The British drama

Enter MICHAEL.

Mich. The guests are come-the servants all returned.

Mos. Alicia, be thyself; and mask thy heart [Mosby lifts up Alicia. From every prying eye with courteous smiles. Alic. Thou canst not think me mean enough to live?

Mos. You would not chuse an ignominious death?

Alic. That's all I dread-Might but the silent grave,

When it receives me to its dark abode,
Hide, with my dust, my shame!--O might that
be,

And Arden's death revenged! 'Tis my sole prayer.
If not, may awful justice have her course!
[Exit Alicia.
Mos. Sister! our lives are thine
Mar. Though Mosby has shook off humanity,
I cannot be his accuser.
[Exit Maria.
Mos. Follow them, Green, and watch Alicia's

conduct.

Green. I will, but cannot answer for my own. O Arden! Arden! could we change conditions! [Exit Green.

B. Will. Why, what a crew of cowards! In the same moment murdering and repenting. Mos. Give me the ring, that is on Arden's finger.

Shake. There. Will you have his purse too? Mos. No, keep that.

B. Will. Thanks for our own: we should have kept the ring,

Were it not too remarkable.

But how must we dispose of the body?

Mos. Convey it through the garden, to the

Contracts new horrors, and a deeper black,
From this damned deed.-Mosby, thou hast thy
wish.

Arden is dead; now count thy gains at leisure.
Dangers without, on every side suspicion;
Within, my starting conscience marks such wounds,
As hell can equal, only murderers feel. [A pause.
This, this the end of all my flattering hopes!
O! happiest was I in my humble state:
Though I lay down in want, I slept in peace :
My daily toil begat my night's repose;
My night's repose made day-light pleasing to me.
But now I've climbed the top-bough of the tree,
And sought to build my nest among the clouds:
The gentlest gales of summer shake my bed,
And dreams of murder harrow up my soul.
But hark!-Not yet :-'Tis dreadful being alone.
This awful silence, that, unbroken, reigns
Through earth and air, awakes attention more,
Than thunder bursting from ten thousand clouds :
S'death!-'tis but Michael-Say-

Enter MICHAEL.

Mich. Dead Arden lies

Behind the abbey-'tis a dismal sight!
It snowed apace while we disposed the body.
Mos. And not as you returned?
Mich. No, sir-

Mos. That's much

Should you be questioned as to Arden's death, You'll not confess?

Mich. No, so Maria's mine.

Mos. She's thine, if all a brother can-
Mich.-
-What's if?

I bought her dear, at hazard of my soul,

Mos. For your own sakes-Arden will soon be And force shall make her mine.mist.

Mos.

Why, how now, coward!

Enter MARIA.

Mar. The guests refuse to take their scats without you.

Alicia's grief too borders on distraction.
Thy presence may appease-

Mos. Increase it rather.

Mar. Michael, your absence too has been observed.

Mos. Say we are coming. [Exit Maria. Mich. One thing I'd forgot. [Returning. Soon as the company have left the house, The ruffians will return.

Mos. What would the villains?

Enter MAYOR, &c.

GREEN, BRADSHAW, ADAM FOWL, ALICIA,
MARIA, &C.

Brad. Madam, be comforted.

A. Fowl. Some accident, or business unforeseen, detains him thus.

Brad. I doubt not of his safety.

Alic. I thank you, gentlemen; I know you loved My Arden well, and kindly speak your wishes. Enter MOSBY.

Mos. I am ashamed I've made you wait: be
seated.

Green. Madam, first take your place.
Alic. Make me not mad-

To me henceforth all places are alike.

[Sits.

Mos. Come, since we want the master of the house,

I'll take his seat for once.

Alic. Dares he do this?

[Aside.

Mos. I'm much afflicted, that he stays so late; The times are perilous.

Green. And he has enemies.

Though no man, sure, did e'er deserve them less.
Mos. This day he was assaulted in the street.
Green. You saved him then.

Mos. Would I were with him now!
Mar. She starts, her looks are wild. [Aside.]
How fare you, madam?

Alic. I'm lost in admiration of your brother.
Mar. I fear her more than ever. [Aside.]-
Madam, be merry.

Mos. Michael, some wine. Health and long

life to Arden,

Mayor. Go you with these, and do as I directed. [Exeunt officers and others. I'm sorry that the duty of my office Demands a visit so unseasonable.

