A charming beverage for you to carouse,
The bitter night.

Ber.
Ha! Oswald! ten bright crosses
I would have given, not many minutes gone,
To have heard your voice.

One
Your couch, I fear, good Baron,
Has been but comfortless; and yet that place,
When the tempestuous wind first drove us hither,
Fet warm as a wren's nest. You'd better turn
Lad under covert rest till break of day,
Or the storm abate.

7 MARMADUKE aside.) He has restored you. Not you have been nobly entertained? B-how came he forth? The night-mare con

sc.ence

Has driven him out of harbour?

Mer

Yo lave guessed right. Her.

I believe

How his old heart would leap to hear her steps,
You thought his voice the echo of Idonea's.
Mar. And never heard a sound so terrible.
Osw. Perchance you think so now?
Mar.
I cannot do it:
Twice did I spring to grasp his withered throat,
When such a sudden weakness fell upon me,
I could have dropped asleep upon his breast.

Osw. Justice- is there not thunder in the word? Shall it be law to stab the petty robber

Who aims but at our purse; and shall this Parricide —
Worse is he far, far worse (if foul dishonour
Be worse than death) to that confiding creature
Whom he to more than filial love and duty
Hath falsely trained — shall he fulfil his purpose?
But you are fallen.

Mar.

Fallen should I be indeed -
Murder - perhaps asleep, blind, old, alone,
Betrayed, in darkness! Here to strike the blow-
Away! away!
[Flings away his sword.
Osw.
Nay, I have done with you:
We'll lead him to the convent. He shall live,
And she shall love him. With unquestioned title
He shall be seated in his barony,

And we too chant the praise of his good deeds.
I now perceive we do mistake our masters,
And most despise the men who best can teach us.
Henceforth it shall be said that bad men only
Are brave: Clifford is brave; and that old man
Is brave.

[Taking MARMADUKE's sword and giving it to him. To Clifford's arms he would have led His victim- haply to this desolate house. Mar. (advancing to the dungeon.) It must be ended!

[OSWALD conducts him to the dungeon. Had I not

(me. (returns.)
Esteemed you worthy to conduct the affair
Tots most fit conclusion, do you think

I would so long have struggled with my nature,
And smothered all that's man in me?-away!-
[Looking towards the dungeon.
The man's the property of him who best
I feel his crimes. I have resigned a privilege;
It now becomes my duty to resume it.

Mor. Touch not a finger ———
One.

What then must be done?
Mar. Which way soe'er I turn, I am perplexed.
One. Now, on my life, I grieve for you. The misery
Of doubt is insupportable. Pity, the facts

[MARMADUKE descends to the dungeon. (Alone.) The villains rose in mutiny to destroy me; I could have quelled the cowards, but this stripling Must needs step in, and save my life. The look With which he gave the boon - I see it now! The same that tempted me to loathe the gift.For this old venerable grey-beard-faith "T is his own fault if he hath got a face Which doth play tricks with them that look on it: "T was this that put it in my thoughts — that counte

I care not: fear I have none, and cannot fear

[The sound of a horn is heard. Then again-"T is some one of our troop; What do they here! Listen!

For this purpose

Enter WALLACE and LACY, &c.

Osw. (coming forward.)

Or own we baby spirits? Genuine courage
Is not an accidental quality,

A thing dependent for its casual birth
On opposition and impediment.

and, at the voice of Justice,

The giant and the worm —

Wisdom, if Justice speak the word, beats down
The giant's strength;
Spares not the worm.
She weighs them in one scale. The wiles of woman,
And craft of age, seducing reason, first
Made weakness a protection, and obscured
The moral shapes of things. His tender cries
And helpless innocence do they protect
The infant lamb? and shall the infirmities,
Which have enabled this enormous culprit
To perpetrate his crimes, serve as a sanctuary
To cover him from punishment? Shame! — Justice,
Admitting no resistance, bends alike

The feeble and the strong. She needs not here
Her bonds and chains, which make the mighty feeble.
-We recognise in this old man a victim
Prepared already for the sacrifice.

Lacy. By heaven, his words are reason!
Osw.

Yes, my friends,

His countenance is meek and venerable;
And, by the Mass, to see him at his prayers!-

I am of flesh and blood, and may I perish
When my heart does not ache to think of it!
Poor victim! not a virtue under heaven
But what was made an engine to ensnare thee;
But yet I trust, Idonea, thou art safe.
Lacy. Idonea!
Wal.

How! what? your Idonea?
[To MARMADUKE,

'Tis nobly thought;

His death will be a monument for ages.

SCENE, a desolate Moor.

