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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES; A TRAGEDY, by ROBERT BROWNING Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The moon is carried off in purple fire Last Line: Druses! [dies Subject(s): Druze | |||
PERSONS The Grand-Master's Prefect. The Patriarch's Nuncio. The Republic's Admiral. LOYS DE DREUX, Knight-Novice. Initiated Druses -- DJABAL, KHALIL, ANAEL, MAANI, KARSHOOK, RAGHIB, AYOOB, and others. Uninitiated Druses, Prefect's Guard, Nuncio's Attendants, Admiral's Force. TIME, 14--. PLACE, An Islet of the Southern Sporades, colonized by Druses of Lebanon, and garrisoned by the Knights-Hospitallers of Rhodes. SCENE, A Hall in the Prefect's Palace. ACT I Karshook. The moon is carried off in purple fire: Day breaks at last! Break glory, with the day, On Djabal's dread incarnate mystery Now ready to resume its pristine shape Of Hakeem, as the Khalif vanished erst In what seemed death to uninstructed eyes, On red Mokattam's verge -- our Founder's flesh, As he resumes our Founder's function! Raghib. -- Death Sweep to the Christian Prefect that enslaved So long us sad Druse exiles o'er the sea! Ayoob. -- Most joy be thine, O Mother-mount! Thy brood Returns to thee, no outcasts as we left, But thus -- but thus! Behind, our Prefect's corse; Before, a presence like the morning -- thine, Absolute Djabal late, -- God Hakeem now That day breaks! Kar. Off then, with disguise at last! As from our forms this hateful garb we strip, Lose every tongue its glozing accent too, Discard each limb the ignoble gesture! Cry, 'T is the Druse Nation, warders on our Mount Of the world's secret, since the birth of time, -- No kindred slips, no offsets from thy stock, No spawn of Christians are we, Prefect, we Who rise ... Ay. Who shout ... Ragh. Who seize, a first-fruits, ha -- Spoil of the spoiler! Brave! [They begin to tear down, and to dispute for, the decorations of the hall. Kar. Hold! Ay. -- Mine, I say; And mine shall it continue! Kar. Just this fringe! Take anything beside! Lo, spire on spire, Curl serpentwise wreathed columns to the top O' the roof, and hide themselves mysteriously Among the twinkling lights and darks that haunt You cornice! Where the huge veil, they suspend Before the Prefect's chamber of delight, Floats wide, then falls again as if its slave, The scented air, took heart now, and anon Lost heart to buoy its breadths of gorgeousness Above the gloom they droop in -- all the porch Is jewelled o'er with frostwork charactery; And, see, yon eight-point cross of white flame, winking Hoar-silvery like some fresh - broke marble stone: Raze out the Rhodian cross there, so thou leav'st me This single fringe! Ay. Ha, wouldst thou, dog-fox? Help! -- Three hand-breadths of gold fringe, my son was set To twist, the night he died! Kar. Nay, hear the knave! And I could witness my one daughter borne, A week since, to the Prefect's couch, yet fold These arms, be mute, lest word of mine should mar Our Master's work, delay the Prefect here A day, prevent his sailing hence for Rhodes -- How know I else? -- Hear me denied my right By such a knave! Ragh. [Interposing.] Each ravage for himself! Booty enough! On, Druses! Be there found Blood and a heap behind us; with us, Djabal Turned Hakeem; and before us, Lebanon! Yields the porch? Spare not! There his minions dragged Thy daughter, Karshook, to the Prefect's couch! Ayoob! Thy son, to soothe the Prefect's pride, Bent o'er that task, the death-sweat on his brow, Carving the spice-tree's heart in scroll-work there! Onward in Djabal's name! (As the tumult is at height, enter KHALIL. A pause and silence.) Khalil. Was it for this, Djabal hath summoned you? Deserve you thus A portion in to-day's event? What, here -- When most behoves your feet fall soft, your eyes Sink low, your tongues lie still, -- at Djabal's side, Close in his very hearing, who, perchance, Assumes e'en now God Hakeem's dreaded shape, -- Dispute you for these gauds? Ay. How say'st thou, Khalil? Doubtless our Master prompts thee! Take the fringe, Old Karshook! I supposed it was a day ... Kha. For pillage? Kar. Hearken, Khalil! Never spoke A boy so like a song-bird; we avouch thee Prettiest of all our Master's instruments Except thy bright twin-sister; thou and Anael Challenge his prime regard: but we may crave (Such nothings as we be) a portion too Of Djabal's favor; in him we believed, His bound ourselves, him moon by moon obeyed, Kept silence till this daybreak -- so, may claim Reward: who grudges me my claim? Ay. To-day Is not as yesterday! Ragh. Stand off! Kha. Rebel you? Must I, the delegate of Djabal, draw His wrath on you, the day of our Return? Other Druses. Wrench from their grasp the fringe! Hounds! must the earth Vomit her plagues on us through thee? -- and thee? Plague me not, Khalil, for their fault! Kha. Oh, shame! Thus breaks to-day on you, the mystic tribe Who, flying the approach of Osman, bore Our faith, a merest spark, from Syria's ridge, Its birthplace, hither! "Let the sea divide These hunters from their prey," you said; "and safe In this dim islet's virgin solitude Tend we our faith, the spark, till happier time Fan it to fire; till Hakeem rise again, According to his word that, in the flesh Which faded on Mokattam ages since, He, at our extreme need, would interpose, And, reinstating all in power and bliss, Lead us himself to Lebanon once more." Was 't not thus you departed years ago, Ere I was born? Druses. 'T was even thus, years ago. Kha. And did you call -- (according to old laws Which bid us, lest the sacred grow profane, Assimilate ourselves in outward rites With strangers fortune makes our lords, and live As Christian with the Christian, Jew with Jew Druse only with the Druses) -- did you call Or no, to stand 'twixt you and Osman's rage, (Mad to pursue e'en hither through the sea The remnant of our tribe,) a race self vowed To endless warfare with his hordes and him, The White-cross Knights of the adjacent Isle? Kar. And why else rend we down, wrench up, rase out? These Knights of Rhodes we thus solicited For help, bestowed on us a fiercer pest Than aught we fled -- their Prefect; who began His promised mere paternal governance, By a prompt massacre of all our Sheikhs Able to thwart the Order in its scheme Of crushing, with our nation's memory, Each chance of our return, and taming us Bondslaves to Rhodes forever -- all, he thinks To end by this day's treason. Kha. Say I not? You, fitted to the Order's purposes, Your Sheikhs cut off, your rights, your garb proscribed, Must yet receive one degradation more; The Knights at last throw off the mask -- transfer, As tributary now and appanage, This islet they are but protectors of, To their own ever-craving liege, the Church, Who licenses all crimes that pay her thus. You, from their Prefect, were to be consigned (Pursuant of I know not what vile pact) To the Knights' Patriarch, ardent to outvie His predecessor in all wickedness. When suddenly rose Djabal in the midst, Djabal, the man in semblance, but our God Confessed by signs and portents. Ye saw fire Bicker round Djabal, heard strange music flit Bird-like about his brow? Druses. We saw -- we heard! Djabal is Hakeem, the incarnate Dread, The phantasm Khalif, King of Prodigies! Kha. And as he said has not our Khalif done, And so disposed events (from land to land Passing invisibly) that when, this morn, The pact of villany complete, there comes This Patriarch's Nuncio with this Master's Prefect Their treason to consummate, -- each will face For a crouching handful, an uplifted nation; For simulated Christians, confessed Druses; And, for slaves past hope of the Mother-mount, Freedmen returning there 'neath Venice' flag; That Venice which, the Hospitallers' foe, Grants us from Candia escort home at price Of our relinquished isle, Rhodes counts her own -- Venice, whose promised argosies should stand Toward harbor: is it now that you, and you, And you, selected from the rest to bear The burden of the Khalif's secret, further To-day's event, entitled by your wrongs, And witness in the Prefect's hall his fate -- That you dare clutch these gauds? Ay, drop them! Kar. True, Most true, all this; and yet, may one dare hint, Thou art the youngest of us? -- though employed Abundantly as Djabal's confidant, Transmitter of his mandates, even now. Much less, whene'er beside him Anael graces The cedar throne, his queen-bride, art thou like To occupy its lowest step that day! Now, Khalil, wert thou checked as thou aspirest, Forbidden such or such an honor, -- say, Would silence serve so amply? Kha. Karshook thinks I covet honors? Well, nor idly thinks! Honors? I have demanded of them all The greatest! Kar. I supposed so. Kha. Judge, yourselves! Turn, thus: 't is in the alcove at the back Of yonder columned porch, whose entrance now The veil hides, that our Prefect holds his state, Receives the Nuncio, when the one, from Rhodes, The other lands from Syria; there they meet. Now, I have sued with earnest prayers ... Kar. For what Shall the Bride's brother vainly sue? Kha. That mine -- Avenging in one blow a myriad wrongs -- Might be the hand to slay the Prefect there! Djabal reserves that office for himself. [A silence. Thus far, as youngest of you all, I speak -- Scarce more enlightened than yourselves; since, near As I approach him, nearer as I trust Soon to approach our Master, he reveals Only the God's power, not the glory yet. Therefore I reasoned with you: now, as servant To Djabal, bearing his authority, Hear me appoint your several posts! Till noon None see him save myself and Anael: once The deed achieved, our Khalif, casting off The embodied Awe's tremendous mystery, The weakness of the flesh disguise, resumes His proper glory, ne'er to fade again. (Enter a Druse.) The Druse. Our Prefect lands from Rhodes! -- without a sign That he suspects aught since he left our Isle; Nor in his train a single guard beyond The few he sailed with hence: so have we learned From Loys. Kar. Loys? Is not Loys gone Forever? Ay. Loys, the Frank Knight, returned? The Druse. Loys, the boy, stood on the leading prow Conspicuous in his gay attire, and leapt Into the surf the foremost. Since day-dawn I kept watch to the Northward; take but note Of my poor vigilance to Djabal! Kha. Peace! Thou, Karshook, with thy company, receive The Prefect as appointed: see, all keep The wonted show of servitude: announce His entry here by the accustomed peal Of trumpets, then await the further pleasure Of Djabal! (Loys back, whom Djabal sent To Rhodes that we might spare the single Knight Worth sparing!) (Enter a second Druse.) The Druse. I espied it first! Say, I First spied the Nuncio's galley from the South! Said'st thou a Crossed-keys' flag would flap the mast? It nears apace! One galley and no more. If Djabal chance to ask who spied the flag, Forget not, I it was! Kha. Thou, Ayoob, bring The Nuncio and his followers hither! Break One rule prescribed, ye wither in your blood, Die at your fault! (Enter a third Druse.) The Druse. I shall see home, see home! -- Shall banquet in the sombre groves again! Hail to thee, Khalil! Venice looms afar; The argosies of Venice, like a cloud, Bear up from Candia in the distance! Kha. Joy! Summon our people, Raghib! Bid all forth! Tell them the long-kept secret, old and young! Set free the captive, let the trampled raise Their faces from the dust, because at length The cycle is complete, God Hakeem's reign Begins anew! Say, Venice for our guard, Ere night we steer for Syria! Hear you, Druses? Hear you this crowning witness to the claims Of Djabal? Oh, I spoke of hope and fear, Reward and punishment, because he bade Who has the right: for me, what should I say But, mar not those imperial lineaments, No majesty of all that rapt regard Vex by the least omission! Let him rise Without a check from you! Druses. Let Djabal rise! (Enter LOYS. -- The Druses are silent.) Loys. Who speaks of Djabal? -- for I seek him, friends! [Aside.] Tu Dieu! 