Count Alarcos; a Tragedy Part 34

V:3:14 ALAR.

Nay, thou shalt love but me.

I'll no divisions in the hearts that are mine.

V:3:15 ORAN.

I have no love but that which knits me to thee With deeper love.

V:3:16 ALAR.

I found thee, Oran, what-- I will not say. And now thou art, good Oran, A Prince's Castellan.

V:3:17 ORAN.

I feel thy bounty.

V:3:18 ALAR.

Thou shalt be more. But serve me as I would, And thou shalt name thy meed.

V:3:19 ORAN.

To serve my lord Is my sufficient meed.

V:3:20 ALAR.

Come hither, Oran, Were there a life between me and my life, And all that makes that life a thing to cling to, Love, Honour, Power, ay, what I will not name Nor thou canst image--yet enough to stir Ambition in the dead--I think, good Oran, Thou would'st not see me foiled?

V:3:21 ORAN.

Thy glory's dearer Than life to me.

V:3:22 ALAR.

I knew it, I knew it.

Thou shalt share all; thy alien blood shall be No bar to thy preferment. Hast thou brothers?

I'll send for them. An aged sire, perchance?

Here's gold for him. Count it thyself. Contrive All means of self-enjoyment. To the full They shall lap up fruition. Thou hast, all have, Some master wish which still eludes thy grasp, And still's the secret idol of thy soul; 'Tis gained. And only if thou dost, good Oran, What love and duty prompt.

V:3:23 ORAN.

Count on my faith, I stand prepared to prove it.

V:3:24 ALAR.

Good, good, Oran.

It is an hour to midnight?

V:3:25 ORAN.

The moon is not Within her midnight bower, yet near.

V:3:26 ALAR.

So late!

The Countess sleeps?

V:3:27 ORAN.

She has long retired.

V:3:28 ALAR.

She sleeps, O, she must wake no more!

V:3:29 ORAN.

Thy wife!

V:3:30 ALAR.

It must Be done, ere yet the Castle chime shall tell Night wanes.

V:3:31 ORAN.

Thy wife! G.o.d of my fathers! none Can do this deed!

V:3:32 ALAR.

Upon thy hand it rests.

The deed must fall on thee.

V:3:33 ORAN.

I will not do it.

V:3:34 ALAR.

Thine oath, thine oath! Hast thou forgot thine oath?

Thou owest me a life, and now I claim it.

What, hast thou trifled with me? Hast thou fooled With one whose point was at thy throat? Beware!

Thou art my slave, and I have branded thee With this infernal ransom!

V:3:35 ORAN.

I am thy slave, And I will be thy slave, and all my days Devoted to perdition. Not for gold Or worldly worth; to cheer no aged parent, Though I have one, a mother; not to bask My seed within thy beams; to feed no pa.s.sions And gorge no craving vanity; but because Thou gavest me life, and led to that which made That life for once delicious. O, great sir, The King's thy foe? Surrounded by his guards I would waylay him. Hast thou some fierce rival?

I'll pluck his heart out. Yea! there is no peril I'd not confront, no rack I'll not endure, No great offence commit, to do thee service-- So thou wilt spare me this, and spare thy soul This unmatched sin.

V:3:36 ALAR.

I had exhausted suffering Ere I could speak to thee. I claim thine oath.

V:3:37 ORAN.

One moment, yet one moment. This is sudden As it is terrible.

V:3:38 ALAR.

The womb is ripe, And thou art but the midwife of the birth I have engendered.

V:3:39 ORAN.

Think how fair she is, How gracious, how devoted!

V:3:40 ALAR.

Need I thee To tell me what she is!

V:3:41 ORAN.

Thy children's mother.

V:3:42 ALAR.

Would she were not! Another breast should bear My children.

V:3:43 ORAN.

Thou inhuman b.l.o.o.d.y man-- It shall not be, it cannot, cannot be.