The Works of Lord Byron Volume V Part 112

_Sieg._ You merciful?-- You! Base calumniator!

_Gab._ I. 'Twill rest With me at last to be so. You concealed me-- In secret pa.s.sages known to yourself, You said, and to none else. At dead of night, Weary with watching in the dark, and dubious Of tracing back my way, I saw a glimmer, Through distant crannies, of a twinkling light: I followed it, and reached a door--a secret 310 Portal--which opened to the chamber, where, With cautious hand and slow, having first undone As much as made a crevice of the fastening, I looked through and beheld a purple bed, And on it Stralenheim!--

_Sieg._ Asleep! And yet You slew him!--Wretch!

_Gab._ He was already slain, And bleeding like a sacrifice. My own Blood became ice.

_Sieg._ But he was all alone!

You saw none else? You did not see the---- [_He pauses from agitation_.

_Gab._ No, _He_, whom you dare not name, nor even I 320 Scarce dare to recollect, was not then in The chamber.

_Sieg._ (_to_ ULRIC). Then, my boy! thou art guiltless still-- Thou bad'st me say _I_ was so once.--Oh! now Do thou as much.

_Gab._ Be patient! I can _not_ Recede now, though it shake the very walls Which frown above us. You remember,--or If not, your son does,--that the locks were changed Beneath _his_ chief inspection on the morn Which led to this same night: how he had entered He best knows--but within an antechamber, 330 The door of which was half ajar, I saw A man who washed his b.l.o.o.d.y hands, and oft With stern and anxious glance gazed back upon-- The bleeding body--but it moved no more.

_Sieg._ Oh! G.o.d of fathers!

_Gab._ I beheld his features As I see yours--but yours they were not, though Resembling them--behold them in Count Ulric's!

Distinct as I beheld them, though the expression Is not now what it then was!--but it was so When I first charged him with the crime--so lately. 340

_Sieg._ This is so--

_Gab._ (_interrupting him_). Nay--but hear me to the end!

_Now_ you must do so.--I conceived myself Betrayed by you and _him_ (for now I saw There was some tie between you) into this Pretended den of refuge, to become The victim of your guilt; and my first thought Was vengeance: but though armed with a short poniard (Having left my sword without), I was no match For him at any time, as had been proved That morning--either in address or force. 350 I turned and fled--i' the dark: chance rather than Skill made me gain the secret door of the hall, And thence the chamber where you slept: if I Had found you _waking_, Heaven alone can tell What vengeance and suspicion might have prompted; But ne'er slept guilt as Werner slept that night.

_Sieg._ And yet I had horrid dreams! and such brief sleep, The stars had not gone down when I awoke.

Why didst thou spare me? I dreamt of my father-- And now my dream is out!

_Gab._ 'Tis not my fault, 360 If I have read it.--Well! I fled and hid me-- Chance led me here after so many moons-- And showed me Werner in Count Siegendorf!

Werner, whom I had sought in huts in vain, Inhabited the palace of a sovereign!

You sought me and have found me--now you know My secret, and may weigh its worth.

_Sieg._ (_after a pause_). Indeed!

_Gab._ Is it revenge or justice which inspires Your meditation?

_Sieg._ Neither--I was weighing The value of your secret.

_Gab._ You shall know it 370 At once:--When you were poor, and I, though poor, Rich enough to relieve such poverty As might have envied mine, I offered you My purse--you would not share it:--I'll be franker With you: you are wealthy, n.o.ble, trusted by The imperial powers--you understand me?

_Sieg._ Yes.

_Gab._ Not quite. You think me venal, and scarce true: 'Tis no less true, however, that my fortunes Have made me both at present. You shall aid me: I would have aided you--and also have 380 Been somewhat damaged in my name to save Yours and your son's. Weigh well what I have said.

_Sieg._ Dare you await the event of a few minutes'

Deliberation?

_Gab._ (_casts his eyes on_ ULRIC, _who is leaning against a pillar_). If I should do so?

_Sieg._ I pledge my life for yours. Withdraw into This tower. [_Opens a turret-door_.

_Gab._ (_hesitatingly_). This is the second _safe_ asylum You have offered me.

_Sieg._ And was not the first so?

_Gab._ I know not that even now--but will approve The second. I have still a further s.h.i.+eld.-- I did not enter Prague alone; and should I 390 Be put to rest with Stralenheim, there are Some tongues without will wag in my behalf.

Be brief in your decision![200]

_Sieg._ I will be so.-- My word is sacred and irrevocable Within _these_ walls, but it extends no further.

_Gab._ I'll take it for so much.

_Sieg._ (_points to_ ULRIC'S _sabre, still upon the ground_).

Take also _that_-- I saw you eye it eagerly, and him Distrustfully.

_Gab._ (_takes up the sabre_). I will; and so provide To sell my life--not cheaply.

[GABOR _goes into the turret, which_ SIEGENDORF _closes_.

_Sieg._ (_advances to_ ULRIC). Now, Count Ulric!

For son I dare not call thee--What say'st thou? 400

_Ulr._ His tale is true.

_Sieg._ True, monster!

_Ulr._ Most true, father!

And you did well to listen to it: what We know, we can provide against. He must Be silenced.

_Sieg._ Aye, with half of my domains; And with the other half, could he and thou Unsay this villany.

_Ulr._ It is no time For trifling or dissembling. I have said His story's true; and he too must be silenced.

_Sieg._ How so?

_Ulr._ As Stralenheim is. Are you so dull As never to have hit on this before? 410 When we met in the garden, what except Discovery in the act could make me know His death? Or had the Prince's household been Then summoned, would the cry for the police Been left to such a stranger? Or should I Have loitered on the way? Or could _you, Werner_, The object of the Baron's hate and fears, Have fled, unless by many an hour before Suspicion woke? I sought and fathomed you, Doubting if you were false or feeble: I 420 Perceived you were the latter: and yet so Confiding have I found you, that I doubted At times your weakness.

_Sieg._ Parricide! no less Than common stabber! What deed of my life, Or thought of mine, could make you deem me fit For your accomplice?

_Ulr._ Father, do not raise The devil you cannot lay between us. This Is time for union and for action, not For family disputes. While _you_ were tortured, Could _I_ be calm? Think you that I have heard 430 This fellow's tale without some feeling?--You Have taught me feeling for _you_ and myself; For whom or what else did you ever teach it?

_Sieg._ Oh! my dead father's curse! 'tis working now.

_Ulr._ Let it work on! the grave will keep it down!

Ashes are feeble foes: it is more easy To baffle such, than countermine a mole, Which winds its blind but living path beneath you.

Yet hear me still!--If _you_ condemn me, yet, Remember _who_ hath taught me once too often 440 To listen to him! _Who_ proclaimed to me That _there were crimes_ made venial by the occasion?

That pa.s.sion was our nature? that the goods Of Heaven waited on the goods of fortune?

_Who_ showed me his humanity secured By his _nerves_ only? _Who_ deprived me of All power to vindicate myself and race In open day? By his disgrace which stamped (It might be) b.a.s.t.a.r.dy on me, and on Himself--a _felon's_ brand! The man who is 450 At once both warm and weak invites to deeds He longs to do, but dare not. Is it strange That I should _act_ what you could _think?_ We have done With right and wrong; and now must only ponder Upon effects, not causes. Stralenheim, Whose life I saved from impulse, as _unknown_, I would have saved a peasant's or a dog's, I slew _Known_ as our foe--but not from vengeance. He Was a rock in our way which I cut through, As doth the bolt, because it stood between us 460 And our true destination--but not idly.

As stranger I preserved him, and he _owed me_ His _life_: when due, I but resumed the debt.