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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Golden Legend: II. A Farm In The Odenwald</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A garden; morning;_ PRINCE HENRY _seated, with a<br>book_. ELSIE, _at a distance, gathering flowers._</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry (reading)._ One morning, all alone,<br>Out of his convent of gray stone,<br>Into the forest older, darker, grayer,<br>His lips moving as if in prayer,<br>His head sunken upon his breast<br>As in a dream of rest,<br>Walked the Monk Felix. All about<br>The broad, sweet sunshine lay without,<br>Filling the summer air;<br>And within the woodlands as he trod,<br>The twilight was like the Truce of God<br>With worldly woe and care;<br>Under him lay the golden moss;<br>And above him the boughs of hemlock-tree<br>Waved, and made the sign of the cross,<br>And whispered their Benedicites;<br>And from the ground<br>Rose an odor sweet and fragrant<br>Of the wild flowers and the vagrant<br>Vines that wandered,<br>Seeking the sunshine, round and round.<br>These he heeded not, but pondered<br>On the volume in his hand,<br>A volume of Saint Augustine;<br>Wherein he read of the unseen<br>Splendors of God's great town<br>In the unknown land,<br>And, with his eyes cast down<br>In humility, he said:<br>'I believe, O God,<br>What herein I have read,<br>But alas! I do not understand!'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And lo! he heard<br>The sudden singing of a bird,<br>A snow-white bird, that from a cloud<br>Dropped down,<br>And among the branches brown<br>Sat singing<br>So sweet, and clear, and loud,<br>It seemed a thousand harp strings ringing.<br>And the Monk Felix closed his book,<br>And long, long,<br>With rapturous look,<br>He listened to the song,<br>And hardly breathed or stirred,<br>Until he saw, as in a vision,<br>The land Elysian,<br>And in the heavenly city heard<br>Angelic feet<br>Fall on the golden flagging of the street.<br>And he would fain<br>Have caught the wondrous bird,<br>But strove in vain;<br>For it flew away, away,<br>Far over hill and dell,<br>And instead of its sweet singing<br>He heard the convent bell<br>Suddenly in the silence ringing<br>For the service of noonday.<br>And he retraced<br>His pathway homeward sadly and in haste.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">In the convent there was a change!<br>He looked for each well known face,<br>But the faces were new and strange;<br>New figures sat in the oaken stalls,<br>New voices chaunted in the choir,<br>Yet the place was the same place,<br>The same dusky walls<br>Of cold, gray stone,<br>The same cloisters and belfry and spire.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A stranger and alone<br>Among that brotherhood<br>The Monk Felix stood<br>'Forty years,' said a Friar.<br>'Have I been Prior<br>Of this convent in the wood,<br>But for that space<br>Never have I beheld thy face!'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The heart of the Monk Felix fell:<br>And he answered with submissive tone,<br>'This morning, after the hour of Prime,<br>I left my cell,<br>And wandered forth alone,<br>Listening all the time<br>To the melodious singing<br>Of a beautiful white bird,<br>Until I heard<br>The bells of the convent ringing<br>Noon from their noisy towers,<br>It was as if I dreamed;<br>For what to me had seemed<br>Moments only, had been hours!'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'Years!' said a voice close by.<br>It was an aged monk who spoke,<br>From a bench of oak<br>Fastened against the wall;--<br>He was the oldest monk of all.<br>For a whole century<br>Had he been there,<br>Serving God in prayer,<br>The meekest and humblest of his creatures.<br>He remembered well the features<br>Of Felix, and he said,<br>Speaking distinct and slow:<br>'One hundred years ago,<br>When I was a novice in this place,<br>There was here a monk, full of God's grace,<br>Who bore the name<br>Of Felix, and this man must be the same.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And straightway<br>They brought forth to the light of day<br>A volume old and brown,<br>A huge tome, bound<br>With brass and wild-boar's hide,<br>Therein were written down<br>The names of all who had died<br>In the convent, since it was edified.<br>And there they found,<br>Just as the old monk said,<br>That on a certain day and date,<br>One hundred years before,<br>Had gone forth from the convent gate<br>The Monk Felix, and never more<br>Had entered that sacred door.<br>He had been counted among the dead!<br>And they knew, at last,<br>That, such had been the power<br>Of that celestial and immortal song,<br>A hundred years had passed,<br>And had not seemed so long<br>As a single hour!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(ELSIE _comes in with flowers._)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ Here are flowers for you,<br>But they are not all for you.<br>Some of them are for the Virgin<br>And for Saint Cecilia.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ As thou standest there,<br>Thou seemest to me like the angel<br>That brought the immortal roses<br>To Saint Cecilia's bridal chamber.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ But these will fade.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ Themselves will fade,<br>But not their memory,<br>And memory has the power<br>To re-create them from the dust.