Collected Works (Vol. I)

THE MOTHER’S TRAGEDY 163 Be what you will except that infamous ! For as my mother—I should spit on you! [CoRA zs at his feet grovelling. She half rises to listen. Ignoble is your foul maternity, The cattle-kinship. But the other crime Is viler than the first one. ‘‘ Look!” you say: ‘* His passion threatens to defile my bed !” And put a hideous abiding curse On both our lives to save your modesty From my incestuous embrace! O God! My love is nobler—to defy the past, Deny !—your love is merely natural ; Mine, against Nature, is the love Divine ! What crime is this? Thy pale Son’s martyrdom Cleansed earth from no such vile hypocrisy As this my mother’s. And I call thee, God, ° To witness ; and I call mankind to hear ; This is my faith: I live and die by it. I, nobler, cast away the infamy, Break with my hands these rotten barri- cades, [He picks up his mother’s Bible, tears at, and casts tt into the fire. And swear before the Spirit of the World, In sight of God, this day: I love you still With carnal love and spiritual love ! And I will have you, by the living God, To be my mistress. If I fail in this, Or falter in this counsel of despair, May God’s own curses dog me into hell, And mine own life perpetuate itself Through all the ages of eternity. Amen! Amen! Come, Cora, to my heart ! [He stoops to embrace her. Horror and madness catch him, and he runs about the room wildly, crying for Cora, whom he cannot see. Ma- DELINE ev2/er's. MADELINE, O Cora! Cora! Ulric! Help! Help! Help! ULRIC (regazns his self-control). Hush! now. Some news—a letter—it has frightened her. All is well! I cannot tell you MADELINE., But you were crying as a madman would. ULRIC, Believe me, I am nervous and distraught. You know me, how excitable I am. A moment, and you see me calm again. Come, Cora, do not frighten Madeline ! [He ratses her to lead her from the room. CORA. Where would you lead me? with tears. I am blind ULRIC. I have no tears. cold As my intention. Mine eyes are hard and Help me, Madeline. CORA. God will avenge me bitterly on you If you stretch hand to aid this infamy. ULRIC. You shall not wreck her life. Be silent now } Believe me, it is nothing, Madeline! She often falls into a fit like this. Excess is danger, equally in prayer (Her vice is prayer) as in debauchery. [He ts again going mad. He drags Cora from the roon.