'T is as our Isle broke out in song For joy, its Prefect-incubus drops off To-day, and I succeed him in his rule! But no -- they cannot dream of their good fortune! [Aloud.] Peace to you, Druses! I have tidings for you, But first for Djabal: where's your tall bewitcher, With that small Arab thin-lipped silver-mouth? Kha. [Aside to KAR.] Loys, in truth! Yet Djabal cannot err! Kar. [To KHA.] And who takes charge of Loys? That's forgotten, Despite thy wariness! Will Loys stand And see his comrades slaughtered? Loys. [Aside.] How they shrink And whisper, with those rapid faces! What? The sight of me in their oppressors' garb Strikes terror to the simple tribe? God's shame On those that bring our Order ill repute! But all's at end now; better days begin For these mild mountaineers from over-sea: The timidest shall have in me no Prefect To cower at thus! [Aloud.] I asked for Djabal -- Kar. [Aside.] Better One lured him, ere he can suspect, inside The corridor; 't were easy to dispatch A youngster. [To LOYS.] Djabal passed some minutes since Through yonder porch, and ... Kha. [Aside.] Hold! What, him dispatch? The only Christian of them all we charge No tyranny upon? Who, -- noblest Knight Of all that learned from time to time their trade Of lust and cruelty among us, -- heir To Europe's pomp, a truest child of pride, -- Yet stood between the Prefect and ourselves From the beginning? Loys, Djabal makes Account of, and precisely sent to Rhodes For safety? I take charge of him! [To LOYS.] Sir Loys, -- Loys. There, cousins! Does Sir Loys strike you dead? Kha. [Advancing.] Djabal has intercourse with few or none Till noontide: but, your pleasure? Loys. "Intercourse With few or none?" -- (Ah, Khalil, when you spoke I saw not your smooth face! All health! -- and health To Anael! How fares Anael?) -- "Intercourse With few or none?" Forget you, I've been friendly With Djabal long ere you or any Druse? -- Enough of him at Rennes, I think, beneath The Duke my father's roof! He'd tell by the hour, With fixed white eyes beneath his swarthy brow Plausiblest stories ... Kha. Stories, say you? -- Ah, The quaint attire! Loys. My dress for the last time! How sad I cannot make you understand, This ermine, o'er a shield, betokens me Of Bretagne, ancientest of provinces And noblest; and, what's best and oldest there, See, Dreux', our house's blazon, which the Nuncio Tacks to an Hospitaller's vest to-day! Kha. The Nuncio we await? What brings you back From Rhodes, Sir Loys? Loys. How you island-tribe Forget the world's awake while here you drowse! What brings me back? What should not bring me, rather! Our Patriarch's Nuncio visits you to-day -- Is not my year's probation out? I come To take the knightly vows. Kha. What's that you wear? Loys. This Rhodian cross? The cross your Prefect wore. You should have seen, as I saw, the full Chapter Rise, to a man, while they transferred this cross From that unworthy Prefect's neck to ... (fool -- My secret will escape me!) In a word, My year's probation passed, a Knight ere eve Am I; bound, like the rest, to yield my wealth To the common stock, to live in chastity, (We Knights espouse alone our Order's fame) -- Change this gay weed for the black white-crossed gown, And fight to death against the Infidel -- Not, therefore, against you, you Christians with Such partial difference only as befits The peacefullest of tribes. But Khalil, prithee, Is not the Isle brighter than wont to-day? Kha. Ah, the new sword! Loys. See now! You handle sword As 't were a camel-staff! Pull! That's my motto, Annealed "Pro fide," on the blade in blue Kha. No curve in it? Surely a blade should curv. Loys. Straight from the wrist! Loose -- it should poise itself! Kha. [Waving with irrepressible exultation the sword.] We are a nation, Loys, of old fame Among the mountains! Rights have we to keep With the sword too! [Remembering himself.] But I forget -- you bid me Seek Djabal? Loys. What! A sword's sight scares you not? (The People I will make of him and them! Oh let my Prefect-sway begin at once!) Bring Djabal -- say, indeed, that come he must! Kha. At noon seek Djabal in the Prefect's Chamber, And find ... [Aside.] Nay, 't is thy cursed race's token, Frank pride, no special insolence of thine! [Aloud.] Tarry, and I will do your bidding, Loys! [To the rest aside.] Now, forth you! I proceed to Djabal straight. Leave this poor boy, who knows not what he says! Oh will it not add joy to even thy joy, Djabal, that I report all friends were true? [KHALIL goes, followed by the Druses. Loys. Tu Dieu! How happy I shall make these Druses! Was't not surpassingly contrived of me To get the long list of their wrongs by heart, Then take the first pretence for stealing off From these poor islanders, present myself Sudden at Rhodes before the noble Chapter, And (as best proof of ardor in its cause Which ere to-night will have become, too, mine) Acquaint it with this plague-sore in its body, This Prefect and his villanous career? The princely Synod! All I dared request Was his dismissal; and they graciously Consigned his very office to myself -- Myself may cure the Isle diseased! And well For them, they did so! Since I never felt How lone a lot, though brilliant, I embrace, Till now that, past retrieval, it is mine. To live thus, and thus die! Yet, as I leapt On shore, so home a felling greeted me That I could half believe in Djabal's story, He used to tempt my father with, at Rennes -- And me, too, since the story brought me here -- Of some Count Dreux and ancestor of ours Who, sick of wandering from Bouillon's war, Left his old name in Lebanon. Long days At least to spend in the Isle! and, my news known An hour hence, what if Anael turn on me The great black eyes I must forget? Why, fool, Recall them, then? My business is with Djabal, Not Anael! Djabal tarries: if I seek him? -- The Isle is brighter than its wont to-day? ACT II Enter DJABAL. Dja. That a strong man should think himself a God! I -- Hakeem? To have wandered through the world, Sown falsehood, and thence reaped now scorn, now faith, For my one chant with many a change, my tale Of outrage, and my prayer for vengeance -- this Required, forsooth, no mere man's faculty, Naught less than Hakeem's? The persuading Loys To pass probation here: the getting access By Loys to the Prefect; worst of all, The gaining my tribe's confidence by fraud That would disgrace the very Frank, -- a few Of Europe's secrets which subdue the flame, The wave, -- to ply a simple tribe with these, Took Hakeem? And I fell this first to-day! Does the day break, is the hour imminent When one deed, when my whole life's deed, my deed Must be accomplished? Hakeem? Why the God? Shout, rather, "Djabal, Youssof's child, thought slain With his whole race, the Druses' Sheikhs, this Prefect Endeavored to extirpate -- saved, a child, Returns from traversing the world, a man, Able to take revenge, lead back the march To Lebanon" -- so shout, and who gainsays? But now, because delusion mixed itself Insensibly with this career, all's changed! Have I brought Venice to afford us convoy? "True -- but my jugglings wrought that!" Put I heart Into our people where no heart lurked? -- "Ah, What cannot an impostor do!" Not this! Not do this which I do! Not bid avaunt Falsehood! Thou shalt not keep thy hold on me! -- Nor even get a hold on me! 'T is now -- This day -- hour -- minute -- 't is as here I stand On the accursed threshold of the Prefect, That I am found deceiving and deceived! And now what do I? -- hasten to the few Deceived, ere they deceive the many -- shout, "As I professed, I did believe myself! Say, Druses, had you seen a butchery -- If Ayoob, Karshook saw -- Maani there Must tell you how I saw my father sink; My mother's arms twine still about my neck; I hear my brother shriek, here's yet the scar Of what was meant for my own death-blow -- say, If you had woke like me, grown year by year Out of the tumult in a far-off clime, Would it be wondrous such delusion grew? I walked the world, asked help at every hand; Came help or no? Not this and this? Which helps When I returned with, found the Prefect here, The Druses here, all here but Hakeem's self, The Khalif of the thousand prophecies, Reserved for such a juncture, -- could I call My mission aught but Hakeem's? Promised Hakeem More than performs the Djabal -- you absolve? -- Me, you will never shame before the crowd Yet happily ignorant? -- Me, both throngs surround, The few deceived, the many unabused, -- Who, thus surrounded, slay for you and them The Prefect, lead to Lebanon? No Khalif, But Sheikh once more! Mere Djabal -- not" ... (Enter KHALIL hastily.) Kha. -- God Hakeem! 'T is told! The whole Druse nation knows thee, Hakeem, As we! and mothers lift on high their babes Who seem aware, so glisten their great eyes, Thou hast not failed us; ancient brows are proud; Our elders could not earlier die, it seems, Than at thy coming! The Druse heart is thine! Take it! my lord and theirs, be thou adored! Dja. [Aside.] Adored! -- but I renounce it utterly! Kha. Already are they instituting choirs And dances to the Khalif, as of old 'T is chronicled thou bad'st them. Dja. [Aside.] I abjure it! 