<br>They remind me, too,<br>Of martyred Dorothea,<br>Who from celestial gardens sent<br>Flowers as her witnesses<br>To him who scoffed and doubted.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ Do you know the story<br>Of Christ and the Sultan's daughter?<br>That is the prettiest legend of them all.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ Then tell it to me.<br>But first come hither.<br>Lay the flowers down beside me.<br>And put both thy hands in mine.<br>Now tell me the story.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ Early in the morning<br>The Sultan's daughter<br>Walked in her father's garden,<br>Gathering the bright flowers,<br>All full of dew.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ Just as thou hast been doing<br>This morning, dearest Elsie.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ And as she gathered them,<br>She wondered more and more<br>Who was the Master of the Flowers,<br>And made them grow<br>Out of the cold, dark earth.<br>'In my heart,' she said,<br>'I love him; and for him<br>Would leave my father's palace,<br>To labor in his garden.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ Dear, innocent child!<br>How sweetly thou recallest<br>The long-forgotten legend,<br>That in my early childhood<br>My mother told me!<br>Upon my brain<br>It reappears once more,<br>As a birth-mark on the forehead<br>When a hand suddenly<br>Is laid upon it, and removed!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ And at midnight,<br>As she lay upon her bed,<br>She heard a voice<br>Call to her from the garden,<br>And, looking forth from her window,<br>She saw a beautiful youth<br>Standing among the flowers.<br>It was the Lord Jesus;<br>And she went down to him,<br>And opened the door for him;<br>And he said to her, 'O maiden!<br>Thou hast thought of me with love,<br>And for thy sake<br>Out of my Father's kingdom<br>Have I come hither:<br>I am the Master of the Flowers.<br>My garden is in Paradise,<br>And if thou wilt go with me,<br>Thy bridal garland<br>Shall be of bright red flowers.'<br>And then he took from his finger<br>A golden ring,<br>And asked the Sultan's daughter<br>If she would be his bride.<br>And when she answered him with love,<br>His wounds began to bleed,<br>And she said to him,<br>'O Love! how red thy heart is,<br>And thy hands are full of roses,'<br>'For thy sake,' answered he,<br>'For thy sake is my heart so red,<br>For thee I bring these roses.<br>I gathered them at the cross<br>Whereon I died for thee!<br>Come, for my Father calls.<br>Thou art my elected bride!'<br>And the Sultan's daughter<br>Followed him to his Father's garden.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ Wouldst thou have done so, Elsie?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ Yes, very gladly.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ Then the Celestial Bridegroom<br>Will come for thee also.<br>Upon thy forehead he will place,<br>Not his crown of thorns,<br>But a crown of roses.<br>In thy bridal chamber,<br>Like Saint Cecilia,<br>Thou shall hear sweet music,<br>And breathe the fragrance<br>Of flowers immortal!<br>Go now and place these flowers<br>Before her picture.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * * * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A ROOM IN THE FARM-HOUSE.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * * * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Twilight._ URSULA _spinning._ GOTTLIEB _asleep in his<br>chair._</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ Darker and darker! Hardly a glimmer<br>Of light comes in at the window-pane;<br>Or is it my eyes are growing dimmer?<br>I cannot disentangle this skein,<br>Nor wind it rightly upon the reel.<br>Elsie!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb (starting)_. The stopping of thy wheel<br>Has wakened me out of a pleasant dream.<br>I thought I was sitting beside a stream,<br>And heard the grinding of a mill,<br>When suddenly the wheels stood still,<br>And a voice cried 'Elsie' in my ear!<br>It startled me, it seemed so near.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ I was calling her: I want a light.<br>I cannot see to spin my flax.<br>Bring the lamp, Elsie. Dost thou hear?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie (within)._ In a moment!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ Where are Bertha and Max?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ They are sitting with Elsie at the door.<br>She is telling them stories of the wood,<br>And the Wolf, and Little Red Ridinghood.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb_. And where is the Prince?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula_. In his room overhead;<br>I heard him walking across the floor,<br>As he always does, with a heavy tread.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(ELSIE _comes in with a lamp_. MAX _and_ BERTHA _follow her;<br>and they all sing the Evening Song on the lighting of the lamps_.)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>EVENING SONG.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">O gladsome light<br>Of the Father Immortal,<br>And of the celestial<br>Sacred and blessed<br>Jesus, our Saviour!