Scene VIII.
Nathan, the Templar, and the others.
SALADIN.
Welcome, my dear good friends! Nathan, to you
I must first mention, you may send and fetch
Your moneys when you will.
NATHAN.
Sultan----
SALADIN.
And now
I'm at your service.
NATHAN.
Sultan----
SALADIN.
For my gold
Is now arrived; the caravan is safe:
These many years I have not been so rich.
Now, tell me what you wish for, to achieve
Some splendid speculation? You in trade,
Like us, have never too much ready cash.
NATHAN.
Why speak about this trifle first? I see
An eye in tears (going towards Recha). My Recha, you have wept.
What have you lost? Are you not still my child?
RECHA.
My father!
NATHAN.
That's enough! We're understood
By one another! But look up--be calm,
Be cheerful! If your heart is still your own,
And if no threatened loss disturb your breast,
Your father is not lost to you!
RECHA.
None, none!
TEMPLAR.
None! Then I'm much deceived. What we don't fear
To lose, we ne'er have loved, and ne'er have wished
To be possessed of. But 'tis well, 'tis well!
Nathan, this changes all! At your command,
We come here, Sultan. You have been misled
By me, and I will trouble you no more!
SALADIN.
Rash, headlong youth! Must every temper yield
To yours!--and must we all thus guess your mind?
TEMPLAR.
But, Sultan, you have heard and seen it all.
SALADIN.
Well, truly, it was awkward to be thus
Uncertain of your cause!
TEMPLAR.
I know my fate.
SALADIN.
Whoe'er presumes upon a service done,
Cancels the benefit. What you have saved
Is, therefore, not your own. Or else the thief,
Urged by mere avarice through flaming halls,
Were like yourself a hero. (Advancing towards Recha to lead her to the Templar.) Come, sweet maid!
Be not reserved towards him. Had he been so,
Were he less warm, less proud, he had held back,
And had not saved you. Weigh the former deed
Against the latter, and you'll make him blush!
Do what he should have done! confess your love!
Make him your offer! and if he refuse,
Or e'er forget how infinitely more
You do for him than he has done for you--
For what, in fact, have been his services,
Save soiling his complexion? a mere sport--
Else has he nothing of my Assad in him,
But only wears his mask. Come, lovely maid.
SITTAH.
Go, dearest, go! this step is not enough
For gratitude; it is too little.
NATHAN.
Hold!
Hold, Saladin! hold, Sittah!
SALADIN.
What would you?
NATHAN.
It is the duty of another now
To speak.
SALADIN.
Who questions that? Beyond all doubt
A foster--father has a right to vote
First, if you will. You see I know the whole.
NATHAN.
Not quite. I speak not, Sultan, of myself.
There is another and a different man
Whom I must first confer with, Saladin.
SALADIN.
And who is he?
NATHAN.
Her brother.
SALADIN.
Recha's brother?
NATHAN.
E'en so.
RECHA.
My brother! Have I then a brother?
TEMPLAR (starting from his silent and sullen inattention).
Where is this brother? Not yet here! 'Twas here
I was to meet him.
NATHAN.
Patience yet awhile.
TEMPLAR (bitterly).
He has imposed a father on the girl;
He'll find a brother for her now!
SALADIN.
Indeed,
That much was wanting. But this mean rebuke,
Christian, had ne'er escaped my Assad's lips.
NATHAN.
Forgive him: I forgive him readily.
Who knows what in his youth and in his place
We might ourselves have thought? (Approaching him in
a very friendly manner) Suspicion, knight,
Follows upon reserve. Had you at first
Vouchsafed to me your real name----
TEMPLAR.
How! what!
NATHAN.
You are no Stauffen.
TEMPLAR.
Tell me who I am.
NATHAN.
Conrad of Stauffen, not.
TEMPLAR.
Then what's my name?
NATHAN.
Leo of Filneck.
TEMPLAR.
How?
NATHAN.
You start!
TEMPLAR.
With reason.
But who says this?
NATHAN.
I, who can tell you more.
Meanwhile, observe, I tax you not with falsehood.
TEMPLAR.
Indeed!
NATHAN.
It may be both names fit you well.
TEMPLAR.
I think so. (Aside) God inspired him with that thought.
NATHAN.
