ELSIE.

It cannot be ;

Not if these cold, flat stones on which we tread

Were coulters heated white, and yonder gateway Flamed like a furnace with a sevenfold heat.

I must fulfil my purpose.

PRINCE HENRY.

I forbid it!

Not one step farther. For I only meant
To put thus far thy courage to the proof.
It is enough. I, too, have courage to die,
For thou hast taught me !

ELSIE.

O my Prince! remember

Your promises. Let me fulfil my errand.
You do not look on life and death as I do.
There are two angels that attend unseen
Each one of us, and in great books record
Our good and evil deeds. He who writes down
The good ones, after every action closes

His volume, and ascends with it to God.

The other keeps his dreadful day-book open

Till sunset, that we may repent; which doing,

The record of the action fades away,

And leaves a line of white across the page.

Now if my act be good, as I believe it,

It cannot be recalled. It is already

Sealed up in heaven, as a good deed accomplished. The rest is yours. Why wait you? I am ready.

To her Attendants.

Weep not, my friends! rather rejoice with me.
I shall not feel the pain, but shall be gone,
And you will have another friend in heaven.
Then start not at the creaking of the door
Through which I pass. I see what lies beyond it.
To PRINCE HENRY.

And you, O Prince! bear back my benison

Unto my father's house, and all within it.

This morning in the church I prayed for them,
After confession, after absolution,

When my whole soul was white, I prayed for them.

God will take care of them, they need me not.
And in your life let my remembrance linger,
As something not to trouble and disturb it,

But to complete it, adding life to life.
And if at times beside the evening fire

You see my face among the other faces,

Let it not be regarded as a ghost

That haunts your house, but as a guest that loves you.

Nay, even as one of your own family,

Without whose presence there were something wanting. I have no more to say. Let us go in.

PRINCE HENRY.

Friar Angelo! I charge you on your life,
Believe not what she says, for she is mad,
And comes here not to die, but to be healed.

Alas! Prince Henry!

ELSIE.

ELSIE goes

LUCIFER.

Come with me; this way.

in with LUCIFER, who thrusts PRINCE HENRY

back and closes the door.

PRINCE HENRY.

Gone! and the light of all my life gone

with her!

A sudden darkness falls upon the world!
O, what a vile and abject thing am I,
That purchase length of days at such a cost!
Not by her death alone, but by the death
Of all that's good and true and noble in me!
All manhood, excellence, and self-respect,

All love, and faith, and hope, and heart are dead!
All my divine nobility of nature

By this one act is forfeited for ever.

I am a prince in nothing but in name!

Why did

To the Attendants.

ye let this horrible deed be done? Why did you not lay hold on her, and keep her From self-destruction? Angelo! murderer!

Struggles at the door, but cannot open it.

It shall not be too late!

They burst open the door, and rush in.

Ꮓ

SCENE:-THE COTTAGE IN THE ODENWALD.

URSULA spinning. Summer afternoon. A table spread.

URSULA.

I HAVE marked it well-it must be true,-
Death never takes one alone, but two!
Whenever he enters in at a door,
Under roof of gold or roof of thatch,
He always leaves it upon the latch,
And comes again ere the year is o'er.
Never one of a household only!
Perhaps it is a mercy of God,

Lest the dead there under the sod,

In the land of strangers, should be lonely!
Ah me! I think I am lonelier here!

It is hard to go,--but harder to stay!
Were it not for the children, I should pray
That Death would take me within the year!
And Gottlieb !-he is at work all day,
In the sunny field, or the forest murk,
But I know that his thoughts are far away,
I know that his heart is not in his work!
And when he comes home to me at night,
He is not cheery, but sits and sighs,
And I see the great tears in his eyes,
And try to be cheerful for his sake.
Only the children's hearts are light.
Mine is weary, and ready to break.

God help us! I hope we have done right; We thought we were acting for the best!

Looking through the open door.

Who is it coming under the trees?
A man, in the Prince's livery dressed!