The Mother’s Tragedy

THE FATAL FORCE 57 THE LEPER. It is finished! The sacrament is made! The god Has flamed within the altar-cake: 'tis done! [Szlence: presently the leper breaks into a hor- rible, silent, smooth laughter. Again silence. PACHAD. I am done with godhead: let me be a man. CHORUS. Hail, Pachad, king of Egypt and the Nile! Hail, Pachad, Lord of the two lands, all hail ! PACHAD. King of himself and lord of life and death, No lesser throne! I have borne me as a god, Avenging on my nearest blood the sin That brought me shameful to the shameless light. I have not faltered nor turned back at all, Nor moved my purpose for a moment’s thought. Nor will I now. The god is gone from me, And as a man I feel the living shame Of my existence, and the biting brand Of murder set upon me, and the sting Of my discrownéd forehead. I shall die Having this proof of my own nobleness To soothe the rancour of my stricken soul In the abodes of night, that I have dared, With the first knowledge, to make good my spirit Against its fate, to steel my flinching heart