ABBOT OF SAINT MAURICE.

Alas! lost mortal! what with guests like these
Hast thou to do! I tremble for thy sake;
Why doth he gaze on thee, and thou on him?
Ah! he unveils his aspect; on his brow
The thunder-scars are graven; from his eye
Glares forth the immortality of Hell—
Avaunt!--

MANFRED.

Pronounce-what is thy mission?

SPIRIT.

ABBOT OF SAINT MAURICE.

Come!

What art thou, unknown being! answer-speak!

SPIRIT.

The genius of this mortal.-Come! 'tis time.

MANFRED.

I am prepared for all things, but deny

The

power which summons me. Who sent thee here?

SPIRIT.

Thou'lt know anon-Come! come!

MANFRED.

I have commanded

Things of an essence greater far than thine,
And striven with thy masters. Get thee hence!

SPIRIT.

Mortal! thine hour is come-Away! I say.

MANFRED.

I knew and know my hour is come, but not
To render up my soul to such as thee:
Away! I'll die as I have lived alone.

--

SPIRIT.

Then I must summon up my brethren.-Rise!

(Other Spirits rise up.)

ABBOT OF SAINT MAURICE.

Avaunt! ye evil ones!-Avaunt! I say,-
Ye have no power where piety hath power,
And I do charge ye in the name-

SPIRIT.

Old man!

We know ourselves, our mission, and thine order;
Waste not thy holy words on idle uses,
It were in vain; this man is forfeited.
Once more I summon him-Away! away!

MANFRED.

I do defy ye, though I feel my soul
Is ebbing from me, yet I do defy ye;
Nor will I hence, while I have earthly breath
To breathe my scorn upon ye-earthly strength
To wrestle, though with spirits; what ye take
Shall be ta'en limb by limb.

SPIRIT.

Reluctant mortal!

Is this the Magian who would so pervade
The world invisible, and make himself

Almost our equal?-Can it be that thou
Art thus in love with life? the very
Which made thee wretched!

MANFRED.

life

Thou false fiend, thou liest!

My life is in its last hour,—that I know,
Nor would redeem a moment of that hour;
I do not combat against Death, but thee
And thy surrounding angels; my past power
Was purchased by no compact with thy crew,
But by superior science-penance-daring-
And length of watching-strength of mind-and skill
In knowledge of our fathers-when the earth
Saw men and spirits walking side by side,

And

gave ye no supremacy; I stand Upon my strength-I do defy-denySpurn back, and scorn ye!

Have made thee

SPIRIT.

But thy many crimes

MANFRED.

What are they to such as thee?

Must crimes be punish'd but by other crimes,
And greater criminals?-Back to thy Hell!
Thou hast no power upon me, that I feel;
Thou never shalt possess me, that I know:
What I have done is done; I bear within

A torture which could nothing gain from thine :
The mind which is immortal makes itself
Requital for its good or evil thoughts-

Is its own origin of ill and end—

And its own place and time—its innate sense,

When stripp'd of this mortality, derives
No colour from the fleeting things without;
But is absorb'd in sufferance or in joy,

Born from the knowledge of its own desert.

Thou didst not tempt me, and thou could'st not tempt me; I have not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey

But was my own destroyer, and will be

My own hereafter.-Back, ye baffled fiends!
The hand of Death is on me-but not yours!

(The demons disappear.)

ABBOT OF SAINT MAURICE.

Alas! how pale thou art-thy lips are white-
And thy breast heaves-and in thy gasping throat
The accents rattle-Give thy prayers to heaven-
Pray-albeit but in thought,-but die not thus.

MANFRED.

"Tis over-my dull eyes can fix thee not;
But all things swim around me, and the earth
Heaves as it were beneath me. Fare thee well-
Give me thy hand.

ABBOT OF SAINT MAURICE.

Cold-cold-even to the heart-

But yet one prayer-alas! how fares it with thee?-

MANFRED.

Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die.

(MANFRED expires.)

ABBOT OF SAINT MAURICE.

He's gone-his soul hath ta'en its earthless flight-
Whither? I dread to think-but he is gone.

NOTES

Note 1, page 66, line 4.

-the sunbow's rays still arch

The torrent with the many hues of heaven.

This iris is formed by the rays of the sun over the lower part of the Alpine torrents: it is exactly like a rainbow, come down to pay a visit, and so close that you may walk into it :-this effect lasts till noon.

Note 2, page 69, line 15.

He who from out their fountain dwellings raised
Eros and Anteros, at Gadara.

The philosopher Jamblicus. The story of the raising of Eros and Anteros may be found in his life, by Eunapius. It is well told.

Note 3, page 73, line 19.

-she replied

In words of dubious import, but fulfill'd.

The story of Pausanias, king of Sparta, (who commanded the Greeks at the battle of Platea, and afterwards perished for an attempt to betray the Lacedemonians) and Cleonice,' is told in Plutarch's life of Cimon; and in the Laconics of Pausanias the Sophist, in his description of Greece.

Note 4, page 94, line 13.

-the giant sons

Of the embrace of angels.

<< That the Sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, » etc.

« There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the Sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. »

Genesis, ch. vj. verses 2 and 4.