The same Scene.
Enter ALMACHILDES and HILDEGARD.
HILDEGARD.
Hast thou forgiven me?
ALMACHILDES.
I have not forgiven God.
HILDEGARD.
Wilt thou slay thy soul and mine?
ALMACHILDES.
Wilt thou Madden me? God hath given us up to her Who is deadlier than the fiery fang of death -Us, innocent and loyal.
HILDEGARD.
Nay, if I
Forgive her love of thee--though this be hard, Canst thou forgive not?
ALMACHILDES.
Sweet, for thee and me Remains no rescue save by death or flight From worse than flight or death is.
HILDEGARD.
Worse is nought But shame: and how may shame take hold on us, On us who have sinned not? Me she bound to play thee False, and betray thee to her arms: I might not Choose, though my heart should rend itself in twain And cleave with ravenous anguish: yet I live.
Vex not thy soul too sorely: me, not her, Thy spirit embraced, thine arms and lips made thine Me, not my darkling wraith, my changeling foe, My thief of love, our traitress.This I bid thee, Forget thy fear and shame to have wronged me: night Breeds treacherous dreams that can but poison day If thought be found so base a fool as dares Fear.Did I doubt thy love of me, I durst not Live or look back upon thee.
ALMACHILDES.
Wilt thou then Fly?
HILDEGARD.
Dost thou know what flight means--thou?
It means Fear.And is fear a new-born friend of thine?
ALMACHILDES.
God help us! if he live, and hate not man -If Satan be not God.We will not fly.
Enter ALBOVINE and ROSAMUND.
ALBOVINE.
Fly? What should love at height of happiness Or youth at height of honour fear and fly?
Would ye take wing for heaven? take shame on earth To wed in peace and honour?
ALMACHILDES.
No, my king.
No, surely.
ROSAMUND.
Weep not, maiden.Dost not thou, Man, that we thought her bridegroom sealed of love, Love her?
ALMACHILDES.
No saint loved ever God as I
Her.
ROSAMUND.
And betray her to shame thou wouldst not?
See, My lord, the silent answer flash aloud From cheek and eye a goodly witness.Thou, My maiden, dost thou love not him? Nay, speak.
HILDEGARD.
I cannot say it--I cannot strive to say.
ROSAMUND.
Thou shalt.Are all we not fast bound in love -My lord and thine, my maiden and her queen, A fourfold chain of faith twice linked of love?
Speak: let not shame find place where shame is none.
HILDEGARD.
I will not.King and queen and God shall hear.
I love him as our songs of old time say Men have been loved of women akin to gods By blood as they by spirit, albeit in me Nought lives that woman or man or God could say Were worth his love, if mine by grace of love Be found not all unworthy.Mine am INo more: mine own in no wise now, but his To save or slay, to cherish or cast out, Crown and discrown, abase and comfort.Shame Were more to me than honour if his will It were that shame should clothe me round, and life Were the only death left fearful if he bade me Die.Could his love be turned from me, and set On one less loving but more fair than I, A thrall more base than treason or a queen Too high for shame to brand her shameful, even Though sin had stamped and signed her foul as fraud And loathsome as a masked adulterous lie, Hers would I make him if I might, and yield To her the hatefullest of hell-born things The man found lovelier by my love than heaven.
ROSAMUND.
Great love is this to brag of: great and strange.
HILDEGARD.
Love is no braggart: lust and fraud and hate Vaunt their vile strength when shame unveils them: love Vaunts not itself.I spake not uncompelled, And blushed not out the avowal.
ALBOVINE.
Boy, I held And hold thee noblest of my lords of war, And worthier than thine elders born and tried Ere battle found thee ripe and glad at heart To stem and swim the tide of spears: but this I know not if thou be or any man Be worthy of.
ALMACHILDES.
Of all men born on earth I am most unworthy of it.None might be Worthy.
ROSAMUND.
He weeps: thy boy is humble.
ALMACHILDES.
