"Kalon,"

And seated in my soul. It will not last, But it is well to have known it, though

Abbot. Peace be with Count Manfred!

Man. Thanks, holy father! welcome to these walls;

Thy presence honors them, and blesseth those

Who dwell within them.

Abbot. Would it were so. Count !-But I would fain confer with thee alone. Man. Herman, retire.-What would

my reverend guest?

Abbot. Thus, without prelude :--Age and zeal, my office,

And good intent, must plead my privilege;

Our near, though not acquainted neighborhood,

May also be my

strange,

herald. Rumors

abodes,

mankind,

tween Heaven and myself. I shall not choose a mortal

To be my mediator. Have I sinn'd Against your ordinances? prove and punish!

Abbot. My son! I did not speak of punishment,

But penitence and pardon ;—with myself The choice of such remains-and for the last,

Our institutions and our strong belief Have given me power to smooth the path from sin

To higher hope and better thoughts; the first

66

I leave to heaven,- Vengeance is mine alone!"

So saith the Lord, and with all bumble

He deals on his own soul.

Abbot. All this is well; For this will pass away, and be succeeded By an auspicious hope, which shall look

up

With calm assurance to that blessed place,

Which all who seek may win, whatever be

Their earthly errors, so they be atoned: And the commencement of atonement is The sense of its necessity. Say on-And all our church can teach thee shall be taught;

And all we can absolve thee shall be pardon'd.

Man. When Rome's sixth emperor was near his last,

The victim of a self-inflicted wound,
To shun the torments of a public death
From senates once his slaves, a certain
soldier,

With show of loyal pity, would have stanch'd

The gushing throat with his officious robe;

The dying Roman thrust him back, and said

Some empire still in his expiring glance-"It is too late-is this fidelity?"

Abbot. And what of this?

Man. I answer with the Roman-"It is too late!"

Must serve who fain would sway; and soothe, and sue,

And watch all time, and pry into all place,

And be a living lie, who would become A mighty thing amongst the mean, and such

The mass are; I disdain'd to mingle with A herd, though to be leader--and of wolves.

The lion is alone, and so am I.

Abbot. And why not live and act with other men?

Man. Because my nature was averse from life;

And yet not cruel ; for I would not make, But find a desolation. Like the wind, The red-hot breath of the most lone simoom,

Which dwells but in the desert, and sweeps o'er

The barren sands which bear no shrubs

Look upon me! for even of all these things

Have I partaken; and of all these things,
One were enough; then wonder not that I
Am what I am, but that I ever was,
Or having been, that I am still on earth.
Abbot. Yet, hear me still—

Man.
Old man! I do respect
Thine order, and revere thine years; I
deem

Thy purpose pious, but it is in vain : Think me not churlish; I would spare thyself,

Far more than me, in shunning at this time

All further colloquy-and so-farewell. [Exit MANFRED.

Abbot. This should have been a noble creature; he

Hath all the energy which would have

Thou earliest minister of the Almighty, Which gladden'd, on their mountain tops, the hearts

Of the Chaldean shepherds, till they pour'd

Themselves in orisons! Thou material God!

And representative of the unknownWho chose thee for his shadow! Thou chief star!

Centre of many stars! which mak'st our earth

Endurable, and temperest the hues And hearts of all who walk within thy rays:

Sire of the seasons! Monarch of the climes,

And those who dwell in them! for near or far,

Our inborn spirits have a tint of thee Even as our outward aspects ;-thou dost

The Mountains-The Castle of Manfred at some distance-A Terrace before a Tower-Time, Twilight.

HERMAN, MANUEL and other Dependents of MANFRED.

Her. 'Tis strange enough; night after night, for years,

He hath pursued long vigils in this tower, Without a witness. I have been within it,

So have we all been oft-times; but from it,
Or its contents, it were impossible
To draw conclusions absolute, of aught
His studies tend to. To be sure, there is
One chamber where none enter: I would

give

The fee of what I have to come these three years,

To pore upon its mysteries.

Manuel. "Twere dangerous; Content thyself with what thou know'st

already.

The stars are forth, the moon above the tops

Of the snow-shining mountains.--Beautiful!

I linger yet with Nature, for the Night Hath been to me a more familiar face Than that of man; and in her starry shade

Of dim and solitary loveliness,

I learn'd the language of another world. I do remember me, that in my youth, When I was wandering,-upon such a night

I stood within the Coliseum's wall, 'Midst the chief relics of almighty Rome; The trees which grew along the broken arches

Waved dark in the blue midnight, and the stars

Shone through the rents of ruin; from

afar

The watch-dog bay'd beyond the Tiber:

and

232

upon

All this, and cast a wide and tender light,
Which soften'd down the hoar austerity
Of rugged desolation, and fill'd up,
As 'twere anew, the gaps of centuries;
Leaving that beautiful which still was so,
And making that which was not, till the
place

Became religion, and the heart ran o'er
With silent worship of the great of old,
The dead but sceptred sovereigns, who
still rule

Our spirits from their urns.

'Twas such a night! "T is strange that I recall it at this time; But I have found our thoughts take wildest flight

Even at the moment when they should

array Themselves in pensive order.

Glares forth the immortality of hellAvaunt!-

Man. Pronounce-what is thy mission! Spirit. Come!Abbot. What art thou, unknown being? answer!-speak!

Spirit. The genius of this mortal.Come! 'tis time.

Man. I am prepared for all things, but

deny

The power which summons me. Who sent thee here?

Spirit. Thou'lt know anon--Come! Come!

Man.

I have commanded Things of an essence greater far than thine,