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_ ACT V - SCENE III
A Hall in the Castle of ALARCOS;
in the back of the Scene a door leading to another Apartment.
ORAN.
Reveal the future, lightnings! Then I'd hail
That arrowy flash. O darker than the storm
Cowed as the beasts now crouching in their caves,
Is my sad soul. Impending o'er this house,
I feel some bursting fate, my doomed arm
In vain would ward,
[Enter a MAN AT ARMS.]
How now, hast left thy post?
MAN.
O worthy Castellan, the lightnings play
Upon our turrets, that no human step
Can keep the watch. Each forky flash seems missioned
To scathe our roof, and the whole platform flows
With a blue sea of flame.
ORAN.
It is thy post.
No peril clears desertion. To thy post.
Mark me, my step will be as prompt as thine;
I will relieve thee.
[Exit MAN AT ARMS.]
Let the mischievous fire
Wither this head. O Allah! grant no fate
More dire awaits me.
[Enter the COUNT ALARCOS.]
Hah! the Count! My lord,
In such a night!
ALAR.
A night that's not so wild
As this tempestuous breast. How is she, Oran?
ORAN.
Well.
ALAR.
Ever well.
ORAN.
The children--
ALAR.
Wine, I'm wearied,
The lightning scared my horse; he's galled my arm.
Get me some wine.
[Exit ORAN.]
The storm was not to stop me.
The mind intent construes each natural act
To a personal bias, and so catches judgments
In every common course. In truth the flash,
Though it seemed opening hell, was not so dreadful
As that wild glaring hall.
[Re-enter ORAN with a goblet and flagon.]
Ah! this re-mans me!
I think the storm has lulled. Another cup.
Go see, good Oran, how the tempest speeds.
[Exit ORAN.]
An hour ago I did not dare to think
I'd drink wine more.
[Re-enter ORAN.]
ORAN.
The storm indeed has lulled
As by a miracle; the sky is clear,
There's not a breath of air; and from the turret
I heard the bell of Huelgas.
ALAR.
Then 'twas nothing.
My spirit vaults! Oran, thou dost remember
The night that we first met?
ORAN.
'Tis graven deep
Upon my heart.
ALAR.
I think thou lov'st me, Oran?
ORAN.
And all thy house.
ALAR.
Nay, thou shalt love but me.
I'll no divisions in the hearts that are mine.
ORAN.
I have no love but that which knits me to thee
With deeper love.
ALAR.
I found thee, Oran, what--
I will not say. And now thou art, good Oran,
A Prince's Castellan.
ORAN.
I feel thy bounty.
ALAR.
Thou shalt be more. But serve me as I would,
And thou shalt name thy meed.
ORAN.
To serve my lord
Is my sufficient meed.
ALAR.
Come hither, Oran,
Were there a life between me and my life,
And all that makes that life a thing to cling to,
Love, Honour, Power, ay, what I will not name
Nor thou canst image--yet enough to stir
Ambition in the dead--I think, good Oran,
Thou would'st not see me foiled?
ORAN.
Thy glory's dearer
Than life to me.
ALAR.
I knew it, I knew it.
Thou shalt share all; thy alien blood shall be
No bar to thy preferment. Hast thou brothers?
I'll send for them. An aged sire, perchance?
Here's gold for him. Count it thyself. Contrive
All means of self-enjoyment. To the full
They shall lap up fruition. Thou hast, all have,
Some master wish which still eludes thy grasp,
And still's the secret idol of thy soul;
'Tis gained. And only if thou dost, good Oran,
What love and duty prompt.
ORAN.
Count on my faith,
I stand prepared to prove it.
ALAR.
Good, good, Oran.
It is an hour to midnight?
ORAN.
The moon is not
Within her midnight bower, yet near.
ALAR.
So late!
The Countess sleeps?
ORAN.
She has long retired.
ALAR.
She sleeps,
O, she must wake no more!
ORAN.
Thy wife!
ALAR.
It must
Be done, ere yet the Castle chime shall tell
Night wanes.
ORAN.
Thy wife! God of my fathers! none
Can do this deed!
ALAR.
Upon thy hand it rests.