Mos. Your worship doubtless were a welcome guest

At any hour; but wherefore thus attended?
Mayor. I have received a warrant from the
council,

To apprehend two most notorious ruffians;
And information being made, on oath,
That they were seen to enter here to-night,
I'm come to search.

Green. I'm glad it is no worse.

[Aside.

Mos. And can you think, that Arden enter

tains

Villains like those, you speak of? Were he here,
You'd not be thanked for this officiousness.

Mayor. I know my duty, sir, and that respect,
So justly due to our good neighbour's worth.-
But where is Arden?

Alic. Heavens! where indeed!
Mar. Alicia, for my sake-
Alic. If I were silent,

[Aside.

Each precious drop of murdered Arden's blood
Would find a tongue, and cry to Heaven for ven-
geance!

Mayor. What says the lady?
Mos. Oh! sir, heed her not;

Her husband has not been at home to-night,
And her misboding sorrow for his absence
Has almost made her frantic.

Mayor. Scarce an hour,

Since I beheld him enter here with you!

Mos. The darkness of the night deceived you, sir;
It was a stranger, since departed hence.
Mayor. That's most surprising! No man knows
him better.

Frank. [without] Within there-ho-bar up
your gates with care,

And set a watch. Let not a man go by-

FRANKLIN, and others, enter with lights. [Rising. | And every tongue, that gave not its consent

Alic. The good you wish, and have procured To Arden's death, join mine, and cry aloud

for Arden,

Light on thyself!

Mar. For Heaven's sake!

[Rising. To Heaven and earth for justice. Honest Arden, My friend, is murdered!

Mayor. Murdered!

Green. How?

Mos. By whom?

Frank. How shall I utter what my eyes have

seen!

Horrid, with many a gaping wound, he lies
Behind the abbey, a sad spectacle!
O vengeance! vengeance!

Mayor. Justly art thou moved.
Passion is reason in a cause like this.

Frank. Eternal Providence, to whose bright eye
Darkness itself is as the noon-day blaze,
Who brings the midnight murderer, and his deeds,
3 Q

Huge clots of blood, and some of Arden's hair,
" May still be seen upon the garden-wall;
· Many such rushes, as these floors are strewed with,
Stick to his shoes and garments; and the prints
Of several feet may in the snow be traced,
From the stark body to the very door!
These are presumptions he was murdered here,
And that the assassins, having borne his corpse
Into the fields, hither returned again.

Mos. Are these your proofs?

Green. These are but circumstances,

And only prove thy malice.

Frank. And this scarf,

Known to be Arden's, in the court was found,
All blood.-

Mayor. Search them.

Mich. I thought I'd thrown it down the well. [Aside. Mayor. [To an Officer] Enter that room, and search the lady there;

We may, perhaps, discover more.

[Officer goes out, and re-enters; in the
mean time, another Officer searches
Mosby and Green.

1. Offi. On Arden's wife I found this letter.
2. Offi. And I this ring on Mosby.
Mayor. Righteous Heaven!

Well may'st thou hang thy head, detested villain!
This very day did Arden wear this ring;

I saw it on his hand.

Mos. I freely yield me to my fate.

Enter another Officer.

B. Will. Since we are sure to die, though I could wish it were in better company (for I hate that fawning rascal, Mosby), I will tell the truth for once. He has been long engaged in an affair with Arden's wife there; but fearing a discovery, and hoping to get into his estate, hired us to hide him. That's all.

Mayor. And you the horrid deed performed? Shake. We did, with his assistance, and Green's and Michael's.

Mayor. This letter proves Alicia, from the first,

Was made acquainted with your black design. B. Will. I know nothing of that; but if she was, she repented of it afterwards. So, I think, you call a change of mind.

Mayor. That may avail her at the bar of hea

May suffer in bad fellowship.-And Bradshaw,
My honest neighbour Bradshaw, too: I read it
With grief and wonder.-

Brad. Madam, I appeal

To you; as you are shortly to appear
Before a judge, that sees our secret thoughts,
Say, had I knowledge, or

Alic. You brought the letter,

But well I hope, you knew not the contents. Mayor. Hence with them all, till time and farther light

Shall clear these mysteries.

A. Fowl. If I'm condemned,

My blood be on his head, that gives the sentence.

Offi. We've seized two men behind some stalks I'm not accused, and only ask for justice.

of wood.

Mayor. Well, bring them in.

