Page images
PDF
EPUB

Lady R. No. It was dark December; wind and rain Had beat all night. Across the Carron lay

The destin'd road; and in its swelling flood My faithful servant perish'd with my child. "Oh! hapless son of a most hapless sire! "But they are both at rest; and I alone "Dwell in this world of woe, condemn'd to walk, "Like a guilt-troubled ghost, my painful rounds;" Nor has despiteful fate permitted me

The comfort of a solitary sorrow.

Though dead to love, I was compell'd to wed
Randolph, who snatch'd me from a villain's arms;
And Randolph now possesses the domains,
That by Sir Malcolm's death on me devolv'd;
Domains, that should to Douglas' son have giv'n
A baron's title and a baron's power.

"Such were my soothing thoughts, while I bewail'd "The slaughter'd father of a son unborn.

"And when that son came, like a ray from heav'n, "Which shines and disappears; alas; my child! "How long did thy fond mother grasp the hope "Of having thee, she knew not how, restor❜d. "Year after year hath worn her hope away; "But left still undiminish'd her desire.

"Anna. The hand that spins th' uneven thread of life,

"May smooth the length that's yet to come of yours.

"Lady R. Not in this world; I have consider'd well "It's various evils, and on whom they fall. "Alas! how oft does goodness wound itself?

"And sweet affection prove the spring of woe."
Oh! had I died when my lov'd husband fell!
Had some good angel op'd to me the book
Of Providence, and let me read my life,
My heart had broke, when I beheld the sum
Of ills, which one by one I have endur’d.

Anna. That God, whose ministers good angels are, Hath shut the book, in mercy to mankind; But we must leave this theme: Glenalvon comes: I saw him bend on you his thoughtful eyes, And hitherwards he slowly stalks his way.

Lady R. I will avoid him. An ungracious person Is doubly irksome in an hour like this.

Anna. Why speaks my lady thus of Randolph's heir?

Lady R. Because he's not the heir of Randolph's virtues.

Subtle and shrewd, he offers to mankind

An artificial image of himself:

And he with ease can vary to the taste

Of different men, its features.

"Self-denied,

"And master of his appetites he seems:

"But his fierce nature, like a fox chain'd up,
"Watches to seize unseen the wish'd-for prey.
"Never were vice and virtue pois'd so ill,
"As in Glenalvon's unrelenting mind."
Yet is he brave and politic in war,
And stands aloft in these unruly times.
Why I describe him thus I'll tell hereafter.

Stay, and detain him till I reach the castle.

[Exit Lady RANDOLPH.

Anna. Oh happiness! where art thou to be found? I see thou dwellest not with birth and beauty, Tho' grac'd with grandeur and in wealth array'd: Nor dost thou, it would seem with virtue dwell; Else had this gentle lady miss'd thee not.

Enter GLENALVON.

Glen. What dost thou muse on, meditating maid? Like some entranc'd and visionary seer,

On earth thou stand'st, thy thoughts ascend to heaven. Anna. Would that I were, e'en as thou say'st, a

seer,

To have my doubts by heavenly vision clear'd!
Glen. What dost thou doubt of? What hast thou
to do

With subjects intricate? Thy youth, thy beauty,
Cannot be questioned: think of these good gifts;
And then thy contemplations will be pleasing.
Anna. Let women view yon monument of woe,
Then boast of beauty: who so fair as she?
But I must follow; this revolving day

Awakes the mem'ry of her antient woes. Exit ANNA.
Glen. [solus] So!-Lady Randolph shuns me; by

and by

I'll woo her as the lion wooes his brides.

The deed's a doing now, that makes me lord
Of these rich valleys, and a chief of pow'r.
The season is most apt; my sounding steps
Will not be heard amidst the din of arms.

[ocr errors]

Randolph has liv'd too long: his better fate

Had the ascendant once, and kept me down:
When I had seiz'd the dame, by chance he came,
Rescu'd, and had the lady for his labour;
I'scap'd unknown; a slender consolation !
Heav'n is my witness that I do not love
To sow in peril, and let others reap
The jocund harvest. Yet I am not safe :
By love or something like it, stung, inflam'd,
Madly I blabb'd my passion to his wife,
And she has threaten'd to acquaint him of it.
The way of woman's will I do not know :
But well I know the Baron's wrath is deadly.
I will not live in fear: the man I dread
Is as a Dane to me: ay, and the man
Who stands betwixt me and my chief desire.
No bar but he; she has no kinsman near;
No brother in his sister's quarrel bold;

419

And for the righteous cause, a stranger's cause,
I know no chief that will defy Glenalyon.

Exit.

ACT II. SCENE I.

A Court, &c. Enter Servants and a Stranger at one door, and Lady RANDOLPH and ANNA at another.

Lady Randolph.

WHAT means this clamour? Stranger, speak secure; Hast thou been wrong'd? Have these rude men presum'd

To vex the weary traveller on his way?

F. Ser. By us no stranger ever suffered wrong: This man with outcry wild has called us forth; So sore afraid he cannot speak his fears.

Enter Lord RANDOLPH and a young man, with their swords drawn and bloody.

Lady R. Not vain the stranger's fears! how fares my lord.

Lord R. That it fares well, thanks to this gallant

youth,

Whose valour sav'd me from a wretched death!
As down the winding dale I walk'd alone,

At the cross way four armed men attack'd me:
Rovers, I judge, from the licentious camp,
Who would have quickly laid lord Randolph low,
Had not this brave and generous stranger come,
Like my good angel, in the hour of fate,

And mocking danger, made my foes his own.

« EelmineJätka »