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Now to the sunset<br>Again hast thou brought us;<br>And, seeing the evening<br>Twilight, we bless thee,<br>Praise thee, adore thee!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Father omnipotent!<br>Son, the Life-giver!<br>Spirit, the Comforter!<br>Worthy at all times<br>Of worship and wonder!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>_Prince Henry (at the door)_. Amen!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula_. Who was it said Amen?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie_. It was the Prince: he stood at the door,<br>And listened a moment, as we chaunted<br>The evening song. He is gone again.<br>I have often seen him there before.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula_. Poor Prince!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb_. I thought the house was haunted!<br>Poor Prince, alas! and yet as mild<br>And patient as the gentlest child!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Max._ I love him because he is so good,<br>And makes me such fine bows and arrows,<br>To shoot at the robins and the sparrows,<br>And the red squirrels in the wood!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Bertha._ I love him, too!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ Ah, yes! we all<br>Love him, from the bottom of our hearts;<br>He gave us the farm, the house, and the grange,<br>He gave us the horses and the carts,<br>And the great oxen in the stall,<br>The vineyard, and the forest range!<br>We have nothing to give him but our love!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Bertha._ Did he give us the beautiful stork above<br>On the chimney-top, with its large, round nest?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ No, not the stork; by God in heaven,<br>As a blessing, the dear, white stork was given;<br>But the Prince has given us all the rest.<br>God bless him, and make him well again.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ Would I could do something for his sake,<br>Something to cure his sorrow and pain!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ That no one can; neither thou nor I,<br>Nor any one else.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ And must he die?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ Yes; if the dear God does not take<br>Pity upon him, in his distress,<br>And work a miracle!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ Or unless<br>Some maiden, of her own accord,<br>Offers her life for that of her lord,<br>And is willing to die in his stead.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ I will!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ Prithee, thou foolish child, be still!<br>Thou shouldst not say what thou dost not mean!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ I mean it truly!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Max._ O father! this morning,<br>Down by the mill, in the ravine,<br>Hans killed a wolf, the very same<br>That in the night to the sheepfold came,<br>And ate up my lamb, that was left outside.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ I am glad he is dead. It will be a warning<br>To the wolves in the forest, far and wide.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Max._ And I am going to have his hide!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Bertha._ I wonder if this is the wolf that ate<br>Little Red Ridinghood!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ O, no!<br>That wolf was killed a long while ago.<br>Come, children, it is growing late.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Max._ Ah, how I wish I were a man,<br>As stout as Hans is, and as strong!<br>I would do nothing else, the whole day long,<br>But just kill wolves.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ Then go to bed,<br>And grow as fast as a little boy can.<br>Bertha is half asleep already.<br>See how she nods her heavy head,<br>And her sleepy feet are so unsteady<br>She will hardly be able to creep upstairs.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ Good-night, my children. Here's the light.<br>And do not forget to say your prayers<br>Before you sleep.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ Good-night!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Max and Bertha._ Good-night!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(_They go out with_ ELSIE.)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula, (spinning)._ She is a strange and wayward child,<br>That Elsie of ours. She looks so old,<br>And thoughts and fancies weird and wild<br>Seem of late to have taken hold<br>Of her heart, that was once so docile and mild!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ She is like all girls.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ Ah no, forsooth!<br>Unlike all I have ever seen.<br>For she has visions and strange dreams,<br>And in all her words and ways, she seems<br>Much older than she is in truth.<br>Who would think her but fourteen?<br>And there has been of late such a change!<br>My heart is heavy with fear and doubt<br>That she may not live till the year is out.<br>She is so strange,--so strange,--so strange!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ I am not troubled with any such fear!<br>She will live and thrive for many a year.