'T is not mine -- not for me! Kha. Why pour they wine Flavored like honey and bruised mountain-herbs, Or wear those strings of sun-dried cedar-fruit? Oh, let me tell thee -- Esaad, we supposed Doting, is carried forth, eager to see The last sun rise on the Isle: he can see now! The shamed Druse women never wept before: They can look up when we reach home, they say. Smell! -- sweet cane, saved in Lilith's breast thus long -- Sweet! -- it grows wild in Lebanon. And I Alone do nothing for thee! 'T is my office Just to announce what well thou know'st -- but thus Thou bidst me. At this self-same moment tend The Prefect, Nuncio and the Admiral Hither by their three sea-paths: nor forget Who were the trusty watchers! -- thou forget? Like me, who do forget that Anael bade ... Dja. [Aside]. Ay, Anael, Anael -- is that said at last? Louder than all, that would be said, I knew! What does abjuring mean, confessing mean, To the people? Till that woman crossed my path, On went I, solely for my people's sake: I saw her, and I then first saw myself, And slackened pace: "If I should prove indeed Hakeem -- with Anael by!" Kha. [Aside.] Ah, he is rapt! Dare I at such a moment break on him Even to do my sister's bidding? Yes: The eyes are Djabal's and not Hakeem's yet, Though but till I have spoken this, perchance. Dja. [Aside.] To yearn to tell her, and yet have no one Great heart's word that will tell her! I could gasp Doubtless one such word out, and die. [Aloud.] You said That Anael ... Kha. ... Fain would see thee, speak with thee, Before thou change, discard this Djabal's shape She knows, for hakeem's shape she is to know. Something to say that will not from her mind! I know not what -- "Let him but come!" she said. Dja. [Half apart.] My nation -- all my Druses -- how fare they? Those I must save, and suffer thus to save, Hold they their posts? Wait they their Khalif too? Kha. All at the signal pant to flock around That banner of a brow! Dja. [Aside.] And when they flock, Confess them this: and after, for reward, Be chased with ho wlings to her feet perchance! -- Have the poor outraged Druses, deaf and blind, Precede me there, forestall my story there, Tell it in mocks and jeers! I lose myself! Who needs a Hakeem to direct him now? I need the veriest child -- why not this child? [Turning abruptly to KHALIL. You are a Druse too, Khalil; you were nourished Like Anael with our mysteries: if she Could vow, so nourished, to love only one Who should avenge the Druses, whence proceeds Your silence? Wherefore made you no essay, Who thus implicitly can execute My bidding? What have I done, you could not? Who, knowing more than Anael the prostration Of our once lofty tribe, the daily life Of this detested ... Does he come, you say, This Prefect? All's in readiness? Kha. The sword, The sacred robe, the Khalif's mystic tiar, Laid up so long, are all disposed beside The Prefect's chamber. Dja. -- Why did you despair? Kha. I know our nation's state? too surely know. As thou who speak'st to prove me! Wrongs like ours Should wake revenge: but when I sought the wronged And spoke, -- "The Prefect stabbed your son -- arise! Your daughter, while you starve, eats shameless bread In his pavilion -- then arise!" -- my speech Fell idly: 't was, "Be silent, or worse fare! Endure till time's slow cycle prove complete! Who may'st thou be that takest on thee to thrust Into this peril -- art thou Hakeem?" No! Only a mission like thy mission renders All these obedient at a breath, subdues Their private passions, brings their wills to one! Dja. You think so? Kha. Even now -- when they have witnessed Thy miracles -- had I not threatened all With Hakeem's vengeance, they would mar the work, And couch ere this, each with his special prize, Safe in his dwelling, leaving our main hope To perish. No! When these have kissed thy feet At Lebanon, the past purged off, the present Clear, -- for the future, even Hakeem's mission May end, and I perchance, or any youth, Shall rule them thus renewed. -- I tutor thee! Dja. And wisely. (He is Anael's brother, pure As Anael's self.) Go say I come to her. Haste! I will follow you. [KHALIL goes. Oh, not confess To these, the blinded multitude -- confess, Before at least the fortune of my deed Half authorize its means! Only to her Let me confess my fault, who in my path Curled up like incense from a Mage-king's tomb When he would have the wayfarer descend Through the earth's rift and bear hid treasure forth! How should child's-carelessness prove manhood's crime Till now that I, whose lone youth hurried past, Letting each joy 'scape for the Druses' sake, At length recover in one Druse all joy? Were her brow brighter, her eyes richer, still Would I confess! On the gulf's verge I pause. How could I slay the Prefect, thus and thus? Anael, be mine to guard me, not destroy! [Goes. (Enter ANAEL, and MAANI who is assisting to array her in the ancient dress of the Druses.) Anael. Those saffron vestures of the tabret-girls! Comes Djabal, think you? Maani. Doubtless Djabal comes. An. Dost thou snow-swathe thee kinglier, Lebanon, Than in my dreams? -- Nay, all the tresses off My forehead! Look I lovely so? He says That I am lovely. Maa. Lovely: nay, that hangs Awry. An. You tell me how a khandjar hangs? The sharp side, thus, along the heart, see, marks The maiden of our class. Are you content For Djabal as for me? Maa. Content, my child. An. Oh mother, tell me more of him! He comes Even now -- tell more, fill up my soul with him! Maa. And did I not ... yes, surely ... tell you all? An. What will be changed in Djabal when the Change Arrives? Which feature? Not his eyes! Maa. 'T is writ Our Hakeem's eyes rolled fire and clove the dark Superbly. An. Not his eyes! His voice perhaps? Yet that's no change; for a grave current lived -- Grandly beneath the surface ever lived, That, scattering, broke as in live silver spray While ... ah, the bliss ... he would discourse to me In that enforced still fashion, word on word! 'T is the old current which must swell through that, For what least tone, Maani, could I lose? 'T is surely not his voice will change! -- If Hakeem Only stood by! If Djabal, somehow, passed Out of the radiance as from out a robe; Possessed, but was not it! He lived with you? Well -- and that morning Djabal saw me first And heard me vow never to wed but one Who saved my People -- on that day ... proceed! Maa. Once more, then: from the time of his return In secret, changed so since he left the Isle That I, who screened our Emir's last of sons, This Djabal, from the Prefect's massacre -- Who bade him ne'er forget the child he was, -- Who dreamed so long the youth he might become - - I knew not in the man that child; the man Who spoke alone of hope to save our tribe, How he had gone from land to land to save Our tribe -- allies were sure, nor foes to dread; And much he mused, days, nights, alone he mused: But never till that day when, pale and worn As by a persevering woe, he cried "Is there not one Druse left me?" -- and I showed The way to Khalil's and your hiding-place From the abhorred eye of the Prefect here, So that he saw you, heard you speak -- till then, Never did he announce -- (how the moon seemed To ope and shut, the while, above us both!) -- His mission was the mission promised us; The cycle had revolved; all things renewing, He was lost Hakeem clothed in flesh to lead His children home anon, now veiled to work Great purposes: the Druses now would change! An. And they have changed! And obstacles did sink, And furtherances rose! And round his form Played fire, and music beat her angel wings! My people, let me more rejoice, oh more For you than for myself! Did I but watch Afar the pageant, feel our Khalif pass, One of the throng, how proud were I -- though ne'er Singled by Djabal's glance! But to be chosen His own from all, the most his own of all, To be exalted with him, side by side, Lead the exulting Druses, meet ... ah, how Worthily meet the maidens who await Ever beneath the cedars -- how deserve This honor, in their eves? So bright are they Who saffron-vested sound the tabret there, The girls who throng there in my dream! One hour And all is over: how shall I do aught That may deserve next hour's exalting? -- How? -- [Suddenly to MAANI. Mother, I am not worthy him! I read it Still in his eyes! He stands as if to tell me I am not, yet forbears. Why else revert To one theme ever? -- how mere human gifts Suffice him in myself -- whose worship fades, Whose awe goes ever off at his approach, As now, who when he comes ... (DJABAL enters.) Oh why is it I cannot kneel to you? Dja. Rather, 't is I Should kneel to you, my Anael! An. Even so! For never seem you -- shall I speak the truth? -- Never a God to me! 'T is the Man's hand, Eye, voice! Oh, do you veil these to our people, Or but to me? To them, I think, to them! And brightness is their veil, shadow -- my truth! You mean that I should never kneel to you -- So, thus I kneel! Dja. [Preventing her.] No -- no! [Feeling the khandjar as he raises her. Ha, have you chosen ... An. The khandjar with our ancient garb. But, Djabal, Change not, be not exalted yet! Give time That I may plan more, perfect more! My blood Beats, beats! [Aside.] Oh, must I then -- since Loys leaves us Never to come again, renew in me These doubts so near effaced already -- must I needs confess them now to Djabal? -- own That when I saw that stranger, heard his voice, My faith fell, and the woeful thought flashed first That each effect of Djabal's presence, taken For proof of more than human attributes In him, by me whose heart at his approach Beat fast, whose brain while he was by swam round, Whose soul at his departure died away, -- That every such effect might have been wrought In other frames, though not in mine, by Loys Or any merely mortal presence? Doubt Is fading fast: shall I reveal it now? How shall I meet the rapture presently, With doubt unexpiated, undisclosed? Dja. [Aside.] Avow the truth? I cannot! In what words Avow that all she loved in me was false? -- Which yet has served that flower-like love of hers To climb by, like the clinging gourd, and clasp With its divinest wealth of leaf and bloom. Could I take down the prop-work, in itself So vile, yet interlaced and overlaid With painted cups and fruitage -- might these still Bask in the sun, unconscious their own strength Of matted stalk and tendril had replaced The old support thus silently withdrawn! But no; the beauteous fabric crushes too. 