

oks")

BETHLEN.
Ay, as the old song says, I have started many strange beasts in my time,
Calm as a tiger, valiant as a dove.

But none less like a man, than this before me
Nay now, I have marrd the verse: well! this one That lifts his hand against a timid female.
question—
LASKA.

Bold youth! she's mine.
Are you not bound to me by your own promise ?
And is it not as plain-

No, not my master yet,

But only is to be ; and all because
Halt! that's two questions. Two years ago my lady ask'd me, and

I promised her, not him ; and if she'll let me,
Pshaw! Is it not as plain as impudence,

I'll hate you, my Lord's steward. That you're in love with this young swaggering

BETHLEN. beggar,

Hush, Glycine' Bethlen Bathory? When he was accused,

GLYCINE.
Why press'd you forward ? Why did you defend him ? Yes, I do, Bethlen ; for he just now brought

False witnesses to swear away your life :

Your life, and old Bathory's too.
Question meet question : that a woman's privilege.

BETHLEN.
Why, Laska, did you urge Lord Casimir
To make my lady force that promise from me ?

Bathory's!
Where is my father? Answer, or -Ha! gone!

[Laska during this time slinks off the Stage, using So then, you say, Lady Sarolta forced you?

threatening gestures to GLYCINE.

GLYCINE.. Could I look up to her dear countenance,

Oh, heed not him!. I saw you pressing onward, And say her nay? As far back as I wot of,

And did but feign alarm. Dear gallant youth, All her commands were gracious, sweet requests. It is your life they seek! How could it be then, but that her requests

BETHLEN.
Must needs have sounded to me as commands ?

My life?
And as for love, had I a score of loves,
I'd keep them all for my dear, kind, good mistress.

Alas!
LASKA.

Lady Sarolta even-
Not one for Bethlen!

BETHLEN.

She does not know me!
Oh! that's a different thing.

GLYCINE.
To be sure he's brave, and handsome, and so pious Oh that she did ! she could not then have spoken
To his good old father. But for loving him-

With such stern countenance. But though she spurn Nay, there, indeed you are mistaken, Laska!

me, Poor youth! I rather think I grieve for him ;

I will kneel, Bethlen-
For I sigh so deeply when I think of him!
And if I see him, the tears come in my eyes,

Not for me, Glycine ! And my heart beats; and all because I dreamt What have I done? or whom have I offended ? that the war-wolf* had gored him as he hunted lo the haunted forest !

Rash words, 't is said, and treasonous, of the king.

(BETHLEN mutters to himself indignantly * For the best account of the War-wolf or Lycanthropus, kec So looks the statue, in our hall, o' the god,

GLYCINE (aside). Irarlon's Moon-calf, Chalmers' English Poets, vol. iv. p. 13

The shaft just flown that killed the serpent!

GLYCINE.

LASKA.

GLYCINE.

GLYCINE.

GLYCINE.

BETHLEN.

GLYCINE.