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * * * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">ELSIE'S CHAMBER.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * * * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Night._ ELSIE _praying._</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ My Redeemer and my Lord,<br>I beseech thee, I entreat thee,<br>Guide me in each act and word,<br>That hereafter I may meet thee,<br>Watching, waiting, hoping, yearning,<br>With my lamp well trimmed and burning!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Interceding<br>With these bleeding<br>Wounds upon thy hands and side,<br>For all who have lived and erred<br>Thou hast suffered, thou hast died,<br>Scourged, and mocked, and crucified,<br>And in the grave hast thou been buried!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">If my feeble prayer can reach thee,<br>O my Saviour, I beseech thee,<br>Even as thou hast died for me,<br>More sincerely<br>Let me follow where thou leadest,<br>Let me, bleeding as thou bleedest,<br>Die, if dying I may give<br>Life to one who asks to live,<br>And more nearly,<br>Dying thus, resemble thee!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * * * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">THE CHAMBER OF GOTTLIEB AND URSULA.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * * * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Midnight._ ELSIE _standing by their bedside, weeping._</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ The wind is roaring; the rushing rain<br>Is loud upon roof and window-pane,<br>As if the Wild Huntsman of Rodenstein,<br>Boding evil to me and mine,<br>Were abroad to-night with his ghostly train!<br>In the brief lulls of the tempest wild,<br>The dogs howl in the yard; and hark!<br>Some one is sobbing in the dark,<br>Here in the chamber!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ It is I.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ Elsie! what ails thee, my poor child?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ I am disturbed and much distressed,<br>In thinking our dear Prince must die,<br>I cannot close mine eyes, nor rest.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ What wouldst thou? In the Power Divine<br>His healing lies, not in our own;<br>It is in the hand of God alone.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ Nay, he has put it into mine,<br>And into my heart!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ Thy words are wild!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ What dost thou mean? my child! my child!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ That for our dear Prince Henry's sake<br>I will myself the offering make,<br>And give my life to purchase his.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula_ Am I still dreaming, or awake?<br>Thou speakest carelessly of death,<br>And yet thou knowest not what it is.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ 'T is the cessation of our breath.<br>Silent and motionless we lie;<br>And no one knoweth more than this.<br>I saw our little Gertrude die,<br>She left off breathing, and no more<br>I smoothed the pillow beneath her head.<br>She was more beautiful than before.<br>Like violets faded were her eyes;<br>By this we knew that she was dead.<br>Through the open window looked the skies<br>Into the chamber where she lay,<br>And the wind was like the sound of wings,<br>As if angels came to bear her away.<br>Ah! when I saw and felt these things,<br>I found it difficult to stay;<br>I longed to die, as she had died,<br>And go forth with her, side by side.<br>The Saints are dead, the Martyrs dead,<br>And Mary, and our Lord, and I<br>Would follow in humility<br>The way by them illumined!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ My child! my child! thou must not die!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie_ Why should I live? Do I not know<br>The life of woman is full of woe?<br>Toiling on and on and on,<br>With breaking heart, and tearful eyes,<br>And silent lips, and in the soul<br>The secret longings that arise,<br>Which this world never satisfies!<br>Some more, some less, but of the whole<br>Not one quite happy, no, not one!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ It is the malediction of Eve!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ In place of it, let me receive<br>The benediction of Mary, then.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ Ah, woe is me! Ah, woe is me!<br>Most wretched am I among men!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ Alas! that I should live to see<br>Thy death, beloved, and to stand<br>Above thy grave! Ah, woe the day!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ Thou wilt not see it. I shall lie<br>Beneath the flowers of another land,<br>For at Salerno, far away<br>Over the mountains, over the sea,<br>It is appointed me to die!<br>And it will seem no more to thee<br>Than if at the village on market-day<br>I should a little longer stay<br>Than I am used.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ Even as thou sayest!<br>And how my heart beats, when thou stayest!<br>I cannot rest until my sight<br>Is satisfied with seeing thee.<br>What, then, if thou wert dead?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb_ Ah me!<br>Of our old eyes thou art the light!