'T is not for my sake but for Anael's sake I leave her soul this Hakeem where it leans. Oh could I vanish from her, quit the Isle! And yet -- a thought comes: here my work is done At every point; the Druses must return -- Have convoy to their birth-place back, whoe'er The leader be, myself or any Druse -- Venice is pledged to that: 't is for myself, For my own vengeance in the Prefect's death, I stay now, not for them: to slay or spare The Prefect, whom imports it save myself? He cannot bar their passage from the Isle; What would his death be but my own reward? Then, mine I will forego. It is foregone! Let him escape with all my House's blood! Ere he can reach land, Djabal disappears, And Hakeem, Anael loved, shall, fresh as first, Live in her memory, keeping her sublime Above the world. She cannot touch that world By ever knowing what I truly am, Since Loys, -- of mankind the only one Able to link my present with my past, My life in Europe with my Island life, Thence, able to unmask me, -- I've disposed Safely at last at Rhodes, and ... (Enter KHALIL.) Kha. Loys greets thee! Dja. Loys? To drag me back? It cannot be! An. [Aside.] Loys! Ah, doubt may not be stifled so! Kha. Can I have erred that thou so gazest? Yes, I told thee not in the glad press of tidings Of higher import, Loys is returned Before the Prefect, with, if possible, Twice the light-heartedness of old. As though On some inauguration he expects, To-day, the world's fate hung! Dja. -- And asks for me? Kha. Thou knowest all things. Thee in chief he greets, But every Druse of us is to be happy At his arrival, he declares: were Loys Thou, Master, he could have no wider soul To take us in with. How I love that Loys! Dja. [Aside.] Shame winds me with her tether round and round! An. [Aside.] Loys? I take the trial! it is meet, The little I can do, be done; that faith, All I can offer, want no perfecting Which my own act may compass. Ay, this way All may go well, nor that ignoble doubt Be chased by other aid than mine. Advance Close to my fear, weigh Loys with my Lord, The mortal with the more than mortal gifts! Dja. [Aside.] Before, there were so few deceived! and now There's doubtless not one least Druse in the Isle But, having learned my superhuman claims, And calling me his Khalif-God, will clash The whole truth out from Loys at first word! While Loys, for his part, will hold me up, With a Frank's unimaginable scorn Of such imposture, to my people's eyes! Could I but keep him longer yet awhile From them, amuse him here until I plan How he and I at once may leave the Isle! Khalil I cannot part with from my side -- My only help in this emergency: There's Anael! An. Please you? Dja. Anael -- none but she! [To ANAEL.] I pass some minutes in the chamber there, Ere I see Loys: you shall speak with him Until I join you. Khalil follows me. An. [Aside.] As I divined: he bids me save myself, Offers me a probation -- I accept! Let me see Loys! Loys. [Without.] Djabal! An. [Aside.] 'T is his voice. The smooth Frank trifler with our people's wrongs, The self-complacent boy-inquirer, loud On this and that inflicted tyranny, -- Aught serving to parade an ignorance Of how wrong feels, inflicted! Let me close With what I viewed at distance: let myself Probe this delusion to the core! Dja. He comes. Khalil, along with me! while Anael waits Till I return once more -- and but once more! ACT III ANAEL and LOYS An. Here leave me! Here I wait another. 'T was For no mad protestation of a love Like this you say possesses you, I came. Loys. Love? how protest a love I dare not feel? Mad words may doubtless have escaped me: you Are here -- I only feel you here! An. No more! Loys. But once again, whom could you love? I dare, Alas, say nothing of myself, who am A Knight now, for when knighthood we embrace, Love we abjure: so, speak on safely: speak, Lest I speak, and betray my faith! And yet To say your breathing passes through me, changes My blood to spirit, and my spirit to you, As Heaven the sacrificer's wine to it -- This is not to protest my love! You said You could love one ... An. One only! We are bent To earth -- who raises up my tribe, I love; The Prefect bows us -- who removes him; we Have ancient rights -- who gives them back to us, I love. Forbear me! Let my hand go! Loys. Him You could love only? Where is Djabal? Stay! [Aside.] Yet wherefore stay? Who does this but myself? Had I apprised her that I come to do Just this, what more could she acknowledge? No, She sees into my heart's core! What is it Feeds either cheek with red, as June some rose? Why turns she from me? Ah fool, over-fond To dream I could call up ... ... What never dream Yet feigned! 'T is love! Oh Anael, speak to me! Djabal -- An. Seek Djabal by the Prefect's chamber At noon! [She paces the room. Loys. [Aside.] And am I not the Prefect now? Is it my fate to be the only one Able to win her love, the only one Unable to accept her love? The past Breaks up beneath my footing: came I here This morn as to a slave, to set her free And take her thanks, and then spend day by day Content beside her in the Isle? What works This knowledge in me now? Her eye has broken The faint disguise away: for Anael's sake I left the Isle, for her espoused the cause Of the Druses, all for her I thought, till now, To live without! -- As I must live! To-day Ordains me Knight, forbids me ... never shall Forbid me to profess myself, heart, arm, Thy soldier! An. Djabal you demanded, comes! Loys. [Aside.] What wouldst thou, Loys? see him? Naught beside Is wanting: I have felt his voice a spell From first to last. He brought me here, made known The Druses to me, drove me hence to seek Redress for them; and shall I meet him now, When naught is wanting but a word of his, To -- what? -- induce me to spurn hope, faith, pride, Honor away, -- to cast my lot among His tribe, become a proverb in men's mouths, Breaking my high pact of companionship With those who graciously bestowed on me The very opportunities I turn Against them! Let me not see Djabal now! An. The Prefect also comes! Loys. [Aside.] Him let me see Not Djabal! Him, degraded at a word, To soothe me, -- to attest belief in me -- And after, Djabal! Yes, ere I return To her, the Nuncio's vow shall have destroyed This heart's rebellion, and coerced this will Forever. Anael, not before the vows Irrevocably fix me ... Let me fly! The Prefect, or I lose myself forever! [Goes An. Yes, I am calm now; just one way remains -- One, to attest my faith in him: for, see, I were quite lost else: Loys, Djabal, stand On either side -- two men! I balance looks And words, give Djabal a man's preference. No more. In Djabal, Hakeem is absorbed! And for a love like this, the God who saves My race, selects me for his bride? One way! -- (Enter DJABAL.) Dja. [To himself.] No moment is to waste then; 't is resolved. If Khalil may be trusted to lead back My Druses, and if Loys can be lured Out of the Isle -- if I procure his silence, Or promise never to return at least, -- All's over. Even now my bark awaits: I reach the next wild islet and the next, And lose myself beneath the sun forever. And now, to Anael! An. Djabal, I am thine! Dja. Mine? Djabal's? -- As if Hakeem had not been? An. Not Djabal's? Say first, do you read my thought? Why need I speak, if you can read my thought? Dja. I do not, I have said a thousand times. An. (My secret's safe, I shall surprise him yet!) Djabal, I knew your secret from the first: Djabal, when first I saw you ... (by our porch You leant, and pressed the tinkling veil away, And one fringe fell behind your neck -- I see!) ... I knew you were not human, for I said "This dim secluded house where the sea beats Is heaven to me -- my people's huts are hell To them; this august form will follow me, Mix with the waves his voice will, -- I have him; And they, the Prefect! Oh, my happiness Rounds to the full whether I choose or no! His eyes met mine, he was about to speak, His hand grew damp -- surely he meant to say He let me love him: in that moment's bliss I shall forget my people pine for home -- They pass and they repass with pallid eyes!" I vowed at once a certain vow; this vow -- Not to embrace you till my tribe was saved. Embrace me! Dja. [Apart.] And she loved me! Naught remained But that! Nay, Anael, is the Prefect dead? An. Ah, you reproach me! True, his death crowns all, I know -- or should know: and I would do much, Believe! but, death! Oh, you, who have known death, Would never doom the Prefect, were death fearful As we report! Death! -- a fire curls within us From the foot's palm, and fills up to the brain, Up, out, then shatters the whole bubble-shell Of flesh, perchance! Death! -- witness, I would die, Whate'er death be, would venture now to die For Khalil, for Maani -- what for thee? Nay, but embrace me, Djabal, in assurance My vow will not be broken, for I must Do something to attest my faith in you, Be worthy you! Dja. [Avoiding her.] I come for that -- to say Such an occasion is at hand: 't is like I leave you -- that we part, my Anael, -- part Forever! An. We part? Just so! I have succumbed, -- I am, he thinks, unworthy -- and naught less Will serve than such approval of my faith. Then, we part not! Remains there no way short Of that? Oh, not that! Death! -- yet a hurt bird Died in my hands; its eyes filmed -- "Nay, it sleeps," I said, "will wake to-morrow well:" 't was dead. Dja. I stand here and time fleets. Anael -- I come To bid a last farewell to you: perhaps We never meet again. But, ere the Prefect Arrive ... (Enter KHALIL, breathlessly.) Kha. He's here! The Prefect! Twenty guards, No more -- no sign he dreams of danger. All Awaits thee only. Ayoob, Karshook, keep Their posts -- wait but the deed's accomplishment To join us with thy Druses to a man. Still holds his course the Nuncio -- near and near The fleet from Candia steering. Dja. [Aside.] All is lost! -- Or won? Kha. And I have laid the sacred robe, The sword, the head-tiar, at the porch -- the place Commanded. Thou wilt hear the Prefect's trumpet. Dja. Then I keep Anael, -- him then, past recall, I slay -- 't is forced on me! As I began I must conclude -- so be it! Kha. For the rest, Save Loys, our foe's solitary sword, All is so safe that ... I will ne'er entreat Thy post again of thee: though danger none, There must be glory only meet for thee In slaying the Prefect! An. [Aside.] And 't is now that Djabal Would leave me! -- in the glory meet for him! Dja. As glory, I would yield the deed to you Or any Druse; what peril there may be, I keep. [Aside.] All things conspire to hound me on! Not now, my soul, draw back, at least! Not now! The course is plain, howe'er obscure all else. Once offer this tremendous sacrifice, Prevent what else will be irreparable, Secure these transcendental helps, regain The Cedars -- then let all dark clear itself! I slay him! Kha. Anael, and no part for us! [To DJA.] Hast thou possessed her with ... Dja. [To AN.] Whom speak you to? What is it you behold there? Nay, this smile Turns stranger. Shudder you? The man must die, As thousands of our race have died through him. One blow, and I discharge his weary soul From the flesh that pollutes it! Let him fill Straight some new expiatory form, of earth Or sea, the reptile or some aery thing: What is there in his death? An. My brother said, Is there no part in it for us? Dja. For Khalil, -- The trumpet will announce the Nuncio's entry; Here, I shall find the Prefect hastening In the Pavilion to receive him -- here I slay the Prefect; meanwhile Ayoob leads The Nuncio with his guards within: once these Secured in the outer hall, bid Ayoob bar Entry or egress till I give the sign Which waits the landing of the argosies You will announce to me: this double sign That justice is performed and help arrived, When Ayoob shall receive, but not before, Let him throw ope the palace doors, admit The Druses to behold their tyrant, ere We leave forever this detested spot. Go, Khalil, hurry all! No pause, no pause! Whirl on the dream, secure to wake anon! Kha. What sign? and who the bearer? Dja. Who shall show My ring, admit to Ayoob. How she stands! Have I not ... I must have some task for her. Anael, not that way! 