OSWALD (alone.)

Osw. Carry him to the camp! Yes, to the camp

O, Wisdom! a most wise resolve! and then,
That half a word should blow it to the winds!
This last device must end my work. - Methinks
It were a pleasant pastime to construct
A scale and table of belief—as thus --
Two columns, one for passion, one for proof;
Each rises as the other falls: and first,
Passion a unit and against us-proof-
Nay, we must travel in another path,
Or we're stuck fast for ever;- passion then,
Shall be a unit for us; proof-no, passion!
We'll not insult thy majesty by time,
Person, and place the where, the when, the how,
And all particulars that dull brains require
To constitute the spiritless shape of Fact,
They bow to, calling the idol, Demonstration.
A whipping to the moralists who preach
That misery is a sacred thing: for me,

I know no cheaper engine to degrade a man, Nor any half so sure. This stripling's mind Is shaken till the dregs float on the surface; And, in the storm and anguish of the heart, He talks of a transition in his soul

be brought

Before the camp, and would that best and wisest
Of every country might be present. There,
His crime shall be proclaimed; and for the rest
It shall be done as wisdom shall decide:
Meanwhile, do you two hasten back and see
That all is well prepared.

Wal.
We will obey you.
(Aside.) But softly! we must look a little nearer.
Mar. Tell where you found us. At some future

time

I will explain the cause.

ACT III.

The senseless body, and why not the mind? -
These are strange sights- the mind of man upturned,
Is in all natures a strange spectacle;

In some a hideous one-hem! shall I stop?
No. Thoughts and feelings will sink deep, but then
They have no substance. Pass but a few minutes,
And something shall be done which memory
May touch, whene'er her vassals are at work.
Enter MARMADUKE, from behind.
Osw. (turning to meet him.)

SCENE, the door of the Hostel, a group of Pilgrims as before; IDONEA and the Host among them.

Host. Lady, you'll find your father at the convent As I have told you: He left us yesterday With two companions; one of them, as seemed,

my peace

But listen, for

Why, I believe you.

Ay, prove that when two peas

Osw. But hear the proofs.

Mar.

Lie snugly in a pod, the pod must then

Be larger than the peas- prove this- 't were matter
Worthy the hearing. Fool was I to dream
It ever could be otherwise!

Last night

Osw. When I returned with water from the brook, I overheard the villains-every word Like red-hot iron burnt into my heart. Said one, "It is agreed on. The blind man

letter

Of which I heard them speak, but that I fancy

Has been forgotten.

Idon. (to Host.) Farewell!
Host.

Gentle pilgrims, St. Cuthbert speed you on your holy errand. [Exeunt IDONEA and Pilgrims.

Who on her journey must proceed alone,
Under pretence of violence, be seized.
She is," continued the detested slave,

"She is right willing-strange if she were not!
They say, Lord Clifford is a savage man;
But, faith, to see him in his silken tunic,
Fitting his low voice to the minstrel's harp,

ut the mutual mockeries of body,

that same star summoned me back again. As I mud laugh till my ribs ached. O, fool! Ta creed, built in the heart of things, *** befee a twinkling atom!-Oswald, finca lessons out of wiser schools you have entered, were it worth the pains. gaslam I might go forth a teacher, Aaya stred see how deeply I could reason

e all its shapes, beginnings, ends;
2. qualities in their diverse aspects;

, and their laws and tendencies.
Yo take it as it merits-

One a king,

er or cam, saltan or emperor, ***** twenty acres of good meadow-ground carcases, in lineament and shape stance, nothing differing from his own, that they cannot stand up of themselves; theres i' th' sun, and by the hour

kingups in the brook -a hero one

and scorn the other as Time's spendthrift; are they not a world of common ground y-both fools, or wise alike, Liba way!

Troth, I begin to think so.

Mr. Now for the corner-stone of my philosophy: at give a denier for the man

such provocation as this earth

*ada cuid not chuck his babe beneath the chin,

Aated it with a fillip to its grave.
Un. Nay, you leave me behind.

Of Nature, finished with most curious skill! (TO HERBERT.) Good Baron, have you ever practised tillage?

Pray tell me what this land is worth by the acre?

Her. How glad I am to hear your voice! I know not

Wherein I have offended you; - last night

I found in you the kindest of protectors;
This morning, when I spoke of weariness,
You from my shoulder took my scrip and threw it
About your own; but for these two hours past
Once only have you spoken, when the lark
Whirred from among the fern beneath our feet,
And I, no coward in my better days,
Was almost terrified.

Mar.
That's excellent!
So, you bethought you of the many ways

-