<br>The joy of our old hearts art thou!<br>And wilt thou die?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ Not now! not now!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie_ Christ died for me, and shall not I<br>Be willing for my Prince to die?<br>You both are silent; you cannot speak.<br>This said I, at our Saviour's feast,<br>After confession, to the priest,<br>And even he made no reply.<br>Does he not warn us all to seek<br>The happier, better land on high,<br>Where flowers immortal never wither,<br>And could he forbid me to go thither?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ In God's own time, my heart's delight!<br>When he shall call thee, not before!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ I heard him call. When Christ ascended<br>Triumphantly, from star to star,<br>He left the gates of heaven ajar.<br>I had a vision in the night,<br>And saw him standing at the door<br>Of his Father's mansion, vast and splendid,<br>And beckoning to me from afar.<br>I cannot stay!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ She speaks almost<br>As if it were the Holy Ghost<br>Spake through her lips, and in her stead!<br>What if this were of God?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ Ah, then<br>Gainsay it dare we not.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ Amen!<br>Elsie! the words that thou hast said<br>Are strange and new for us to hear,<br>And fill our hearts with doubt and fear.<br>Whether it be a dark temptation<br>Of the Evil One, or God's inspiration,<br>We in our blindness cannot say.<br>We must think upon it, and pray;<br>For evil and good in both resembles.<br>If it be of God, his will be done!<br>May he guard us from the Evil One!<br>How hot thy hand is! how it trembles!<br>Go to thy bed, and try to sleep.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ Kiss me. Good-night; and do not weep!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(ELSIE _goes out._)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Ah, what an awful thing is this!<br>I almost shuddered at her kiss.<br>As if a ghost had touched my cheek,<br>I am so childish and so weak!<br>As soon as I see the earliest gray<br>Of morning glimmer in the east,<br>I will go over to the priest,<br>And hear what the good man has to say!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * * * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A VILLAGE CHURCH.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * * * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_A woman kneeling at the confessional.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The Parish Priest (from within)_. Go, sin no<br>more! Thy penance o'er,<br>A new and better life begin!<br>God maketh thee forever free<br>From the dominion of thy sin!<br>Go, sin no more! He will restore<br>The peace that filled thy heart before,<br>And pardon thine iniquity!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(_The woman goes out. The Priest comes forth, and<br>walks slowly up and down the church_.)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">O blessed Lord! how much I need<br>Thy light to guide me on my way!<br>So many hands, that, without heed,<br>Still touch thy wounds, and make them bleed!<br>So many feet, that, day by day,<br>Still wander from thy fold astray!<br>Unless thou fill me with thy light,<br>I cannot lead thy flock aright;<br>Nor, without thy support, can bear<br>The burden of so great a care,<br>But am myself a castaway!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(_A pause_.)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The day is drawing to its close;<br>And what good deeds, since first it rose,<br>Have I presented, Lord, to thee,<br>As offerings of my ministry?<br>What wrong repressed, what right maintained<br>What struggle passed, what victory gained,<br>What good attempted and attained?<br>Feeble, at best, is my endeavor!<br>I see, but cannot reach, the height<br>That lies forever in the light,<br>And yet forever and forever,<br>When seeming just within my grasp,<br>I feel my feeble hands unclasp,<br>And sink discouraged into night!<br>For thine own purpose, thou hast sent<br>The strife and the discouragement!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(_A pause_.)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Why stayest thou, Prince of Hoheneck?<br>Why keep me pacing to and fro<br>Amid these aisles of sacred gloom,<br>Counting my footsteps as I go,<br>And marking with each step a tomb?<br>Why should the world for thee make room,<br>And wait thy leisure and thy beck?<br>Thou comest in the hope to hear<br>Some word of comfort and of cheer.<br>What can I say? I cannot give<br>The counsel to do this and live;<br>But rather, firmly to deny<br>The tempter, though his power is strong,<br>And, inaccessible to wrong,<br>Still like a martyr live and die!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(_A pause_.)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The evening air grows dusk and brown;<br>I must go forth into the town,<br>To visit beds of pain and death,<br>Of restless limbs, and quivering breath,<br>And sorrowing hearts, and patient eyes<br>That see, through tears, the sun go down,<br>But never more shall see it rise.<br>The poor in body and estate,<br>The sick and the disconsolate.<br>Must not on man's convenience wait.