'T is the Prefect's chamber! Anael, keep you the ring -- give you the sign! (It holds her safe amid the stir.) You will Be faithful? An. [Taking the ring.] I would fain be worthy. Hark! [Trumpet without. Kha. He comes! Dja. And I too come. An. One word, but one! Say, shall you be exalted at the deed? Then? On the instant? Dja. I-exalted? What? He, there -- we, thus -- our wrongs revenged, our tribe Set free? Oh, then shall I, assure yourself, Shall you, shall each of us, be in his death Exalted! Kha. He is here! Dja. Away -- away! [They go. (Enter the PREFECT with GUARDS, and LOYS.) The Prefect. [To Guards.] Back, I say, to the galley every guard! That's my sole care now; see each bench retains Its complement of rowers; I embark O' the instant, since this Knight will have it so. Alas me! Could you have the heart, my Loys! [To a Guard who whispers.] Oh, bring the holy Nuncio here forthwith! [The Guards go. Loys, a rueful sight, confess, to see The gray discarded Prefect leave his post, With tears i' the eye! So, you are Prefect now? You depose me -- you succeed me? Ha, ha! Loys. And dare you laugh, whom laughterless becomes Than yesterday's forced meekness we beheld ... Pref. -- When you so eloquently pleaded, Loys, For my dismissal from the post? Ah, meek With cause enough, consult the Nuncio else! And wish him the like meekness: for so stanch A servant of the church can scarce have bought His share in the Isle, and paid for it, hard pieces! You've my successor to condole with, Nuncio! I shall be safe by then i' the galley, Loys! Loys. You make as you would tell me you rejoice To leave your scene of ... Pref. Trade in the dear Druses? Blood and sweat traffic? Spare what yesterday We heard enough of! Drove I in the Isle A profitable game? Learn wit, my son, Which you'll need shortly! Did it never breed Suspicion in you, all was not pure profit, When I, the insatiate ... and so forth -- was bent On having a partaker in my rule? Why did I yield this Nuncio half the gain, If not that I might also shift -- what on him? Half of the peril, Loys! Loys. Peril? Pref. Hark you! I'd love you if you'd let me -- this for reason, You save my life at price of ... well, say risk At least, of yours. I came a long time since To the Isle; our Hospitallers bade me tame These savage wizards, and reward myself -- Loys. The Knights who so repudiate your crime? Pref. Loys, the Knights! we doubtless understood Each other; as for trusting to reward From any friend beside myself ... no, no! I clutched mine on the spot, when it was sweet, And I had taste for it. I felt these wizards Alive -- was sure they were not on me, only When I was on them: but with age comes caution: And stinging pleasures please less and sting more. Year by year, fear by fear! The girls were brighter Than ever ('faith, there's yet one Anael left, I set my heart upon -- Oh, prithee, let That brave new sword lie still!) -- These joys looked brighter, But silenter the town, too, as I passed. With this alcove's delicious memories Began to mingle visions of gaunt fathers, Quick-eyed sons, fugitives from the mine, the oar, Stealing to catch me. Brief, when I began To quake with fear -- (I think I hear the Chapter Solicited to let me leave, now all Worth staying for was gained and gone!) -- I say, Just when, for the remainder of my life, All methods of escape seemed lost -- that then Up should a young hot-headed Loys spring, Talk very long and loud, -- in fine, compel The Knights to break their whole arrangement, have me Home for pure shame -- from this safehold of mine Where but ten thousand Druses seek my life, To my wild place of banishment, San Gines By Murcia, where my three fat manors lying, Purchased by gains here and the Nuncio's gold, Are all I have to guard me, -- that such fortune Should fall to me, I hardly could expect. Therefore I say, I'd love you. Loys. Can it be? I play into your hands then? Oh no, no! The Venerable Chapter, the Great Order Sunk o' the sudden into fiends of the pit? But I will back -- will yet unveil you! Pref. Me? To whom? -- perhaps Sir Galeas, who in Chapter Shook his white head thrice -- and some dozen times My hand next morning shook, for value paid! To that Italian saint, Sir Cosimo? -- Indignant at my wringing year by year A thousand bezants from the coral divers, As you recounted; felt the saint aggrieved Well might he -- I allowed for his half-share Merely one hundred! To Sir ... Loys. See! you dare Inculpate the whole Order; yet should I, A youth, a sole voice, have the power to change Their evil way, had they been firm in it? Answer me! Pref. Oh, the son of Bretagne's Duke, And that son's wealth, the father's influence, too, And the young arm, we'll even say, my Loys, -- The fear of losing or diverting these Into another channel, by gainsaying A novice too abruptly, could not influence The Order! You might join, for aught they cared, Their red-cross rivals of the Temple! Well, I thank you for my part, at all events. Stay here till they withdraw you! You'll inhabit My palace -- sleep, perchance, in the alcove Whither I go to meet our holy friend. Good! and now disbelieve me if you can, -- This is the first time for long years I enter Thus [lifts the arras] without feeling just as if I lifted The lid up of my tomb. Loys. They share his crime! God's punishment will overtake you yet. Pref. Thank you it does not! Pardon this last flash: I bear a sober visage presently With the disinterested Nuncio here -- His purchase-money safe at Murcia, too! Let me repeat -- for the first time, no draught Coming as from a sepulchre salutes me. When we next meet, this folly may have passed, We'll hope. Ha, ha! [Goes through the arras. Loys. Assure me but ... he's gone! He could not lie. Then what have I escaped, I, who had so night given up happiness Forever, to be linked with him and them! Oh, opportunest of discoveries! I Their Knight? I utterly renounce them all! Hark! What, he meets by this the Nuncio? Yes, The same hyaena groan-like laughter! Quick -- To Djabal! I am one of them at last, These simple-hearted Druses -- Anael's tribe! Djabal! She's mine at last. Djabal, I say! [Goes ACT IV Enter DJABAL Dja. Let me out slay the Prefect. The end now! To-morrow will be time enough to pry Into the means I took: suffice, they served, Ignoble as they were, to hurl revenge True to its object. [Seeing the robe, etc. disposed. Mine should never so Have hurried to accomplishment! Thee, Djabal, Far other mood befitted! Calm the Robe Should clothe this doom's awarder! [Taking the robe.] Shall I dare Assume my nation's Robe? I am at least A Druse again, chill Europe's policy Drops from me: I dare take the Robe. Why not The Tiar? I rule the Druses, and what more Betokens it than rule? -- yet -- yet -- [Lays down the tiar. [Footsteps in the alcove.] He comes! [Taking the sword. If the Sword serve, let the Tiar lie! So, feet Clogged with the blood of twenty years can fall Thus lightly! Round me, all ye ghosts! He'll lift ... Which arm to push the arras wide? -- or both? Stab from the neck down to the heart -- there stay! Near he comes -- nearer -- the next footstep! Now! [As he dashes aside the arras, ANAEL is discovered. Ha! Anael! Nay, my Anael, can it be? Heard you the trumpet? I must slay him here, And here you ruin all. Why speak you not? Anael, the Prefect comes! [ANAEL screams.] So slow to feel 'T is not a sight for you to look upon? A moment's work -- but such work! Till you go, I must be idle -- idle, I risk all! [Pointing to her hair. Those locks are well, and you are beauteous thus, But with the dagger 't is, I have to do! An. With mine! Dja. Blood -- Anael? An. Djabal, 't is thy deed It must be! I had hoped to claim it mine -- Be worthy thee -- but I must needs confess 'T was not I, but thyself ... not I have ... Djabal! Speak to me! Dja. Oh my punishment! An. Speak to me While I can speak! touch me, despite the blood! When the command passed from thy soul to mine, I went, fire leading me, muttering of thee, And the approaching exaltation, -- "make One sacrifice!" I said, -- and he sat there, Bade me approach; and, as I did approach, Thy fire with music burst into my brain. 'T was but a moment's work, thou saidst -- perchance It may have been so! Well, it is thy deed! Dja. It is my deed! An. His blood all this! -- this! and ... And more! Sustain me, Djabal! Wait not -- now Let flash thy glory! Change thyself and me! It must be! Ere the Druses flock to us! At least confirm me! Djabal, blood gushed forth -- He was our tyrant -- but I looked he'd fall Prone as asleep -- why else is death called sleep? Sleep? He bent o'er his breast! 'T is sin, I know, -- Punish me, Djabal, but wilt thou let him? Be it thou that punishest, not he -- who creeps On his red breast -- is here! 