BLACK WILL and SHAKEBAG brought in.
They answer the description;
But let them wait, till I have done with these.
Heavens! what a scene of villany is here!
[Having read the letter.

Frank. You shall have justice all, and rigorous
justice.

So shall the growth of such enormous crimes,
By their dread fate, be checked in future times.
Of avarice, Mosby a dread instance prove,
And poor Alicia of unlawful love! -

[Exeunt omnes.

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SCENE I.-The inside of the copper-mines of | Ne'er hold their den, but where some glimmer

Dalecarlia.

Enter ANDERSON, ARNOLDUS, and Servants,

with torches.

And. You tell me wonders!
Arn. Soft, behold, my lord,

[Points behind the Scenes.
Behold him stretched, where reigns eternal night!
The flint his pillow, and cold damps his covering!
Yet, bold of spirit, and robust of limb,
He throws inclemency aside, nor feels
The lot of human frailty.

ing ray

May bring the cheer of morn. What, then, is he?
His dwelling marks a secret in his soul,

And whispers somewhat more than man about
him.

Arn. Draw but the veil of his apparent wretch-
edness,

And you shall find, his form is but assumed,
To hoard some wondrous treasure, lodged within.
And. Let him bear up to what thy praises
speak him,
And I will win him, spite of his reserve,

And. What horrors hang around! the savage Bind him, with sacred friendship, to my soul,

race

And make him half myself,

Were there a prince, throughout the sceptered globe,

Who searched out merit, for its due preferment,
With half that care our tyrant seeks it out
For ruin; happy, happy were that state,
Beyond the golden fable of those pure
And early ages. Wherefore this, good Heaven?
Is it of fate, that, who assumes a crown,
Throws off humanity ?

Arn. So Cristiern holds.

He claims our country as by right of conquest,
A right to every wrong. Even now, 'tis said,
The tyrant envies what our mountains yield
Of health, or aliment; he comes upon us,
Attended by a numerous host, to seize
These last retreats of our expiring liberty.
And. Say'st thou ?

Arn. This rising day, this instant hour,
Thus chaced, we stand upon the utmost brink
Of steep perdition, and must leap the precipice,
Or turn upon our hunters.

And. Now, Gustavus!

Thou prop and glory of inglorious Sweden, Where art thou, mightiest man?-Were he but here!

I'll tell thee, my Arnoldus, I beheld him, Then when he first drew sword, serene and dreadful,

As the browed evening ere the thunder break; For soon he made it toilsome to our eyes

To mark his speed, and trace the paths of conquest.

In vain we followed, where he swept the field; 'Twas death alone could wait upon Gustavus. Arn. He was, indeed, whate'er our wish could form him.

And. Arrayed and beauteous in the blood of
Danes,

The invaders of his country, thrice he chaced
This Cristiern, this fell conqueror, this usurper,
With rout and foul dishonour at his heels,
To plunge his head in Denmark.

Arn. Nor ever had the tyrant known return,
To tread our necks, and blend us with the dust,
Had he not dared to break through every law
That sanctifies the nations, seized our hero,
The pledge of specious treaty, tore him from

us,

And led him, chained, to Denmark.

And. Then we fell.

If still he lives, we yet may learn to rise,

Unknown, unfriended, compassed round with wretchedness,

Conceals some mighty purpose in his breast,
Now labouring into birth.

And. When came he hither?

Arn. Six moons have changed upon the face of night,

Since here he first arrived, in servile weeds,
But yet of mein majestic. I observed him,
And, ever as I gazed, some nameless charm,
A wondrous greatness not to be concealed,
Broke through his form, and awed my soul be-
fore him.

Amid these mines, he earns the hireling's portion;

His hands out-toil the hind; while, on his brow,
Sits Patience, bathed in the laborious drops
Of painful industry———I oft have sought,
With friendly tender of some worthier service,
To win him from his temper; but he shuns
All offers, yet declined with graceful act,
Engaging beyond utterance: and, at eve,
When all retire to some domestic solace,
He only stays, and, as you see, the carth
Receives him to her dark and cheerless bosom.

And. Has no unwary moment e'er betrayed
The labours of his soul, some favourite grief,
Whereon to raise conjecture?

Arn. I saw, as some bold peasants late deplored

Their country's bondage, sudden passion seized And bore him from his seeming; strait his form Was turn'd to terror, ruin filled his eye,

And his proud step appeared to awe the world: When checked, as though an impotence of

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