The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats

Who in good hour hath startled these dark fancies, Your faithful soldier!
Rapacious traitors, that would fain depose

Joy, love, and beauty, from their natural thrones:
Those lips, those angel eyes, that regal forehead.

Has he not like an ingrate robb'd my court

Of Beauty's star, and kept my heart in darkness!

First then on him I will administer justice

Know'st thou not me?

BETHLEN.

Ever, lady,

EMERICK.

Insolent slave! Depart!

Thou art so fiendish wicked,

If not in mercy, yet in love and rapture. [Seizes her. That in thy blasphemies I scarce hear thy threats.

SAROLTA.

Help! Treason! Help!

EMERICK.

BETHLEN

Lady, be calm! fear not this king of the buskin!
A king? Oh laughter! A king Bajazet!
That from some vagrant actor's tyring-room,

Call louder! Scream again! Hath stolen at once his speech and crown!

Here's none can hear you!

SAROLTA.

EMERICK.

Ah! treason!

Hear me, hear me, Heaven! Thou hast been lesson'd and trick'd up for this!
As surely as the wax on thy death-warrant
Shall take the impression of this royal signet,
So plain thy face hath ta'en the mask of rebel!
[EMERICK points his hand haughtily towards BETH-

Nay, why this rage? Who best deserves you? Casimir,
Emerick's bought implement, the jealous slave
That mews you up with bolts and bars? or Emerick,
Who proffers you a throne? Nay, mine you shall be.
Hence with this fond resistance! Yield; then live
This month a widow, and the next a queen!

LEN, who catching a sight of the signet, seizes his hand and eagerly observes the signet, then flings the hand back with indignant joy.

BETHLEN.

It must be so! "Tis e'en the counterpart!
But with a foul usurping cipher on it!
The light hath flash'd from Heaven, and I must
follow it!

O curst usurper! O thou brother-murderer!
That madest a star-bright queen a fugitive widow!
Who fill'st the land with curses, being thyself
All curses in one tyrant! see and tremble!
This is Kiuprili's sword that now hangs o'er thee!
Kiuprili's blasting curse, that from its point

Shoots lightnings at thee! Hark! in Andreas' name,
Heir of his vengeance! hell-hound! I defy thee.
[They fight, and just as EMERICK is disarmed, in
rush CASIMIR, OLD BATHORY, and attendants.
CASIMIR runs in between the combatants, and
parts them in the struggle BETHLEN's sword
is thrown down.

CASIMIR.

The king disarm'd too by a stranger! Speak!
What may this mean?

EMERICK.

Deceived, dishonor'd lord!
Ask thou yon fair adultress! She will tell thee
A tale, which wouldst thou be both dupe and traitor,
Thou wilt believe against thy friend and sovereign!
Thou art present now, and a friend's duty ceases:
To thine own justice leave I thine own wrongs.
Of half thy vengeance, I perforce must rob thee,
For that the sovereign claims. To thy allegiance
I now commit this traitor and assassin.

[Then to the Attendants. Hence with him to the dungeon! and to-morrow, Ere the sun rises,-hark! your heads or his!

BETHLEN.

Can Hell work miracles to mock Heaven's justice?

EMERICK.

As the word proves false or true,

Who speaks to him dies! The traitor that has menaced Will Casimir cross the hunt, or join the huntsmen!

His king, must not pollute the breathing air,
Even with a word!

CASIMIR (to BATHORY).

Hence with him to the dungeon! [Exit BETHLEN, hurried off by BATHORY and

Allendants.

EMERICK.

We hunt to-morrow in your upland forest:

Thou (to CASIMIR) wilt attend us: and wilt then

explain

This sudden and most fortunate arrival.

But Emerick! how when you reported to him
Sarolta's disappearance, and the flight

[Exit EMERICK; manent CASIMIR and SAROLTA. Of Bethlen with his guards?

SAROLTA.

CASIMIR.

O he received it

My lord! my husband! look whose sword lies yonder!
Pointing to the sword which BETHLEN had been As evidence of their mutual guilt: in fine,

disarmed of by the Attendants.

It is Kiuprili's; Casimir, 'tis thy father's!
And wielded by a stripling's arm, it baffled,

With cozening warmth condoled with, and dismiss'd

me.

LORD RUDOLPH.

Yea, fell like Heaven's own lightnings on that Tar-I enter'd as the door was closing on you:

And yet Sarolta, simple, inexperienced,
Could see him as he was, and often warn'd me.
Whence learn'd she this ?-O she was innocent!
And to be innocent is nature's wisdom!

The fledge-dove knows the prowlers of the air,
Fear'd soon as seen, and flutters back to shelter.
And the young steed recoils upon his haunches,
The never-yet-seen adder's hiss first heard.
O surer than Suspicion's hundred eyes
Is that fine sense, which to the pure in heart,
By mere oppugnancy of their own goodness,
Reveals the approach of evil. Casimir!