'T is the small groan Of a child -- no worse! Bestow the new life, then! Too swift it cannot be, too strange, surpassing! [Following him up as he retreats. Now! Change us both! Change me and change thou! Dja. [Sinks on his knees.] Thus! Behold my change! You have done nobly. I! -- An. Can Hakeem kneel? Dja. No Hakeem, and scarce Djabal! I have dealt falsely, and this woe is come. No -- hear me ere scorn blast me! Once and ever, The deed is mine! Oh think upon the past! An. [To herself.] Did I strike once, or twice, or many times? Dja. I came to lead my tribe where, bathed in glooms, Doth Bahumid the Renovator sleep: Anael, I saw my tribe: I said, "Without A miracle this cannot be" -- I said "Be there a miracle!" -- for I saw you! An. His head lies south the portal! Dja. -- Weighed with this The general good, how could I choose my own? What matter was my purity of soul? Little by little I engaged myself -- Heaven would accept me for its instrument, I hoped: I said Heaven had accepted me! An. Is it this blood breeds dreams in me? --Who said You were not Hakeem? And your miracles -- The fire that plays innocuous round your form? [Again changing her whole manner. Ah, thou wouldst try me -- thou art Hakeem still! Dja. Woe -- woe! As if the Druses of the Mount (Scarce Arabs, even there, but here, in the Isle, Beneath their former selves) should comprehend The subtle lore of Europe! A few secrets That would not easily affect the meanest Of the crowd there, could wholly subjugate The best of our poor tribe. Again that eye? An. [After a pause springs to his neck.] Djabal, in this there can be no deceit! Why, Djabal, were you human only, -- think, Maani is but human, Khalil human, Loys is human even -- did their words Haunt me, their looks pursue me? Shame on you So to have tried me! Rather, shame on me So to need trying! Could I, with the Prefect And the blood, there -- could I see only you? -- Hang by your neck over this gulf of blood? Speak, I am saved! Speak, Djabal! Am I saved? [As DJABAL slowly unclasps her arms, and puts her silently from him. Hakeem would save me! Thou art Djabal! Crouch! Bow to the dust, thou basest of our kind! The pile of thee, I reared up to the cloud -- Full, midway, of our fathers' trophied tombs, Based on the living rock, devoured not by The unstable desert's jaws of sand, -- falls prone! Fire, music, quenched: and now thou liest there A ruin, obscene creatures will moan through! -- Let us come, Djabal! Dja. Whither come? An. At once -- Lest so it grow intolerable. Come! Will I not share it with thee? Best at once! So, feel less pain! Let them deride, -- thy tribe Now trusting in thee, -- Loys shall deride! Come to them, hand in hand, with me! Dja. Where come? An. Where? -- to the Druses thou hast wronged! Confess, Now that the end is gained -- (I love thee now --) That thou hast so deceived them -- (perchance love thee Better than ever!) Come, receive their doom Of infamy! Oh, best of all I love thee! Shame with the man, no triumph with the God, Be mine! Come! Dja. Never! More shame yet? and why? Why? You have called this deed mine -- it is mine! And with it I accept its circumstance. How can I longer strive with fate? The past Is past: my false life shall henceforth show true. Hear me! The argosies touch land by this; They bear us to fresh scenes and happier skies: What if we reign together? -- if we keep Our secret for the Druses' good? -- by means Of even their superstition, plant in them New life? I learn from Europe: all who seek Man's good must awe man, by such means as these. We two will be divine to them -- we are! All great works in this world spring from the ruins Of greater projects -- ever, on our earth, Babels men block out, Babylons they build. I wrest the weapon from your hand! I claim The deed! Retire! You have my ring -- you bar All access to the Nuncio till the forces From Venice land! An. Thou wilt feign Hakeem then? Dja. [Putting the Tiara of Hakeem on his head.] And from this moment that I dare ope wide Eyes that till now refused to see, begins My true dominion: for I know myself, And what am I to personate. No word? [ANAEL goes. 'T is come on me at last! His blood on her -- What memories will follow that! Her eye, Her fierce distorted lip and ploughed black brow! Ah, fool! Has Europe then so poorly tamed The Syrian blood from out thee? Thou, presume To work in this foul earth by means not foul? Scheme, as for heaven, -- but, on the earth, be glad If a least ray like heaven's be left thee! Thus I shall be calm -- in readiness -- no way Surprised. [A noise without. This should be Khalil and my Druses. Venice is come then! Thus I grasp thee, sword! Druses, 't is Hakeem saves you! In! Behold Your Prefect! (Enter LOYS. DJABAL hides the khandjar in his robe.) Loys. Oh, well found, Djabal! -- but no time for words. You know who waits there? [Pointing to the alcove. Well! -- and that 't is there He meets the Nuncio? Well? Now, a surprise -- He there -- Dja. I know -- Loys. -- is now no mortal's lord, Is absolutely powerless -- call him, dead -- He is no longer Prefect -- you are Prefect! Oh, shrink not! I do nothing in the dark, Nothing unworthy Breton blood, believe! I understood at once your urgency That I should leave this isle for Rhodes; I felt What you were loath to speak -- your need of help. I have fulfilled the task, that earnestness Imposed on me: have, face to face, confronted The Prefect in full Chapter, charged on him The enormities of his long rule; he stood Mute, offered no defence, no crime denied. On which, I spoke of you, and of your tribe, Your faith so like our own, and all you urged Of old to me -- I spoke, too, of your goodness, Your patience -- brief, I hold henceforth the Isle In charge, am nominally lord, -- but you, You are associated in my rule -- Are the true Prefect! Ay, such faith had they In my assurance of your loyalty (For who insults an imbecile old man?) That we assume the Prefecture this hour! You gaze at me? Hear greater wonders yet -- I cast down all the fabric I have built! These Knights, I was prepared to worship ... but Of that another time; what's now to say, Is -- I shall never be a Knight! Oh, Djabal, Here first I throw all prejudice aside, And call you brother! I am Druse like you: My wealth, my friends, my power, are wholly yours, Your people's, which is now my people: for There is a maiden of your tribe, I love -- She loves me -- Khalil's sister -- Dja. Anael? Loys. Start you? Seems what I say, unknightly? Thus it chanced: When first I came, a novice, to the isle ... (Enter one of the NUNCIO's Guards from the alcove.) Guard. Oh horrible! Sir Loys! Here is Loys! And here -- [Others enter from the alcove. [Pointing to DJABAL.] Secure him, bind him -- this is he! [They surround DJABAL. Loys. Madmen -- what is 't you do? Stand from my friend, And tell me! Guard. Thou canst have no part in this -- Surely no part! But slay him not! The Nuncio Commanded, slay him not! Loys. Speak, or ... Guard. The Prefect Lies murdered there by him thou dost embrace. Loys. By Djabal? Miserable fools! How Djabal? [A Guard lifts DJABAL's robe; DJABAL flings down the khandjar. Loys. [After a pause.] Thou hast received some insult worse than all, Some outrage not to be endured -- [To the Guards.] Stand back. He is my friend -- more than my friend! Thou hast Slain him upon that provocation! Guard. No! No provocation! 'T is a long devised Conspiracy: the whole tribe is involved. He is their Khalif -- 't is on that pretence -- Their mighty Khalif who died long ago, And now comes back to life and light again! All is just now revealed, I know not how, By one of his confederates -- who, struck With horror at this murder, first apprised The Nuncio. As 't was said, we find this Djabal Here where we take him. Dja. [Aside.] Who broke faith with me? Loys. [To DJABAL.] Hear'st thou? Speak! Till thou speak I keep off these, Or die with thee. Deny this story! Thou A Khalif, an impostor? Thou, my friend, Whose tale was of an inoffensive tribe, With ... but thou know'st -- on that tale's truth I pledged My faith before the Chapter: what art thou? Dja. Loys, I am as thou hast heard. All's true! No more concealment! As these tell thee, all Was long since planned. Our Druses are enough To crush this handful: the Venetians land Even now in our behalf. Loys, we part! Thou, serving much, wouldst fain have served me more; It might not be. I thank thee. As thou hearest, We are a separated tribe: farewell! Loys. Oh, where will truth be found now? Canst thou so Belie the Druses? Do they share thy crime? Those thou professest of our Breton stock, Are partners with thee? Why, I saw but now Khalil, my friend -- he spoke with me -- no word Of this! and Anael -- whom I love, and who Loves me -- she spoke no word of this! Dja. Poor boy! Anael, who loves thee? Khalil, fast thy friend? We, offsets from a wandering Count of Dreux? No: older than the oldest, princelier Than Europe's princeliest race, our tribe: enough For thine, that on our simple faith we found A monarchy to shame your monarchies At their own trick and secret of success. The child of this our tribe shall laugh upon The palace-step of him whose life ere night Is forfeit, as that child shall know, and yet Shall laugh there! What, we Druses wait forsooth The kind interposition of a boy -- Can only save ourselves if thou concede? -- Khalil admire thee? He is my right hand, My delegate! -- Anael accept thy love? She is my bride! Loys. Thy bride? She one of them? Dja. My bride! Loys. And she retains her glorious eyes! She, with those eyes, has shared this miscreant's guilt! Ah -- who but she directed me to find Djabal within the Prefect's chamber? Khalil Bade me seek Djabal there, too! All is truth! What spoke the Prefect worse of them than this? Did the Church ill to institute long since Perpetual warfare with such serpentry? And I -- have I desired to shift my part, Evade my share in her design? 'T is well! Dja. Loys, I wronged thee -- but unwittingly: I never thought there was in thee a virtue That could attach itself to what thou deemest A race below thine own. I wronged thee, Loys, But that is over: all is over now, Save the protection I ensure against My people's anger. By their Khalif's side, Thou art secure and may'st depart: so, come! Loys. Thy side? I take protection at thy hand? (Enter other Guards.) Guards. Fly with him! Fly, Sir Loys! 