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(_Goes out. Enter_ LUCIFER, _as a Priest_. LUCIFER,<br>_with a genuflexion, mocking_.)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">This is the Black Pater-noster.<br>God was my foster,<br>He fostered me<br>Under the book of the Palm-tree!<br>St. Michael was my dame.<br>He was born at Bethlehem,<br>He was made of flesh and blood.<br>God send me my right food,<br>My right food, and shelter too,<br>That I may to yon kirk go,<br>To read upon yon sweet book<br>Which the mighty God of heaven shook.<br>Open, open, hell's gates!<br>Shut, shut, heaven's gates!<br>All the devils in the air<br>The stronger be, that hear the Black Prayer!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(_Looking round the church_.)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">What a darksome and dismal place!<br>I wonder that any man has the face<br>To call such a hole the House of the Lord,<br>And the Gate of Heaven,--yet such is the word.<br>Ceiling, and walls, and windows old,<br>Covered with cobwebs, blackened with mould;<br>Dust on the pulpit, dust on the stairs,<br>Dust on the benches, and stalls, and chairs!<br>The pulpit, from which such ponderous sermons<br>Have fallen down on the brains of the Germans,<br>With about as much real edification<br>As if a great Bible, bound in lead,<br>Had fallen, and struck them on the head;<br>And I ought to remember that sensation!<br>Here stands the holy water stoup!<br>Holy-water it may be to many,<br>But to me, the veriest Liquor Gehennae!<br>It smells like a filthy fast day soup!<br>Near it stands the box for the poor;<br>With its iron padlock, safe and sure,<br>I and the priest of the parish know<br>Whither all these charities go;<br>Therefore, to keep up the institution,<br>I will add my little contribution!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(_He puts in money._)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Underneath this mouldering tomb,<br>With statue of stone, and scutcheon of brass,<br>Slumbers a great lord of the village.<br>All his life was riot and pillage,<br>But at length, to escape the threatened doom<br>Of the everlasting, penal fire,<br>He died in the dress of a mendicant friar,<br>And bartered his wealth for a daily mass.<br>But all that afterward came to pass,<br>And whether he finds it dull or pleasant,<br>Is kept a secret for the present,<br>At his own particular desire.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And here, in a corner of the wall,<br>Shadowy, silent, apart from all,<br>With its awful portal open wide,<br>And its latticed windows on either side,<br>And its step well worn by the bended knees<br>Of one or two pious centuries,<br>Stands the village confessional!<br>Within it, as an honored guest,<br>I will sit me down awhile and rest!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(_Seats himself in the confessional_.)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Here sits the priest, and faint and low,<br>Like the sighing of an evening breeze,<br>Comes through these painted lattices<br>The ceaseless sound of human woe,<br>Here, while her bosom aches and throbs<br>With deep and agonizing sobs,<br>That half are passion, half contrition,<br>The luckless daughter of perdition<br>Slowly confesses her secret shame!<br>The time, the place, the lover's name!<br>Here the grim murderer, with a groan,<br>From his bruised conscience rolls the stone,<br>Thinking that thus he can atone<br>For ravages of sword and flame!<br>Indeed, I marvel, and marvel greatly,<br>How a priest can sit here so sedately,<br>Reading, the whole year out and in,<br>Naught but the catalogue of sin,<br>And still keep any faith whatever<br>In human virtue! Never! never!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I cannot repeat a thousandth part<br>Of the horrors and crimes and sins and woes<br>That arise, when with palpitating throes<br>The graveyard in the human heart<br>Gives up its dead, at the voice of the priest,<br>As if he were an archangel, at least.<br>It makes a peculiar atmosphere,<br>This odor of earthly passions and crimes,<br>Such as I like to breathe, at times,<br>And such as often brings me here<br>In the hottest and most pestilential season.<br>To-day, I come for another reason;<br>To foster and ripen an evil thought<br>In a heart that is almost to madness wrought,<br>And to make a murderer out of a prince,<br>A sleight of hand I learned long since!<br>He comes In the twilight he will not see<br>the difference between his priest and me!<br>In the same net was the mother caught!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(_Prince Henry entering and kneeling at the confessional._)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Remorseful, penitent, and lowly,<br>I come to crave, O Father holy,<br>Thy benediction on my head.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Lucifer_. The benediction shall be said<br>After confession, not before!<br>'T is a God speed to the parting guest,<br>Who stands already at the door,<br>Sandalled with holiness, and dressed<br>In garments pure from earthly stain.<br>Meanwhile, hast thou searched well thy breast?<br>Does the same madness fill thy brain?<br>Or have thy passion and unrest<br>Vanished forever from thy mind?