My Alvar loved sad music from a child.
Once he was lost; and after weary search
We found him in an open place in the wood,
To which spot he had follow'd a blind boy,
Who breathed into a pipe of: sycamore
Some strangely moving notes: and these, he said,
Were taught him in a dream. Him we first saw
Stretch'd on the broad top of a sunny heath-bank:
And lower down poor Alvar, fast asleep,

His head upon the blind boy's dog. It pleased me
To mark how he had fasten'd round the pipe
A silver toy his grandam had late given him.
Methinks I see him now as he then look'd-
Even so!-He had outgrown his infant dress,
Yet still he wore it.

ALVAR.

My tears must not flow!

I must not clasp his knees, and cry, My father! Enter TERESA, and Attendants.

TERESA.

Lord Valdez, you have asked my presence here, And I submit; but (Heaven bear witness for me) My heart approves it not! 't is mockery.

ORDONIO.

Believe you then no preternatural influence? Believe you not that spirits throng around us?

TERESA.

Say rather that I have imagined it

A possible thing and it has soothed my soul
As other fancies have; but ne'er seduced me
To traffic with the black and frenzied hope
That the dead hear the voice of witch or wizard.

(To ALVAR). Stranger, I mourn and blush to see you

here,

I left you.

ORDONIO (aside).

Ha! he has been tampering with her?

ALVAR.

O high-soul'd Maiden! and more dear to me Than suits the Stranger's name!

I swear to thee

I will uncover all concealed guilt.
Doubt, but decide not! Stand ye from the altar.

[Here a strain of music is heard from behind the

scene.

ALVAR.

With no irreverent voice or uncouth charm I call up the Departed!

Soul of Alvar!

Hear our soft suit, and heed my milder spell :
So may the Gates of Paradise, unbarr'd,
Cease thy swift toils! Since haply thou art one
Of that innumerable company

Who in broad circle, lovelier than the rainbow,
Girdle this round earth in a dizzy motion,
With noise too vast and constant to be heard:
Fitliest unheard! For oh, ye numberless
And rapid travellers! what ear unstunn'd,
What sense unmadden'd, might bear up against
The rushing of your congregated wings?

[Music.

Even now your living wheel turns o'er my head!
[Music expressive of the movements and images
that follow.

Ye, as ye pass, toss high the desert Sands,
That roar and whiten, like a burst of waters,

A sweet appearance, but a dread illusion

To the parch'd caravan that roams by night!
And ye build upon the becalmed waves
That whirling pillar, which from Earth to Heaven
Stands vast, and moves in blackness! Ye too split
The ice mount! and with fragments many and huge
Tempest the new-thaw'd sea, whose sudden gulfs
Suck in, perchance, some Lapland wizard's skiff!
Then round and round the whirlpool's marge ye dance,
Till from the blue swoln Corse the Soul toils out,
And joins your mighty Army.

[Here behind the scenes a voice sings the three
words, Hear, Sweet Spirit.»
Soul of Alvar!
Hear the mild spell, and tempt no blacker Charm!
By sighs unquiet, and the sickly pang
Of a half dead, yet still undying Hope,
Pass visible before our mortal sense!
So shall the Church's cleansing rites be thine,
Her knells and masses that redeem the Dead!

SONG.

Behind the Scenes, accompanied by the same Instrument as before.

Hear, sweet spirit, hear the spell,
Lest a blacker charm compel !

So shall the midnight breezes swell
With thy deep long-lingering knell.

And at evening evermore,

In a Chapel on the shore,

Shall the Chaunters sad and saintly, Yellow tapers burning faintly,

Had pamper'd his swoln heart and made him proud?
And what if Pride had duped him into guilt?
Yet still he stalk'd a self-created God,

Not very bold, but exquisitely cunning;
And one that at his Mother's looking-glass
Would force his features to a frowning sternness?
Young Lord! I tell thee, that there are such Beings-
Yea, and it gives fierce merriment to the damn'd,
To see these most proud men, that loath mankind,
At every stir and buzz of coward conscience,
Trick, cant, and lie, most whining hypocrites!
Away, away! Now let me hear more music.

TERESA.

[Music again.

"T is strange, I tremble at my own conjectures!
But whatsoe'er it mean, I dare no longer
Be present at these lawless mysteries,
This dark Provoking of the Hidden Powers!
Already I affront-if not high Heaven-
Yet Alvar's Memory!--Hark! I make appeal
Against the unholy rite, and hasten hence
To bend before a lawful shrine, and seek

If he be dead, O come! and bring with thee
That which he grasp'd in death! But if he live,
Some token of his obscure perilous life.

[The whole Music clashes into a Chorus.

CHORUS.

Wandering Demons, hear the spell!
Lest a blacker charm compel-

[The incense on the altar takes fire suddenly, and
an illuminated picture of ALVAR's assassina-
tion is discovered, and having remained a
few seconds is then hidden by ascending
flames.

ORDONIO (starting in great agitation). Duped! duped! duped!—the traitor Isidore! [At this instant the doors are forced open, MONVIEDRO and the Familiars of the Inquisition, Servants, etc. enter and fill the stage.