'T is too true! And only by his side thou may'st escape! The whole tribe is in full revolt: they flock About the palace -- will be here -- on thee -- And there are twenty of us, we the Guards O' the Nuncio, to withstand them! Even we Had stayed to meet our death in ignorance, But that one Druse, a single faithful Druse, Made known the horror to the Nuncio. Fly! The Nuncio stands aghast. At least let us Escape thy wrath, O Hakeem! We are naught In thy tribe's persecution! [To LOYS.] Keep by him! They hail him Hakeem, their dead Prince returned: He is their God, they shout, and at his beck Are life and death! [LOYS, springing at the khandjar DJABAL had thrown down, seizes him by the throat. Thus by his side am I! Thus I resume my knighthood and its warfare, Thus end thee, miscreant, in thy pride of place! Thus art thou caught. Without, thy dupes may cluster. Friends aid thee, foes avoid thee, -- thou art Hakeem, How say they? -- God art thou! but also here Is the least, youngest, meanest the Church calls Her servant, and his single arm avails To aid her as she lists. I rise, and thou Art crushed! Hordes of thy Druses flock without: Here thou hast me, who represent the Cross, Honor and Faith, 'gainst Hell, Mahound and thee. Die! [DJABAL remains calm.] Implore my mercy, Hakeem, that my scorn May help me! Nay, I cannot ply thy trade; I am no Druse, no stabber: and thine eye, Thy form, are too much as they were -- my friend Had such! Speak! Beg for mercy at my foot! [DJABAL still silent. Heaven could not ask so much of me -- not, sure, So much! I cannot kill him so! [After a pause.] Thou art Strong in thy cause, then -- dost outbrave us, then. Heardst thou that one of thine accomplices, Thy very people, has accused thee? Meet His charge! Thou hast not even slain the Prefect As thy own vile creed warrants. Meet that Druse! Come with me and disprove him -- be thou tried By him, nor seek appeal! Promise me this, Or I will do God's office! What, shalt thou Boast of assassins at thy beck, yet truth Want even an executioner? Consent, Or I will strike -- look in my face -- I will! Dja. Give me again my khandjar, if thou darest! [LOYS gives it. Let but one Druse accuse me, and I plunge This home. A Druse betray me? Let us go! [Aside.] Who has betrayed me? [Shouts without. Hearest thou? I hear No plainer than long years ago I heard That shout -- but in no dream now! They return! Wilt thou be leader with me, Loys? Well! ACT V The uninitiated Druses, filling the hall tumultuously, and speaking together. Here flock we, obeying the summons. Lo, Hakeem hath appeared, and the Prefect is dead, and we return to Lebanon! My manufacture of goats' fleece must, I doubt, soon fall away there. Come, old Nasif -- link thine arm in mine -- we fight, if needs be. Come, what is a great fight-word? -- "Lebanon?" (My daughter -- my daughter!) -- But is Khalil to have the office of Hamza? -- Nay, rather, if he be wise, the monopoly of henna and cloves. Where is Hakeem? -- The only prophet I ever saw, prophesied at Cairo once, in my youth: a little black Copht, dressed all in black too, with a great stripe of yellow cloth flapping down behind him like the back-fin of a water-serpent. Is this he? Biamrallah! Biamreh! HAKEEM! (Enter the NUNCIO, with Guards.) Nuncio. [To his Attendants.] Hold both, the sorcerer and this accomplice Ye talk of, that accuseth him! And tell Sir Loys he is mine, the Church's hope: Bid him approve himself our Knight indeed! Lo, this black disemboguing of the Isle! [To the Druses.] Ah, children, what a sight for these old eyes That kept themselves alive this voyage through To smile their very last on you! I came To gather one and all you wandering sheep Into my fold, as though a father came ... As though, in coming, a father should ... [To his Guards.] (Ten, twelve -- Twelve guards of you, and not an outlet? None? The wizards stop each avenue? Keep close!) [To the Druses.] As if one came to a son's house, I say, So did I come -- no guard with me -- to find ... Alas -- alas! A Druse. Who is the old man? Another. Oh, ye are to shout! Children, he styles you. Druses. Ay, the Prefect's slain! Glory to the Khalif, our Father! Nuncio. Even so! I find (ye prompt aright) your father slain! While most he plotted for your good, that father (Alas, how kind, ye never knew) -- lies slain! [Aside.] (And hell's worm gnaw the glozing knave -- with me, For being duped by his cajoleries! Are these the Christians? These the docile crew My bezants went to make me Bishop o'er?) [To his Attendants, who whisper.] What say ye does this wizard style himself? Hakeem? Biamrallah? The third Fatemite? What is this jargon? He -- the insane Khalif, Dead near three hundred years ago, come back In flesh and blood again? Druses. He mutters! Hear ye? He is blaspheming Hakeem. The old man Is our dead Prefect's friend. Tear him! Nuncio. Ye dare not! I stand here with my five-and-seventy years, The Patriarch's power behind me, God's above! Those years have witnessed sin enough; ere now Misguided men arose against their lords, And found excuse; but ye, to be enslaved By sorceries, cheats -- alas! the same tricks, tried On my poor children in this nook o' the earth, Could triumph, that have been successively Exploded, laughed to scorn, all nations through: "Romaioi, Ioudaioite kai proselutoi, Cretes and Arabians," -- you are duped the last. Said I, refrain from tearing me? I pray ye Tear me! Shall I return to tell the Patriarch That so much love was wasted -- every gift Rejected, from his benison I brought, Down to the galley-full of bezants, sunk An hour since at the harbor's mouth, by that ... That ... never will I speak his hated name! [To his Servants.] What was the name his fellow slip- fetter Called their arch-wizard by? [They whisper.] Oh, Djabal was't? Druses. But how a sorcerer? false wherein? Nuncio. (Ay, Djabal!) How false? Ye know not, Djabal has confessed ... Nay, that by tokens found on him we learn ... What I sailed hither solely to divulge -- How by his spells the demons were allured To seize you: not that these be aught save lies And mere illusions. Is this clear? I say, By measures such as these, he would have led you Into a monstrous ruin: follow ye? Say, shall ye perish for his sake, my sons? Druses. Hark ye! Nuncio. -- Be of one privilege amerced? No! Infinite the Patriarch's mercies are! No! With the Patriarch's license, still I bid Tear him to pieces who misled you! Haste! Druses. The old man's beard shakes, and his eyes are white fire! After all, I know nothing of Djabal beyond what Karshook says; he knows but what Khalil says, who knows just what Djabal says himself. Now, the little Copht Prophet, I saw at Cairo in my youth, began by promising each bystander three full measures of wheat ... (Enter KHALIL and the initiated Druses.) Kha. Venice and her deliverance are at hand: Their fleet stands through the harbor! Hath he slain The Prefect yet? Is Djabal's change come yet? Nuncio. [To Attendants.] What's this of Venice? Who's this boy? [Attendants whisper.] One Khalil? Djabal's accomplice, Loys called, but now, The only Druse, save Djabal's self, to fear? [To the Druses.] I cannot hear ye with these aged ears; Is it so? Ye would have my troops assist? Doth he abet him in his sorceries? Down with the cheat, guards, as my children bid! [They spring at KHALIL; as he beats them back, Stay! No more bloodshed! Spare deluded youth! Whom seek'st thou? (I will teach him) -- whom, my child? Thou know'st what these know, what these declare. I am an old man, as thou seest -- have done With life; and what should move me but the truth? Art thou the only fond one of thy tribe? 'T is I interpret for thy tribe! Kha. Oh, this Is the expected Nuncio! Druses, hear -- Endure ye this? Unworthy to partake The glory Hakeem gains you! While I speak, The ships touch land: who makes for Lebanon? They plant the winged lion in these halls! Nuncio. [Aside.] If it be true! Venice? Oh never true! Yet Venice would so gladly thwart our Knights, So fain get footing here, stand close by Rhodes! Oh, to be duped this way! Kha. Ere he appear And lead you gloriously, repent, I say! Nuncio. [Aside.] Nor any way to stretch the arch- wizard stark Ere the Venetians come? Cut off the head, The trunk were easily stilled. [To the Druses.] He? Bring him forth! Since so you needs will have it, I assent! You'd judge him, say you, on the spot? -- confound The sorcerer in his very circle? Where's Our short black-bearded sallow friend who swore He'd earn the Patriarch's guerdon by one stab? Bring Djabal forth at once! Druses. Ay, bring him forth! The Patriarch drives a trade in oil and silk, And we're the Patriarch's children -- true men, we! Where is the glory? Show us all the glory! Kha. You dare not so insult him! What, not see ... (I tell thee, Nuncio, these are uninstructed, Untrusted -- they know nothing of our Khalif!) -- Not see that if he lets a doubt arise 'T is but to give yourselves the chance of seeming To have some influence in your own return! That all may say ye would have trusted him Without the all-convincing glory -- ay, And did! Embrace the occasion, friends! For, think -- What wonder when his change takes place? But now For your sakes, he should not reveal himself. No -- could I ask and have, I would not ask The change yet! (Enter DJABAL and LOYS.) Spite of all, reveal thyself! I had said, pardon them for me -- for Anael -- For our sakes pardon these besotted men -- Ay, for thine own -- they hurt not thee! Yet now One thought swells in me and keeps down all else. This Nuncio couples shame with thee, has called Imposture thy whole course, all bitter things Has said: he is but an old fretful man! Hakeem -- nay, I must call thee Hakeem now -- Reveal thyself! See! Where is Anael? See! Loys. [To DJA.] Here are thy people! Keep thy word to me! Dja. Who of my people hath accused me? Nuncio. So! So this is Djabal, Hakeem, and what not? A fit deed, Loys, for thy first Knight's day! May it be augury of thy after-life! Ever prove truncheon of the Church as now That, Nuncio of the Patriarch, having charge Of the Isle here, I claim thee [turning to DJA.] as these bid me, Forfeit for murder done thy lawful prince, Thou conjurer that peep'st and mutterest! Why should I hold thee from their hands? (Spells, children? But hear how I dispose of all his spells!) Thou art a prophet? -- wouldst entice thy tribe From me? -- thou workest miracles? (Attend! Let him but move me with his spells!) I, Nuncio ... Dja.... Which how thou camest to be, I say not now, Though I have also been at Stamboul, Luke! Ply thee with spells, forsooth! What need of spells? If Venice, in her Admiral's person, stoop To ratify thy compact with her foe, The Hospitallers, for this Isle -- withdraw Her warrant of the deed which reinstates My people in their freedom, tricked away By him I slew, -- refuse to convoy us To Lebanon and keep the Isle we leave -- Then will be time to try what spells can do! Dost thou dispute the Republic's power? Nuncio. Lo ye! He tempts me too, the wily exorcist! No! The renowned Republic was and is The Patriarch's friend: 't is not for courting Venice That I -- that these implore thy blood of me! Lo ye, the subtle miscreant! Ha, so subtle? Ye Druses, hear him! Will ye be deceived? How he evades me! Where's the miracle He works? I bid him to the proof -- fish up Your galley full of bezants that he sank! That were a miracle! One miracle! Enough of trifling, for it chafes my years. I am the Nuncio, Druses! I stand forth To save you from the good Republic's rage When she shall find her fleet was summoned here To aid the mummeries of a knave like this! [As the Druses hesitate, his Attendants whisper. Ah, well suggested! Why, we hold the while One who, his close confederate till now, Confesses Djabal