Queen Mary; and, Harold Part 44

MALET. 'Tis the good Count's care for thee!

The Normans love thee not, nor thou the Normans, Or--so they deem.

HAROLD. But wherefore is the wind, Which way soever the vane-arrow swing, Not ever fair for England? Why but now He said (thou heardst him) that I must not hence Save on conditions.

MALET. So in truth he said.

HAROLD. Malet, thy mother was an Englishwoman; There somewhere beats an English pulse in thee!

MALET. Well--for my mother's sake I love your England, But for my father I love Normandy.

HAROLD. Speak for thy mother's sake, and tell me true.

MALET. Then for my mother's sake, and England's sake That suffers in the daily want of thee, Obey the Count's conditions, my good friend.

HAROLD. How, Malet, if they be not honourable!

MALET. Seem to obey them.

HAROLD. Better die than lie!

MALET. Choose therefore whether thou wilt have thy conscience White as a maiden's hand, or whether England Be shatter'd into fragments.

HAROLD. News from England?

MALET. Morcar and Edwin have stirr'd up the Thanes Against thy brother Tostig's governance; And all the North of Humber is one storm.

HAROLD. I should be there, Malet, I should be there!

MALET. And Tostig in his own hall on suspicion Hath ma.s.sacred the Thane that was his guest, Gamel, the son of Orm: and there be more As villainously slain.

HAROLD. The wolf! the beast!

Ill news for guests, ha, Malet! More? What more?

What do they say? did Edward know of this?

MALET. They say, his wife was knowing and abetting.

HAROLD. They say, his wife!--To marry and have no husband Makes the wife fool. My G.o.d, I should be there.

I'll hack my way to the sea.

MALET. Thou canst not, Harold; Our Duke is all between thee and the sea, Our Duke is all about thee like a G.o.d; All pa.s.ses block'd. Obey him, speak him fair, For he is only debonair to those That follow where he leads, but stark as death To those that cross him.--Look thou, here is Wulfnoth!

I leave thee to thy talk with him alone; How wan, poor lad! how sick and sad for home!

[_Exit_ MALET.

HAROLD (_muttering_).

Go not to Normandy--go not to Normandy!

_Enter_ WULFNOTH.

Poor brother! still a hostage!

WULFNOTH. Yea, and I Shall see the dewy kiss of dawn no more Make blush the maiden-white of our tall cliffs, Nor mark the sea-bird rouse himself and hover Above the windy ripple, and fill the sky With free sea-laughter--never--save indeed Thou canst make yield this iron-mooded Duke To let me go.

HAROLD. Why, brother, so he will; But on conditions. Canst thou guess at them?

WULFNOTH. Draw nearer,--I was in the corridor, I saw him coming with his brother Odo The Bayeux bishop, and I hid myself.

HAROLD. They did thee wrong who made thee hostage; thou Wast ever fearful.

WULFNOTH. And he spoke--I heard him-- 'This Harold is not of the royal blood, Can have no right to the crown,' and Odo said, 'Thine is the right, for thine the might; he is here, And yonder is thy keep.'

HAROLD. No, Wulfnoth, no.

WULFNOTH. And William laugh'd and swore that might was right, Far as he knew in this poor world of ours-- 'Marry, the Saints must go 'along with us, And, brother, we will find a way,' said he-- Yea, yea, he would be king of England.

HAROLD. Never!

WULFNOTH. Yea, but thou must not this way answer _him_.

HAROLD. Is it not better still to speak the truth?

WULFNOTH. Not here, or thou wilt never hence nor I: For in the racing toward this golden goal He turns not right or left, but tramples flat Whatever thwarts him; hast thou never heard His savagery at Alencon,--the town Hung out raw hides along their walls, and cried 'Work for the tanner.'

HAROLD. That had anger'd _me_ Had I been William.

WULFNOTH. Nay, but he had prisoners, He tore their eyes out, sliced their hands away, And flung them streaming o'er the battlements Upon the heads of those who walk'd within-- O speak him fair, Harold, for thine own sake.

HAROLD. Your Welshman says, 'The Truth against the World,'

Much more the truth against myself.

WULFNOTH. Thyself?

But for my sake, oh brother! oh! for my sake!

HAROLD. Poor Wulfnoth! do they not entreat thee well?

WULFNOTH. I see the blackness of my dungeon loom Across their lamps of revel, and beyond The merriest murmurs of their banquet clank The shackles that will bind me to the wall.

HAROLD. Too fearful still!

WULFNOTH. Oh no, no--speak him fair!

Call it to temporize; and not to lie; Harold, I do not counsel thee to lie.

The man that hath to foil a murderous aim May, surely, play with words.

HAROLD. Words are the man.

Not ev'n for thy sake, brother, would I lie.

WULFNOTH. Then for thine Edith?

HAROLD. There thou p.r.i.c.k'st me deep.