WITCH. That is not in my province; but if thou MANFRED. I will not swear-Obey! and whom? the spirits WITCH. Is this all! Hast thou no gentler answer?—Yet bethink thee, MANFRED. I have said it. WITCH. Enough! I may retire then-say! MANFRED. Retire! (The WITCH disappears.} MANFRED (alone.) We are the fools of time and terror. Days In all the days of past and future, for In life there is no present, we can number How few-how less than few-wherein the soul grave, That which he loved, unknowing what he slew, The indignant shadow to depose her wrath, If I had never lived, that which I love On spirit, good and evil-now I tremble, And feel a strange cold thaw upon my heart, But I can act even what I most abhor, And champion human fears.-The night approaches. (Exit.) SCENE III. The summit of the Jung-frau Mountain. Enter FIRST DESTINY. The moon is rising broad, and round, and bright; The fretwork of some earthquake-where the clouds Is sacred to our revels, or our vigils; Here do I wait my sisters, on our way Is our great festival-'tis strange they come not, A Voice without, singing. The Captive Usurper, Hurl'd down from the throne, Lay buried in torpor, Forgotten and lone ; I broke through his slumbers, I shivered his chain, I leagued him with numbers He's Tyrant again! With the blood of a million he'll answer my care, With a nation's destruction-his flight and despair. Second Voice, without, The ship sail'd on, the ship sail'd fast, But I left not a sail, and I left not a mast; And there is not a wretch to lament o'er his wreck; But I saved him to wreak further havoc for me! FIRST DESTINY, answering. The city lies sleeping; The morn, to deplore it, The black plague flew o'er it Thousands lie lowly; Tens of thousands shall perish- And evil and dread, The blest are the dead, Of their own desolation. This work of a night, This wreck of a realm-this deed of my doing- (Enter the SECOND and THIRD DESTINIES, THE THREE. Our hands contain the hearts of men, FIRST DESTINY, Welcome!-Where's Nemesis? SECOND DESTINY. At some great work ; But what I know not, for my hands were full. THIRD DESTINY. Behold she cometh. (Enter NEMESIS.) FIRST DESTINY. Say, where hast thou been? My sisters and thyself are slow to night. NEMESIS. I was detain'd repairing shattered thrones, Avenging men upon their enemies, And making them repent their own revenge; (Exeunt.) |