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry_. By the same madness still made blind,<br>By the same passion still possessed,<br>I come again to the house of prayer,<br>A man afflicted and distressed!<br>As in a cloudy atmosphere,<br>Through unseen sluices of the air,<br>A sudden and impetuous wind<br>Strikes the great forest white with fear,<br>And every branch, and bough, and spray<br>Points all its quivering leaves one way,<br>And meadows of grass, and fields of grain,<br>And the clouds above, and the slanting rain,<br>And smoke from chimneys of the town,<br>Yield themselves to it, and bow down,<br>So does this dreadful purpose press<br>Onward, with irresistible stress,<br>And all my thoughts and faculties,<br>Struck level by the strength of this,<br>From their true inclination turn,<br>And all stream forward to Salem!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Lucifer_. Alas! we are but eddies of dust,<br>Uplifted by the blast, and whirled<br>Along the highway of the world<br>A moment only, then to fall<br>Back to a common level all,<br>At the subsiding of the gust!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry_. O holy Father! pardon in me<br>The oscillation of a mind<br>Unsteadfast, and that cannot find<br>Its centre of rest and harmony!<br>For evermore before mine eyes<br>This ghastly phantom flits and flies,<br>And as a madman through a crowd,<br>With frantic gestures and wild cries,<br>It hurries onward, and aloud<br>Repeats its awful prophecies!<br>Weakness is wretchedness! To be strong<br>Is to be happy! I am weak,<br>And cannot find the good I seek,<br>Because I feel and fear the wrong!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Lucifer_. Be not alarmed! The Church is kind--<br>And in her mercy and her meekness<br>She meets half-way her children's weakness,<br>Writes their transgressions in the dust!<br>Though in the Decalogue we find<br>The mandate written, 'Thou shalt not kill!'<br>Yet there are cases when we must.<br>In war, for instance, or from scathe<br>To guard and keep the one true Faith!<br>We must look at the Decalogue in the light<br>Of an ancient statute, that was meant<br>For a mild and general application,<br>To be understood with the reservation,<br>That, in certain instances, the Right<br>Must yield to the Expedient!<br>Thou art a Prince. If thou shouldst die,<br>What hearts and hopes would prostrate he!<br>What noble deeds, what fair renown,<br>Into the grave with thee go down!<br>What acts of valor and courtesy<br>Remain undone, and die with thee!<br>Thou art the last of all thy race!<br>With thee a noble name expires,<br>And vanishes from the earth's face<br>The glorious memory of thy sires!<br>She is a peasant. In her veins<br>Flows common and plebeian blood;<br>It is such as daily and hourly stains<br>The dust and the turf of battle plains,<br>By vassals shed, in a crimson flood,<br>Without reserve, and without reward,<br>At the slightest summons of their lord!<br>But thine is precious, the fore-appointed<br>Blood of kings, of God's anointed!<br>Moreover, what has the world in store<br>For one like her, but tears and toil?<br>Daughter of sorrow, serf of the soil,<br>A peasant's child and a peasant's wife,<br>And her soul within her sick and sore<br>With the roughness and barrenness of life!<br>I marvel not at the heart's recoil<br>From a fate like this, in one so tender,<br>Nor at its eagerness to surrender<br>All the wretchedness, want, and woe<br>That await it in this world below,<br>For the unutterable splendor<br>Of the world of rest beyond the skies.<br>So the Church sanctions the sacrifice:<br>Therefore inhale this healing balm,<br>And breathe this fresh life into thine;<br>Accept the comfort and the calm<br>She offers, as a gift divine,<br>Let her fall down and anoint thy feet<br>With the ointment costly and most sweet<br>Of her young blood, and thou shall live.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ And will the righteous Heaven forgive?<br>No action, whether foul or fair,<br>Is ever done, but it leaves somewhere<br>A record, written by fingers ghostly,<br>As a blessing or a curse, and mostly<br>In the greater weakness or greater strength<br>Of the acts which follow it, till at length<br>The wrongs of ages are redressed,<br>And the justice of God made manifest!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Lucifer_ In ancient records it is stated<br>That, whenever an evil deed is done,<br>Another devil is created<br>To scourge and torment the offending one!<br>But evil is only good perverted,<br>And Lucifer, the Bearer of Light,<br>But an angel fallen and deserted,<br>Thrust from his Father's house with a curse<br>Into the black and endless night.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ If justice rules the universe,<br>From the good actions of good men<br>Angels of light should be begotten,<br>And thus the balance restored again.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Lucifer._ Yes; if the world were not so rotten,<br>And so given over to the Devil!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ But this deed, is it good or evil?<br>Have I thine absolution free<br>To do it, and without restriction?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Lucifer._ Ay; and from whatsoever sin<br>Lieth around it and within,<br>From all crimes in which it may involve thee,<br>I now release thee and absolve thee!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ Give me thy holy benediction.