The deed must fall on thee.
ORAN.
I will not do it.
ALAR.
Thine oath, thine oath! Hast thou forgot thine oath?
Thou owest me a life, and now I claim it.
What, hast thou trifled with me? Hast thou fooled
With one whose point was at thy throat? Beware!
Thou art my slave, and I have branded thee
With this infernal ransom!
ORAN.
I am thy slave,
And I will be thy slave, and all my days
Devoted to perdition. Not for gold
Or worldly worth; to cheer no aged parent,
Though I have one, a mother; not to bask
My seed within thy beams; to feed no passions
And gorge no craving vanity; but because
Thou gavest me life, and led to that which made
That life for once delicious. O, great sir,
The King's thy foe? Surrounded by his guards
I would waylay him. Hast thou some fierce rival?
I'll pluck his heart out. Yea! there is no peril
I'd not confront, no rack I'll not endure,
No great offence commit, to do thee service--
So thou wilt spare me this, and spare thy soul
This unmatched sin.
ALAR.
I had exhausted suffering
Ere I could speak to thee. I claim thine oath.
ORAN.
One moment, yet one moment. This is sudden
As it is terrible.
ALAR.
The womb is ripe,
And thou art but the midwife of the birth
I have engendered.
ORAN.
Think how fair she is,
How gracious, how devoted!
ALAR.
Need I thee
To tell me what she is!
ORAN.
Thy children's mother.
ALAR.
Would she were not! Another breast should bear
My children.
ORAN.
Thou inhuman bloody man--
It shall not be, it cannot, cannot be.
I tell thee, tyrant, there's a power abroad
E'en now that crashes thee. The storm that raged
Blows from a mystic quarter. 'Tis the hand
Of Allah guides the tempest of this night.
ALAR.
Thine oath, thine oath!
ORAN.
Accursed be the hour
Thou sparedst my life!
ALAR.
Thine oath, I claim thine oath.
Nay, Moor, what is it? 'Tis a life, and thou
Hast learnt to rate existence at its worth.
A life, a woman's life! Why, sack a town,
And thousands die like her. My faithful Oran,
Come let me love thee, let me find a friend
When friends can prove themselves. It's not an oath
Vowed in our sunshine ease, that shows a friend;
'Tis the tempestuous mood like this, that calls
For faithful service.
ORAN.
Hah! the Emir's blood
Cries for this judgment. It was sacred seed.
ALAR.
It flowed to clear thine honour. Art thou he
That honour loved so dearly, that he scorned
Betrayal of a foe, although that foe
Had changed him to a bravo?
ORAN.
Let me kiss
Thy garment's hem, and grovel it thy feet--
I pray, I supplicate--my lord, my lord--
Absolve me from that oath!
ALAR.
I had not thought
To claim it twice. It seems I lacked some judgment
In man, to deem that honour might be found
In hired stabbers.
ORAN.
Hah! I vowed to thee
A life for that which thou didst spare--'tis well.
The debt is paid.
[Stabs himself and falls.]
[Enter the COUNTESS from the inner Chamber.]
COUN.
I cannot sleep--my dreams are full of woe!
Alarcos! my Alarcos! Hah! dread sight!
Oran!
ORAN.
O, spare her; 'tis no sacrifice
If she be spared.
COUN.
Wild words! Thou dost not speak.
O, speak, Alarcos! speak!
ORAN.
His voice is death.
COUN.
Ye Saints uphold me now, for I am weak
And lost. What means this? Oran dying! Nay--
Alarcos! I'm a woman. Aid me, aid me.
Why's Oran thus? O, save him, my Alarcos!
Blood! And why shed? Why, let us staunch his wounds.
Why are there wounds? He will not speak. Alarcos,
A word, a single word! Unhappy Moor!
Where is thy hurt?
[Kneels by ORAN.]
ORAN.
That hand! This is not death;
'Tis Paradise.
[Dies.]
ALAR.
[advancing in soliloquy]
He sets me great examples.
'Tis easier than I deemed; a single blow
And his bold soul has fled. His lavish life
Enlists me in quick service. Quit that dark corpse;
He died as did become a perjured traitor.
