The Lawyers, A Drama in Five Acts Part 11

SOPHIA, Privy Counsellor CLARENBACH.

Sophia wipes her eyes.

_P. Coun._ (after a pause.) Why does my dear Sophia weep?

_Soph._ My father is pleased with you.

_P. Coun._ I see I am the cause of your grief.

_Soph._ Does your conscience tell you so?

_P. Coun._ Your tears do.

_Soph._ (after a pause.) Well, then, answer my tears.

P, Coun. (shrugs up his shoulders.) The dead letter has decided in this business, as it does in many more, where our feelings would decide in a different manner, but dare not.

_Soph._ And dare not!--Further--

_P. Coun._ Further it fills me with the deepest distress to see my Sophia thus distressed. I am not to blame. I would give any thing to alter the circ.u.mstance.

_Soph._ Any thing?--do not be offended at this question. It conveys no doubt. It contains my firmest confidence in the heart of the man to whom I am going to tender mine,--to whom I have tendered it already.

Yes, Clarenbach, I do not conceal it from you; I could not leave you without giving myself up to those tears.

_P. Coun._ Sophia, my angel! the promised companion of my life, my guardian angel, the most precious gift of providence! How dare I presume to merit your partiality? No! I shall never be able to merit you. Such purity and goodness of mind! how can I convince you of the sincerity of my esteem?

_Soph._ Clarenbach!

_P. Coun._ (takes her by the hand.) Sophia!

_Soph._ A wife has many duties to discharge. And I must tell you before hand, I shall never content myself merely to be your wife, unless I am able to influence you and your actions.

_P. Coun._ To bless those for whom I am to act.

_Soph._ But what will be my powers over you? I know the first generous impulse of your heart is always good; but then ambition,--let me speak truth to you,--avarice, the offspring of ambition, leads you astray, and contaminates the source of your first feelings.

_P. Coun._ (looks aside?) It is so! (after a pause?) Love will buoy me up.

_Soph._ I shall crave little for myself; but in a just cause I shall at all times insist upon having every thing entire. I shall not relent; the man of my heart must act in full; his actions and motives must appear as clear before the eye of the world as they do in the eye of heaven.--Now the question is, will you, on these conditions, give me your hand? Answer me?

_P. Coun._ (drops at his feet.) Sophia!

_Soph._ Rise! I expect no answer from love, but from your conviction.

Try your own self. The answer, which you are to give me now, is more than that which you are to give at the foot of the altar; there we are to exchange vows, and all will be settled; but here,--by ourselves,--no witnesses but ourselves,--here, where nothing influences us but the sentiment of future happiness or sorrow, which we create to ourselves, and our eternal responsibility, which, at every motion of the pulse, admonishes us with increased force:--to speak truth,--here we are to unite our hearts for ever,--or separate. Once more then I repeat, on different conditions I will not accept your hand; am I your choice on these conditions!

_P. Coun._ Yes, yes, yes! Do not you read in my eyes that I understand you, that I look up to you as the source of future bliss; that I repent the past; that with candour and faith, from the bottom of my heart, in this delightful solemn moment, I crave your hand, and feel myself quite happy.

_Soph._ Well my friend, my dear, my beloved friend! I give credit to all you say, and feel unspeakably happy; even your failings lie on the road to rare perfections, and I vow to heaven that I hope those failings will soon vanish.

_P. Coun._ You open to me the prospect of paridisic futurity. I shall be active in the promoting the benefit of my country, and rise superior to dirty, narrow, selfish views! recompensed by your approbation, your joys, and sometimes by your tears. Your gentle hand shall reach me the pet.i.tions of the wretched, the widow, and the orphan,--and my abilities shall be called forth in their behalf. O Sophia! our wedding day shall long be remembered by the cottagers; every face shall beam with smiles.

_Soph._ May it be so! may we, hand in hand, conduct our vows pure to the altar, that we may become securities to each other for our future happiness. In virtue of your solemn promise, and as your bride, I lay down two conditions previous to our union; if you a.s.sent, I will be your wife, not otherwise.

_P. Coun._ Speak, that I may have an opportunity to thank you; to promise and perform.

_Soph._ The first is, that my father, convinced by you, shall instantly? resign the legacy into the hands that ought to receive it.--O Clarenbach! here the daughter must remain silent, and your conviction must finish what would rend my heart! (Privy Counsellor claps his hand together.--Sophia continues after a pause.) The second condition is, that, as I feel I demand much, though convinced I could demand no less,--you shall shorten that state of uncertainty, and by three o'clock this afternoon bring me an answer on that subject. You are not to bring it here; but to the place which this paper (taking out of her pocket a sealed paper) points out. You must not open it till five minutes before three. Pledge me your hand.

_P. Coun._ (pressing her hand.) My word of honour!

_Soph._ (after a pause, during which she has been gazing on him with tenderness, utters in a steady tone,) Adieu, (going,) my friend!

_P. Coun._ (without parting with her hand.) O Sophia, Sophia! what have you demanded!

_Soph._ (having gently disengaged her hand.) The Chief Judge of my country cannot wish to give me the hand which signed the deed that robs orphans of their right! And, if he thinks he has performed his duty as a judge, let him blush as a man, if he means to conduct me and the spoil at one and the same time to his house. If the man, whom I and the people honour, cannot feel so, the sentiment of my own worth will teach me how to forget him. [Exit.

_P. Coun._ Sophia,--girl,--soul, to which I know no equal! thou hast raised and again precipitated me to the deepest abyss. You shewed me a glimpse of heaven, and then veiled the bright view from my enraptured sight. n.o.ble, kind, cruel girl! Oh, I could weep as I did in the first impression of love! (throws himself in a chair.) I could weep virtuous tears! Oh! what now am I, what do I now feel! O the power of pure love!--without thee I cannot exist. (Starts up.) Sophia! better being!

forget the past, build thy requests upon the future; they commit murder on thy father and me! (Going, meets Counsellor Wellenberg at the door.)

SCENE V.

Privy Counsellor CLARENBACH, Counsellor WELLENBERG.

_Well._ Most honoured Sir.

_P. Coun._ What is your pleasure, Sir?

_Well._ I am forced, by necessity, to go in quest of you, Sir; the suit of the poor orphans--

_P. Coun._ Is determined; the will is confirmed.

_Well._ I know. (Pulls out a paper.) This is the decree. The oftener I peruse it, and the longer I consider it, the more it resembles a poor chest forced open, beat to pieces, and in the end carried off.

_P. Coun._ You grow impertinent, Sir.

_Well._ No, most honoured Sir! but I am filled with spirit and courage, like an old trusty servant, armed with perseverance and justice in the cause of the orphan, which calls aloud to heaven for redress. That I am, and that you will find me.

_P. Coun._ Do you intend to appeal?

_Well._ Yes, I do, indeed.

_P. Coun._ Well, do so, and leave me.

_Well._ No, no; I will not leave you. I appeal to you, most honoured Sir, not _qua judex_, but _qua h.o.m.o_, _qua h.o.m.o_, who believes in the day of judgment, and, at the sound of the last trump, would wish to be called to the right; not to be left among the d.a.m.ned, where many an Aulic Counsellor will be found, I am afraid.

_P. Coun._ I honour the feelings that animate you, Sir; but they are foreign to the affair. Appeal in form, at--

_Well._ To avoid all _replicas_, _duplicas_, _et fatalia_, that may delay and put off the cause, I will put you an _argumentum_, that, _eo ipso_, shall invalidate your sentence, and re-instate the poor children in their right, a.s.signed to them by G.o.d and justice.