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Lucifer._ (_stretching forth his hand and muttering_),<br>Maledictione perpetua<br>Maledicat vos<br>Pater eternus!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_The Angel_ (_with the aeolian harp_). Take heed! take heed!<br>Noble art thou in thy birth,<br>By the good and the great of earth<br>Hast thou been taught!<br>Be noble in every thought<br>And in every deed!<br>Let not the illusion of thy senses<br>Betray thee to deadly offences.<br>Be strong! be good! be pure!<br>The right only shall endure,<br>All things else are but false pretences!<br>I entreat thee, I implore,<br>Listen no more<br>To the suggestions of an evil spirit,<br>That even now is there,<br>Making the foul seem fair,<br>And selfishness itself a virtue and a merit!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * * * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A ROOM IN THE FARM-HOUSE.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * * * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb_. It is decided! For many days,<br>And nights as many, we have had<br>A nameless terror in our breast,<br>Making us timid, and afraid<br>Of God, and his mysterious ways!<br>We have been sorrowful and sad;<br>Much have we suffered, much have prayed<br>That he would lead us as is best,<br>And show us what his will required.<br>It is decided; and we give<br>Our child, O Prince, that you may live!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula_. It is of God. He has inspired<br>This purpose in her; and through pain,<br>Out of a world of sin and woe,<br>He takes her to himself again.<br>The mother's heart resists no longer;<br>With the Angel of the Lord in vain<br>It wrestled, for he was the stronger.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb_. As Abraham offered long ago<br>His son unto the Lord, and even<br>The Everlasting Father in heaven<br>Gave his, as a lamb unto the slaughter,<br>So do I offer up my daughter!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(URSULA _hides her face_.)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie_. My life is little,<br>Only a cup of water,<br>But pure and limpid.<br>Take it, O my Prince!<br>Let it refresh you,<br>Let it restore you.<br>It is given willingly,<br>It is given freely;<br>May God bless the gift!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ And the giver!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ Amen!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ I accept it!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ Where are the children?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Ursula._ They are already asleep.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Gottlieb._ What if they were dead?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * * * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">IN THE GARDEN.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">* * * * *</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ I have one thing to ask of you.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ What is it?<br>It is already granted.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ Promise me,<br>When we are gone from here, and on our way<br>Are journeying to Salerno, you will not,<br>By word or deed, endeavor to dissuade me<br>And turn me from my purpose, but remember<br>That as a pilgrim to the Holy City<br>Walks unmolested, and with thoughts of pardon<br>Occupied wholly, so would I approach<br>The gates of Heaven, in this great jubilee,<br>With my petition, putting off from me<br>All thoughts of earth, as shoes from off my feet.<br>Promise me this.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ Thy words fall from thy lips<br>Like roses from the lips of Angelo: and angels<br>Might stoop to pick them up!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ Will you not promise?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ If ever we depart upon this journey,<br>So long to one or both of us, I promise.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Elsie._ Shall we not go, then? Have you lifted me<br>Into the air, only to hurl me back<br>Wounded upon the ground? and offered me<br>The waters of eternal life, to bid me<br>Drink the polluted puddles of this world?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409715" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_Prince Henry._ O Elsie! what a lesson thou dost teach me!<br>The life which is, and that which is to come,<br>Suspended hang in such nice equipoise<br>A breath disturbs the balance; and that scale<br>In which we throw our hearts preponderates,<br>And the other, like an empty one, flies up,<br>And is accounted vanity and air!<br>To me the thought of death is terrible,<br>Having such hold on life. To thee it is not<br>So much even as the lifting of a latch;<br>Only a step into the open air<br>Out of a tent already luminous<br>With light that shines through its transparent walls!<br>O pure in heart! from thy sweet dust shall grow<br>Lilies, upon whose petals will be written<br>'Ave Maria' in characters of gold!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Henry+Wadsworth+Longfellow">Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</a></strong></div>

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