As parents only dare, should call himself What name, what place, what memory, shall be mine? What retrospects, outliving even despair? Lucr. He is a violent tyrant, surely, child: Thou art unlike thyself; thine eyes shoot forth Beatr. 'Tis the restless life Tortured within them. If I try to speak I shall go mad. Ay, something must be done; But now!-O blood, which art my father's blood, A DELICI Lucr. It must indeed have been some bitter wrong; Yet what, I dare not guess. O my lost child, Hide not in proud impenetrable grief Thy sufferings from my fear. Beatr. I hide them not. What are the words which you would have me speak? I, who can feign no image in my mind Of that which has transformed me: I, whose thought Is like a ghost shrouded and folded up In its own formless horror of all words, That minister to mortal intercourse, Which wouldst thou hear? For there is none to tell Aught like to it, she died as I will die, Death! Death! Our law and our religion call thee Lucr. The peace of innocence, Till in your season you be called to heaven. Of crime, or the reward of trampling down Beatr. Ay, death The punishment of crime. I pray thee, God, These limbs, the unworthy temple of thy spirit, Enter ORSINO. (She approaches him solemnly.) Welcome, friend! I have endured a wrong so great and strange, Ask me not what it is, for there are deeds Which have no form, sufferings which have no tongue. Ors. And what is he who has thus injured you? Beatr. The man they call my father: a dread name. Ors. It cannot be- Beatr. What it can be, or not, Forbid to think. It is, and it has been. Advise me how it shall not be again. Ors. Accuse him of the deed, and let the law Beatr. O ice-hearted counsellor! If I could find a word that might make known With vilest gossips a stale mouthed story Beatr. Endure! Orsino, It seems your counsel is small profit. (Turns from him, and speaks half to herself.) Ay, All must be suddenly resolved and done. What is this undistinguishable mist Of thoughts, which rise, like shadow after shadow, Ors. Should the offender live? Triumph in his misdeeds? and make, by use, Beatr. (To herself) Mighty death! Thou double-visaged shadow! Only judge! Rightfullest arbiter! Lucr. If the lightning (She retires absorbed in thought.} Of God has e'er descended to avenge Ors. Blaspheme not! His high Providence commits Its glory on this earth and their own wrongs Into the hands of men; if they neglect To punish crime Sucr. But if one, like this wretch, ould mock, with gold, opinion, law, and powerif there be no appeal to that which makes The guiltiest tremble? if, because our wrongs, For that they are unnatural, strange, and monstrous, Exceed all measure of belief?-O God! If, for the very reasons which should make Redress most swift and sure, our injurer triumphs-- Ors. Think not But that there is redress where there is wrong, Lucr. How? If there were any way to make all sure, Ors. Why, his late outrage to Beatrice; You, but one refuge from ills ill endured; Lucr. For we cannot hope That aid, or retribution, or resource, Will arise thence, where every other one Might find them with less need. Ors. Then Beatr. Peace, Orsino! (Beatrice advances., And, honoured Lady, while I speak, I pray Which have been borne from childhood, but which now As I have said, I have endured a wrong, Which, though it be expressionless, is such As asks atonement, both for what is past, To load with crimes an overburthened soul, And have at length determined what is right. False or true? Pledge thy salvation ere I speak. Ors. I swear To dedicate my cunning, and my strength, To thy commands. Lucr. You think we should devise. Beatr. And execute what is devised, And suddenly. We must be brief and bold. Lucr. For the jealous laws Would punish us with death and infamy Beatr. Be cautious as ye may, but prompt. Orsino, Ors. I know two dull fierce outlaws, Who think man's spirit as a worm's, and they Lucr. To-morrow before dawn, Beatr. He must not arrive. Ori. Will it be dark before you reach the tower? Beatr. But I remember Two miles on this side of the fort, the road |