The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 123

_Isidore._ 'Tis now three years, my lord, since last I saw you: 20 Have you a son, my lord?

_Ordonio._ O miserable-- [_Aside._ Isidore! you are a man, and know mankind.

I told you what I wished--now for the truth-- She loved the man you kill'd.

_Isidore._ You jest, my lord?

_Ordonio._ And till his death is proved she will not wed me. 25

_Isidore._ You sport with me, my lord?

_Ordonio._ Come, come! this foolery Lives only in thy looks, thy heart disowns it!

_Isidore._ I can bear this, and any thing more grievous From you, my lord--but how can I serve you here?

_Ordonio._ Why, you can utter with a solemn gesture 30 Oracular sentences of deep no-meaning, Wear a quaint garment, make mysterious antics--

_Isidore._ I am dull, my lord! I do not comprehend you.

_Ordonio._ In blunt terms, you can play the sorcerer.

She hath no faith in Holy Church, 'tis true: 35 Her lover schooled her in some newer nonsense!

Yet still a tale of spirits works upon her.

She is a lone enthusiast, sensitive, s.h.i.+vers, and can not keep the tears in her eye: And such do love the marvellous too well 40 Not to believe it. We will wind up her fancy With a strange music, that she knows not of-- With fumes of frankincense, and mummery, Then leave, as one sure token of his death, That portrait, which from off the dead man's neck 45 I bade thee take, the trophy of thy conquest.

_Isidore._ Will that be a sure sign?

_Ordonio._ Beyond suspicion.

Fondly caressing him, her favour'd lover, (By some base spell he had bewitched her senses) She whispered such dark fears of me forsooth, 50 As made this heart pour gall into my veins.

And as she coyly bound it round his neck She made him promise silence; and now holds The secret of the existence of this portrait Known only to her lover and herself. 55 But I had traced her, stolen unnotic'd on them, And unsuspected saw and heard the whole.

_Isidore._ But now I should have cursed the man who told me You could ask aught, my lord, and I refuse-- But this I can not do.

_Ordonio._ Where lies your scruple? 60

_Isidore._ Why--why, my lord!

You know you told me that the lady lov'd you, Had loved you with incautious tenderness; That if the young man, her betrothed husband, Returned, yourself, and she, and the honour of both 65 Must perish. Now though with no tenderer scruples Than those which being native to the heart, Than those, my lord, which merely being a man--

_Ordonio._ This fellow is a Man--he killed for hire One whom he knew not, yet has tender scruples! 70

[_Then turning to ISIDORE._

These doubts, these fears, thy whine, thy stammering-- Pish, fool! thou blunder'st through the book of guilt, Spelling thy villainy.

_Isidore._ My lord--my lord, I can bear much--yes, very much from you!

But there's a point where sufferance is meanness: 75 I am no villain--never kill'd for hire-- My grat.i.tude----

_Ordonio._ O aye--your grat.i.tude!

'Twas a well-sounding word--what have you done with it?

_Isidore._ Who proffers his past favours for my virtue--

_Ordonio._ Virtue----

_Isidore._ Tries to o'erreach me--is a very sharper, 80 And should not speak of grat.i.tude, my lord.

I knew not 'twas your brother!

_Ordonio._ And who told you?

_Isidore._ He himself told me.

_Ordonio._ Ha! you talk'd with him!

And those, the two Morescoes who were with you?

_Isidore._ Both fell in a night brawl at Malaga. 85

_Ordonio (in a low voice)._ My brother--

_Isidore._ Yes, my lord, I could not tell you!

I thrust away the thought--it drove me wild.

But listen to me now--I pray you listen----

_Ordonio._ Villain! no more. I'll hear no more of it.

_Isidore._ My lord, it much imports your future safety 90 That you should hear it.

_Ordonio (turning off from Isidore)._ Am not I a man!

'Tis as it should be! tut--the deed itself Was idle, and these after-pangs still idler!

_Isidore._ We met him in the very place you mentioned.

Hard by a grove of firs--

_Ordonio._ Enough--enough-- 95

_Isidore._ He fought us valiantly, and wounded all; In fine, compelled a parley.

_Ordonio._ Alvar! brother!

_Isidore._ He offered me his purse--

_Ordonio._ Yes?

_Isidore._ Yes--I spurned it.-- He promised us I know not what--in vain!

Then with a look and voice that overawed me, 100 He said, What mean you, friends? My life is dear: I have a brother and a promised wife, Who make life dear to me--and if I fall, That brother will roam earth and h.e.l.l for vengeance.

There was a likeness in his face to yours; 105 I asked his brother's name: he said--Ordonio, Son of Lord Valdez! I had well nigh fainted.

At length I said (if that indeed I said it, And that no Spirit made my tongue its organ,) That woman is dishonoured by that brother, 110 And he the man who sent us to destroy you.

He drove a thrust at me in rage. I told him He wore her portrait round his neck. He look'd As he had been made of the rock that propt his back-- Aye, just as you look now--only less ghastly! 115 At length recovering from his trance, he threw His sword away, and bade us take his life, It was not worth his keeping.

_Ordonio._ And you kill'd him?

Oh blood hounds! may eternal wrath flame round you!

He was his Maker's Image undefac'd! 120 It seizes me--by h.e.l.l I will go on!