O fool! O parricide! through yon wood didst thou,
With fire and sword, pursue a patriot father,
A widow and an orphan. Darest thou then
(Curse-laden wretch), put forth these hands to raise
The ark, all sacred, of thy country's cause?
Look down in pity on thy son, Kiuprili;
And let this deep abhorrence of his crime,

"Twas one of Satan's imps, that grinn'd, and threaten'd you

For your most impudent hope to cheat his master!

LASKA.

BETHLEN.

Was it then

That timid eye, was it those maiden hands
That sped the shaft which saved me and avenged me?
OLD BATHORY (to BETHLEN exultingly).

Pshaw! What, you think 'tis fear that makes me 'Twas a vision blazon'd on a cloud

leave you?

By lightning, shaped into a passionate scheme
Of life and death! I saw the traitor, Laska,
Stoop and snatch up the javelin of his comrade;
The point was at your back, when her shaft reach'd

OLD BATHORY.

[Clash of swords, and BETHLEN's voice heard from Hail Andreas! hail my king!

behind the Scenes; GLYCINE enters alarmed; then, as seeing LASKA's bow and arrows.

GLYCINE.

Ha! weapons here? Then, Bethlen, thy Glycine Will die with thee or save thee!

ANDREAS.

[Triumphantly.

Stop, thou revered one!

Lest we offend the jealous destinies
By shouts ere victory. Deem it then thy duty
To pay this homage, when 'tis mine to claim it.

GLYCINE.

[She seizes them and rushes out. BATHORY following
her. Lively and irregular Music, and Peasants
with hunting-spears cross the stage, singing cho- Accept thine hand-maid's service!
rally.

CHORAL SONG.

Up, up! ye dames, ye lasses gay!

To the meadows trip away.

"Tis you must tend the flocks this morn,
And scare the small birds from the corn.
Not a soul at home may stay:
For the shepherds must go
With lance and bow

To hunt the wolf in the woods to-day.

Leave the hearth and leave the house To the cricket and the mouse:

ZAPOLYA

[Kneeling

Raise her, son!

O raise her to thine arms! she saved thy life,
And through her love for thee, she saved thy mother's!
Hereafter thou shalt know, that this dear maid
Hath other and hereditary claims

Upon thy heart, and with Heaven-guarded instinct
But carried on the work her sire began!

ANDREAS.

Dear maid! more dear thou canst not be! the rest
Shall make my love religion. Haste we hence;
For as I reach'd the skirts of this high forest,
I heard the noise and uproar of the chase,
Doubling its echoes from the mountain foot.

GLYCINE.

Hark! sure the hunt approaches.

Re-enter BATHORY, with the dead body of PESTALUTZ.

OLD BATHORY.

[Horn without, and afterwards distant thunder. Poor tool and victim of another's guilt!

OLD BATHORY.

CASIMIR.

Art thou too a traitor?

Is this the place where Emerick's murderers lurk?
Say where is he that, trick'd in this disguise,
First lured me on, then scared my dastard followers?
Thou must have seen him. Say where is th' assassin?
OLD BATHORY (pointing to the body of PESTALUTZ).
There lies the assassin! slain by that same sword
That was descending on his curst employer,
When entering thou beheld'st Sarolta rescued!

CASIMIR.

Yon bleeding corse, (pointing to PESTALUTZ's body) Strange providence! what then was he who fled me?

may work us mischief still:

Once seen, 't will rouse alarm and crowd the hunt

From all parts towards this spot. Stript of its armor, I'll drag it hither.

[Ezil BATHORY. After a while several Hunters cross the stage as scattered. Some time after, enter KIUPRILI in his disguise, fainting with fatigue, and as pursued.

RAAB KIUPRILI (throwing off his disguise). Since Heaven alone can save me, Heaven alone Shall be my trust.

[Then speaking as to ZAPOLYA in the Cavern. Haste! haste! Zapolya, flee!

[He enters the Cavern, and then returns in alarm. Gone! Seized perhaps? Oh no, let me not perish Despairing of Heaven's justice! Faint, disarm'd, Each sinew powerless, senseless rock sustain me! Thou art parcel of my native land.

[Then observing the sword.
A sword!

Ha! and my sword! Zapolya hath escaped,
The murderers are baffled, and there lives
An Andreas to avenge Kiuprili's fall!-
There was a time, when this dear sword did flash
As dreadful as the storm-fire from mine arms:
I can scarce raise it now-yet come, fell tyrant!
And bring with thee my shame and bitter anguish,
To end his work and thine! Kiuprili now
Can take the death-blow as a soldier should.

[BATHORY points to the Cavern, whence KIUPRILI advances.

Thy looks speak fearful things! Whither, old man! Would thy hand point me?

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The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats: Complete in One Volume