MONVIEDRO.

First seize the sorcerer! suffer him not to speak!
The holy judges of the Inquisition

Shall hear his first words.-Look you pale, Lord Valdez?
Plain evidence have we here of most foul sorcery.

There is a dungeon underneath this castle,

And as you hope for mild interpretation,
Surrender instantly the keys and charge of it.

ORDONIO (recovering himself as from stupor, to
Servants.)

Why haste you not? Off with him to the dungeon!
[All rush out in tumult.

SCENE II.

Interior of a Chapel, with painted Windows. Enter TERESA.

TERESA.

When first I entered this pure spot, forebodings
Press'd heavy on my heart: but as I knelt,
Such calm unwonted bliss possess'd my spirit,

A trance so cloudless, that those sounds, hard by,
Of trampling uproar fell upon mine ear
As alien and unnoticed as the rain-storm
Beats on the roof of some fair banquet-room,
While sweetest melodies are warbling--

Enter VALDEZ.

VALDEZ.

Ye pitying saints, forgive a father's blindness, And extricate us from this net of peril!

TERESA.

Who wakes anew my fears, and speaks of peril?

VALDEZ.

O best Teresa, wisely wert thou prompted!
This was no feat of mortal agency!
That picture-Oh, that picture tells me all!

Comfort and faithful Hope! Let us retire.

ALVAR (to TERESA, anxiously).

O full of faith and guileless love, thy Spirit

Self-kindled, self-consumed: bright as thy Life,

Sudden and unexpected as thy Fate,

Alvar! My son! My son!--The Inquisitor

breathed to the Unerring Must those remain unanswer'd, Yet impious sorcery, that holds no commune Save with the lying Spirit, claim belief?

VALDEZ.

O not to day, not now for the first time Was Alvar lost to thee

Accurst assassins!

Disarm'd, o'erpower'd, despairing of defence,
At his bared breast he seem'd to grasp some relict
More dear than was his life——

TERESA (with a faint shriek).

And he did grasp it in his death-pang!

[Turns off abruptly; then to himself.

This is my virtuous, grateful Isidore!

[Then mimicking ISIDORE's manner and voice. « A common trick of gratitude, my lord! Old Gratitude! a dagger would dissect

in his hand.

Hush! who comes here? The wizard Moor's employer! Moors were his murderers, you say? Saints shield us From wicked thoughts-

[VALDEZ moves towards the back of the stage to meet ORDONIO, and during the concluding lines of TERESA's speech appears as eagerly conversing with him.

Is Alvar dead? what then? The nuptial rites and funeral shall be one! Here's no abiding-place for thee, Teresa.Away! they see me not-Thou seest me, Alvar! To thee I bend my course.-But first one question, One question to Ordonio.-My limbs trembleThere I may sit unmark'd-a moment will restore me. [Retires out of sigh. ORDONIO (as he advances with VALDEZ). These are the dungeon keys. Monviedro knew not That I too had received the wizard message,

« own full heart»>—'t were good to see its colour.

VALDEZ.

These magic sights! O that I ne'er had yielded,
But that in spite of your own seeming faith
To your entreaties! Neither had I yielded,

I held it for some innocent stratagem,
Which Love had prompted, to remove the doubts
Of wild Teresa-by fancies quelling fancies!

ORDONIO (in a slow voice, as reasoning to himself).
Love! Love! and then we hate! and what? and wherefore?
Hatred and Love! Fancies opposed by fancies!
What, if one reptile sting another reptile!
Where is the crime? The goodly face of nature
Hath one disfeaturing stain the less
it
upon
Are we not all predestined Transiency,
And cold Dishonour? Grant it, that this hand
Had given a morsel to the hungry worms
Somewhat too early-Where's the crime of this?
That this must needs bring on the idiotcy
Of moist-eyed Penitence—'tis like a dream!

VALDEZ.

Wild talk, my son! But thy excess of feeling-[Averting himself.

Almost, I fear, it hath unhinged his brain.

ORDONIO (now in soliloquy, and now addressing his father and just after the speech has commenced, TERESA reappears and advances slowly).

Say, I had laid a body in the sun!

Well! in a month there swarm forth from the corse
A thousand, nay, ten thousand sentient beings
In place of that one man.-Say, I had kill'd him!
[TERESA starts and stops listening.
Yet who shall tell me, that each one and all
Of these ten thousand lives is not as happy
As that one life, which being push'd aside,
Made room for these unnumber'd--

VALDEZ.

O mere madness!

[TERESA moves hastily forwards, and places herself

directly before ORDONIO.

VALDEZ.

[A pause.

The hunt is up! and in the midnight wood,
With lights to dazzle and with nets they seek
A timid prey and lo! the tiger's eye
Glares in the red flame of his hunter's torch!
To Isidore I will dispatch a message,
And lure him to the cavern! ay, that cavern!
He cannot fail to find it. Thither I'll lure him,
Whence he shall never, never more return!

[Looks through the side window. A rim of the sun lies yet upon the sea, And now 't is gone! All shall be done to-night.

[Exit.