COUN.
To whom, my lord?
ALAR.
To all Castille perchance.
Come hither, wife. Before the morning breaks
A lengthened journey waits thee. Art prepared?
COUN.
[springing to ALARCOS]
I will not go. Alarcos, dear Alarcos,
Thy look is terrible! What mean these words?
Why should'st thou spare me? Why should Oran die?
The veil that clouds thy mind--I'll rend it. Tell me--
Yea! I'll know all. A power supports me now--
Defies even thee.
ALAR.
A traitor's troubled tongue
Disturbs thy mind. I tell thee, thou must leave
This castle promptly.
COUN.
Not to Burgos--say
But that. I will not go. That fatal woman--
Her shadow's on thy soul.
ALAR.
No, not to Burgos.
'Tis not to Burgos that thy journey tends.
The children sleep?
COUN.
Spite of the storm.
ALAR.
Go--kiss them.
Thou canst not take them with thee. To thy chamber--
Quick to thy chamber.
[The COUNTESS as if about to speak, but ALARCOS stops her.]
Nay, time presses, wife.
[The COUNTESS slowly re-enters her Chamber.]
ALAR.
I am alone--with Death. And will she look
Serene as this? The visage of a hero
Stamped with a martyred end! Thou noble Moor!
What if thy fate were mine! Thou art at rest:
No dark fulfilment waits o'er thee. The tomb
Hath many charms.
[The COUNTESS calls.]
COUN.
Alarcos!
ALAR.
Ay, anon.
Why did she tell me that she lived? Methought
It was all past. I came to confront death;
And we have met. This sacrificial blood--
What, bears it no atonement? 'Twas an offering
Fit for the Gods.
[The midnight bell.]
She waits me now; her hand
Extends a diadem; my achieveless arm
Would wither at her scorn. 'Tis thus, Solisa,
I gain thy heart and realm!
[ALARCOS moves hastily to the Chamber, which he enters;
the stage for some seconds is empty; a shriek is then heard;
ALARCOS re-appears, very pale, and slowly advances to the front of the stage.]
'Tis over and I live. I heard a sound;
Was't Oran's spirit?
I'll not rest here, and yet I dare not back.
The bodies? Nay, 'tis done--I'll not shrink now.
I have seen death before. But is this death?
Methinks a deeper mystery. Well, 'tis done.
There'll be no hour so dark as this. I would
I had not caught her eye.
[A trumpet sounds.]
The Warder's note!
Shall I meet life again?
[Another trumpet sounds.]
[Enter the SENESCHAL.]
SEN.
Horsemen from Court.
ALAR.
The Court! I'm sick at heart. Perchance she's eager,
And cannot wait my coming.
[Enter two COURTIERS.]
Well, good sirs!
1ST COURT.
Alas, my lord.
ALAR.
I live upon thy words.
What now?
1ST COURT.
We have rode post, my lord.
ALAR.
Bad news
Flies ever. 'Tis the King?
1ST COURT.
Alas!
ALAR.
She's ill.
My horse, my horse there!
1ST COURT.
Nay, my lord, not so.
ALAR.
Why then I care for nought.
1ST COURT.
Unheard-of horror!
The storm, the storm--
ALAR.
I rode in it.
1ST COURT.
Methought
Each flash would fire the Citadel; the flame
Wreathed round its pinnacles, and poured in streams
Adown the pallid battlements. Our revellers
Forgot their festival, and stopped to gaze
On the portentous vision. When behold!
The curtained clouds re-opened, and a bolt
Came winged from the startling blue of heaven,
And struck--the Infanta!
ALAR.
There's a God of Vengeance.
1ST COURT.
She fell a blighted corpse. Amid the shrieks
Of women, prayers of hurrying multitudes,
The panic and the stir we sought for thee;
The King's overwhelmed.
ALAR.
My wife's at least a Queen,
She reigns in Heaven. The King's o'erwhelmed--poor man
Go tell him, sirs, the Count Alarcos lived
To find a hell on earth; yet thus he sought
A deeper and a darker.
[Falls.]
[THE END]
Benjamin Disraeli's play: Count Alarcos; a Tragedy
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