at the last a cheat, And every miracle a cheat! Who throws me His head? I make three offers, once I offer, And twice ... Dja. Let who moves perish at my foot! Kha. Thanks, Hakeem, thanks! Oh, Anael, Maani, Why tarry they? Druses. [To each other.] He can! He can! Live fire -- [To the NUNCIO.] I say he can, old man! Thou know'st him not. Live fire like that thou seest now in his eyes, Plays fawning round him. See! The change begins! All the brow lightens as he lifts his arm! Look not at me! It was not I! Dja. What Druse Accused me, as he saith? I bid each bone Crumble within that Druse! None, Loys, none Of my own people, as thou said'st, have raised A voice against me. Nuncio. [Aside.] Venice to come! Death! Dja. [Continuing.] Confess and go unscathed, however false! Seest thou my Druses, Luke? I would submit To thy pure malice did one Druse confess! How said I, Loys? Nuncio. [To his Attendants who whisper.] Ah, ye counsel so? [Aloud.] Bring in the witness, then, who, first of all, Disclosed the treason! Now I have thee, wizard! Ye hear that? If one speaks, he bids you tear him Joint after joint: well then, one does speak! One, Befooled by Djabal, even as yourselves, But who hath voluntarily proposed To expiate, by confessing thus, the fault Of having trusted him. [They bring in a veiled Druse. Loys. Now, Djabal, now! Nuncio. Friend, Djabal fronts thee! Make a ring, sons. Speak! Expose this Djabal -- what he was, and how; The wiles he used, the aims he cherished; all, Explicitly as late 't was spoken to these My servants: I absolve and pardon thee. Loys. Thou hast the dagger ready, Djabal? Dja. Speak, Recreant! Druses. Stand back, fool! farther! Suddenly You shall see some huge serpent glide from under The empty vest, or down will thunder crash! Back, Khalil! Kha. I go back? Thus go I back! [To AN.] Unveil! Nay, thou shalt face the Khalif! Thus! [He tears away ANAEL's veil; DJABAL folds his arms and bows his head; the Druses fall back; LOYS springs from the side of DJABAL and the NUNCIO. Loys. Then she was true -- she only of them all! True to her eyes -- may keep those glorious eyes, And now be mine, once again mine! Oh, Anael! Dared I think thee a partner in his crime -- That blood could soil that hand? nay, 't is mine -- Anael, -- Not mine? -- Who offer thee before all these My heart, my sword, my name -- so thou wilt say That Djabal, who affirms thou art his bride, Lies -- say but that he lies! Dja. Thou, Anael? Loys. Nay, Djabal, nay, one chance for me -- the last! Thou hast had every other; thou hast spoken Days, nights, what falsehood listed thee -- let me Speak first now; I will speak now! Nuncio. Loys, pause! Thou art the Duke's son, Bretagne's choicest stock, Loys of Dreux, God's sepulchre's first sword: This wilt thou spit on, this degrade, this trample To earth? Loys. [To AN.] Who had foreseen that one day, Loys Would stake these gifts against some other good In the whole world? I give them thee! I would My strong will might bestow real shape on them, That I might see, with my own eyes, thy foot Tread on their very neck! 'T is not by gifts I put aside this Djabal: we will stand -- We do stand, see, two men! Djabal, stand forth! Who's worth her, I or thou? I -- who for Anael Uprightly, purely kept my way, the long True way -- left thee each by-path, boldly lived Without the lies and blood, -- or thou, or thou? Me! love me, Anael! Leave the blood and him! [To DJA.] Now speak -- now, quick on this that I have said, -- Thou with the blood, speak if thou art a man! Dja. [To AN.] And was it thou betrayedst me? 'T is well! I have deserved this of thee, and submit. Nor 't is much evil thou inflictest: life Ends here. The cedars shall not wave for us: For there was crime, and must be punishment. See fate! By thee I was seduced, by thee I perish: yet do I -- can I repent? I with my Arab instinct, thwarted ever By my Frank policy, -- and with, in turn, My Frank brain, thwarted by my Arab heart -- While these remained in equipoise, I lived -- Nothing; had either been predominant, As a Frank schemer or an Arab mystic, I had been something; -- now, each has destroyed The other -- and behold, from out their crash, A third and better nature rises up -- My mere man's-nature! And I yield to it: I love thee, I who did not love before! An. Djabal! Dja. It seemed love, but it was not love: How could I love while thou adoredst me? Now thou despisest, art above me so Immeasurably! Thou, no other, doomest My death now; this my steel shall execute Thy judgment; I shall feel thy hand in it! Oh, luxury to worship, to submit, Transcended, doomed to death by thee! An. My Djabal! Dja. Dost hesitate? I force thee then Approach. Druses! for I am out of reach of fate; No further evil waits me. Speak the doom! Hear, Druses, and hear, Nuncio, and hear, Loys! An. HAKEEM! [She falls dead. [The Druses scream, grovelling before him. Druses. Ah, Hakeem! -- not on me thy wrath! Biamrallah, pardon! never doubted I! Ha, dog, how sayest thou? [They surround and seize the NUNCIO and his Guards. LOYS flings himself upon the body of ANAEL, on which DJABAL continues to gaze as stupefied. Nuncio. Caitiffs! Have ye eyes? Whips, racks should teach you! What, his fools? his dupes? Leave me! unhand me! Kha. [Approaching DJABAL timidly.] Save her for my sake! She was already thine; she would have shared To-day thine exaltation: think, this day Her hair was plaited thus because of thee! Yes, feel the soft bright hair -- feel! Nuncio. [Struggling with those who have seized him.] What, because His leman dies for him? You think it hard To die? Oh, would you were at Rhodes, and choice Of deaths should suit you! Kha. [Bending over ANAEL'S body.] Just restore her life! So little does it! there -- the eyelids tremble! 'T was not my breath that made them: and the lips Move of themselves. I could restore her life! Hakeem, we have forgotten -- have presumed On our free converse: we are better taught. See, I kiss -- how I kiss thy garment's hem For her! She kisses it -- Oh, take her deed In mine! Thou dost believe now, Anael? -- See, She smiles! Were her lips open o'er the teeth Thus, when I spoke first? She believes in thee! Go not without her to the cedars, lord! Or leave us both -- I cannot go alone! I have obeyed thee, if I dare so speak: Hath Hakeem thus forgot all Djabal knew? Thou feelest then my tears fall hot and fast Upon thy hand, and yet thou speakest not? Ere the Venetian trumpet sound -- ere thou Exalt thyself, O Hakeem! save thou her! Nuncio. And the accursed Republic will arrive And find me in their toils -- dead, very like, Under their feet! What way -- not one way yet To foil them? None? [Observing DJABAL'S face.] What ails the Khalif? Ah, That ghastly face! A way to foil them yet! [To the Druses.] Look to your Khalif, Druses! Is that face God Hakeem's? Where is triumph, -- where is ... what Said he of exaltation -- hath he promised So much to-day? Why then, exalt thyself! Cast off that husk, thy form, set free thy soul In splendor! Now, bear witness! here I stand -- I challenge him exalt himself, and I Become, for that, a Druse like all of you! The Druses. Exalt thyself! Exalt thyself O Hakeem! Dja. [Advances.] I can confess now all from first to last. There is no longer shame for me. I am ... [Here the Venetian trumpet sounds: the Druses shout, DJABAL'S eye catches the expression of those about him, and, as the old dream comes back, he is again confident and inspired. -- Am I not Hakeem? And ye would have crawled But yesterday within these impure courts Where now ye stand erect! Not grand enough? -- What more could be conceded to such beasts As all of you, so sunk and base as you, Than a mere man? A man among such beasts Was miracle enough: yet him you doubt, Him you forsake, him fain would you destroy -- With the Venetians at your gate, the Nuncio Thus -- (see the baffled hypocrite!) and, best, The Prefect there! Druses. No, Hakeem, ever thine! Nuncio. He lies -- and twice he lies -- and thrice he lies! Exalt thyself, Mahound! Exalt thyself! Dja. Druses! we shall henceforth be far away -- Out of mere mortal ken -- above the cedars -- But we shall see ye go, hear ye return, Repeopling the old solitudes, -- through thee, My Khalil! Thou art full of me: I fill Thee full -- my hands thus fill thee! Yestereve, -- Nay, but this morn, I deemed thee ignorant Of all to do, requiring word of mine To teach it: now, thou hast all gifts in one, With truth and purity go other gifts, All gifts come clustering to that. Go, lead My people home whate'er betide! [Turning to the Druses.] Ye take This Khalil for my delegate? To him Bow as to me? He leads to Lebanon -- Ye follow? Druses. We follow! Now exalt thyself! Dja. [Raises LOYS.] Then to thee, Loys! How I wronged thee, Loys! Yet, wronged, no less thou shalt have full revenge, Fit for thy noble self, revenge -- and thus. Thou, loaded with such wrongs, the princely soul, The first sword of Christ's sepulchre -- thou shalt Guard Khalil and my Druses home again! Justice, no less, God's justice and no more, For those I leave! -- to seeking this, devote Some few days out of thy Knight's brilliant life: And, this obtained them, leave their Lebanon, My Druses' blessing in thine ears -- (they shall Bless thee with blessing sure to have its way) -- One cedar-blossom in thy ducal cap, One thought of Anael in thy heart, -- perchance One thought of him who thus, to bid thee speed, His last word to the living speaks! This done, Resume thy course, and, first amidst the first In Europe, take my heart along with thee! Go boldly, go serenely, go augustly -- What shall withstand thee then? [He bends over ANAEL.] And last to thee! Ah, did I dream I was to have, this day, Exalted thee? A vain dream: hast thou not Won greater exaltation? What remains But press to thee, exalt myself to thee? Thus I exalt myself, set free my soul! [He stabs himself. As he falls, supported by KHALIL and LOYS, the VENETIANS enter; the ADMIRAL advances. Admiral. God and St. Mark for Venice! Plant the Lion! [At the clash of the planted standard, the Druses shout, and move tumultuously forward, LOYS drawing his sword. Dja. [Leading them a few steps between KHALIL and LOYS.] On to the Mountain! At the Mountain, Druses! [Dies | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DE GUSTIBUS' by ROBERT BROWNING A DEATH IN THE DESERT by ROBERT BROWNING A GRAMMARIAN'S FUNERAL by ROBERT BROWNING A LOVER'S QUARREL by ROBERT BROWNING A TOCCATA OF GALUPPI'S by ROBERT BROWNING A WOMAN'S LAST WORD by ROBERT BROWNING ANDREA DEL SARTO (CALLED THE FAULTLESS PAINTER) by ROBERT BROWNING APPARENT FAILURE by ROBERT BROWNING |
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