Let me conduct him to my quiet bower.
Rest and retirement may compose his mind.
Aur. Aye, thou art right, Terentia.
Ermingard alive—Aurora is happy as an angel in heaven; but Ermingard is distracted—and a little page who had overheard him—asks Garcia
"Do folks groan heaviest when they are alone?"
Ermingard and Aurora meet again—in the apartment of Terentia; and only a woman—and that woman Joanna Baillie—or might we say Caroline Bowles Southey—could have imagined in its perfect purity such a scene as this—
"Erm. O cease! Thy words, thy voice, thy hand on mine,
That touch so dearly felt, do but enhance
An agony too greatUntoward fate!
Thus to have lost thee!
Aur.Say not, thou hast lost me.
Heaven will subdue our minds, and we shall still,
With what is spared us from our wreck of bliss,
Be happy.
Erm.Most unblest, untoward fate!
After that hapless battle, where in vain
I courted death, I kept my name conceal'd.
Even brave De Villeneuve, master of our Order,
When he received my vows, did pledge his faith
Not to declare it. Thus I kept myself
From all communication with these shores,
Perversely forwarding my rival's will.
O blind and credulous fool!
Aur. Nay, do not thus upbraid thyself: Heaven will'd it.
Be not so keenly moved: there still is left
What to the soul is dear.—We'll still be happy.
Erm. The chasten'd pilgrim o'er his lady's grave
Sweet tears may shed, and may without reproach
Thoughts of his past love blend with thoughts of heaven.
He whom the treach'ry of some faithless maid
Hath robb'd of bliss, may, in the sturdy pride
Of a wrong'd man, the galling ill endure;
But sever'd thus from thee, so true, so noble,
By vows that all the soul's devotion claim,
It makes me feel—may God forgive the crime!
A very hatred of all saintly things.
Fool—rash and credulous fool! to lose thee thus!
Aur. Nay, say not so: thou still art mine. Short while
I would have given my whole of life besides
To've seen but once again thy passing form—
Thy face—thine eyes turn'd on me for a moment;
Or only to have heard through the still air
Thy voice distinctly call me, or the sound
Of thy known steps upon my lonely floor:
And shall I then, holding thy living hand
In love and honour, say, thou art not mine?
Erm. (shaking his head) This state—this sacred badge!
Aur. O no! that holy cross upon thy breast
Throws such a charm of valorous sanctity
O'er thy loved form: my thoughts do forward glance
To deeds of such high fame by thee achieved,
That even methinks the bliss of wedded love
Less dear, less noble is than such strong bonds
As may, without reproach, unite us still.
Erm. O creature of a gen'rous constancy!
Thou but the more distractest me!—Fool, fool!
Mean, misbelieving fool!—I thought her false,
Cred'lous alone of evil:—I have lost,
And have deserved to lose her.
Aur. Oh! be not thus! Have I no power to sooth thee?
See, good Terentia weeps, and fain would try
To speak thee comfort.
Ter. (coming forward.) Aye; bethink thee well,
Most noble Ermingard, heaven grants thee still
All that is truly precious of her love,—
Her true and dear regard.
Erm. Then heaven forgive my black ingratitude,
For I am most unthankful.
Ter.Nay, consider,
Her heart is thine: you are in mind united,
Erm. United ! In the farthest nook o' th' earth
I may in lonely solitude reflect,
That in some spot—some happier land she lives
And thinks of me. Is this to be united?
Aur. I cannot, in a page's surtout clad,
Thy steps attend, as other maids have done
To other knights.
Erm.No, by the holy rood!
Thou can'st not, and thou should'st not. Rather would I,
Dear as thou art, weep o'er thee in thy grave
Than see thee so degraded.