Your mother was a Stauffen: and her brother
(The uncle to whose care you were consigned,
When, by the rigour of the climate chased,
Your parents quitted Germany, to seek
This land once more) was Conrad. He, perhaps,
Adopted you as his own son and heir.
Is it long since you travelled hither with him?
Does he still live?
TEMPLAR.
What shall I answer him?
He speaks the truth. Nathan, 'tis so indeed;
But he himself is dead. I journeyed here,
With the last troops of knights, to reinforce
Our order. But inform me how this tale
Concerns your Recha's brother.
NATHAN.
Well, your father----
TEMPLAR.
What! did you know him too?
NATHAN.
He was my friend.
TEMPLAR.
Your friend! Oh, Nathan, is it possible?
NATHAN.
Oluf of Filneck did he style himself;
But he was not a German.
TEMPLAR.
You know that?
NATHAN.
He had espoused a German, and he lived
For some, time with your mother there.
TEMPLAR.
No more
Of this, I beg. But what of Recha's brother?
NATHAN.
It is yourself.
TEMPLAR.
What, I? am I her brother?
RECHA.
He, my brother?
SALADIN.
Are they so near akin?
RECHA (approaching the Templar).
My brother!
TEMPLAR (stepping back).
I, your brother?
RECHA (stopping and turning to Nathan).
No, in truth,
It cannot be. His heart makes no response.
O God! we are deceivers.
SALADIN (to the Templar).
Say you so?
Is that your thought? All is deceit in you:
The voice, the gesture, and the countenance,
Nothing of these is yours. How! will you not
Acknowledge such a sister? Then begone!
TEMPLAR (approaching him humbly).
Oh! do not misinterpret my surprise.
Sultan, you never saw your Assad's heart
At any time like this. Then do not err,
Mistake not him and me. (Turning to Nathan.) You give me much,
Nathan, and also you take much away,
And yet you give me more than you withdraw--
Ay, infinitely more. My sister, sister! (embraces Recha.)
NATHAN.
Blanda of Filneck.
TEMPLAR.
Blanda, ha! not Recha?
Your Recha now no more! Have you resigned
Your child? Give her her Christian name once more,
And for my sake discard her then. Oh, Nathan,
Why must she suffer for a fault of mine?
NATHAN.
What mean you, oh, my children, both of you?
For sure my daughter's brother is my child
Whenever he shall wish.
(While they embrace Nathan, Saladin uneasily approaches Sittah.)
SALADIN.
What say you, sister? Sittah.
SITTAH.
I'm deeply moved----
SALADIN.
And I half tremble when
I think of the emotion that must come:
Prepare yourself to bear it as you may.
SITTAH.
What! How!
SALADIN.
Nathan, a word--one word with you.
(He joins Nathan, while Sittah approaches the others to express her sympathy, and Nathan and Saladin converse in a low tone.)
Hear, hear me, Nathan. Said you not just now
That he----
NATHAN.
That who?
SALADIN.
Her father was not born
In Germany. You know then whence he came?
And what he was?
NATHAN.
He never told me that.
SALADIN.
Was he no Frank, nor from the Western land?
NATHAN.
He said as much. He spoke the Persian tongue.
SALADIN.
The Persian! need I more? 'Tis he! 'twas he!
NATHAN.
Who?
SALADIN.
Assad, my brother Assad, beyond doubt.
NATHAN.
If you think so, then be assured from this:
Look in this book (handing him the breviary).
SALADIN.
Oh, 'tis his hand! once more
I recognise it.
NATHAN.
They know naught of this:
It rests with you to tell them all the truth.
SALADIN (turning over the leaves of the breviary).
They are my brother's children. Shall I not
Acknowledge them and claim them? Or shall I
Abandon them to you? (Speaking aloud.) Sittah, they are
The children of my brother and of yours. (Rushes to embrace them.)
SITTAH (following his example).
What do I hear? Could it be otherwise?
SALADIN (to the Templar).
Proud youth! from this time forward you are bound
To love me. (To Recha.) And henceforth, without your leave
Or with it, I am what I vowed to be.
SITTAH.
And so am I.
SALADIN (to the Templar).
My son! my Assad's son!
TEMPLAR.
I of your blood! Then those were more than dreams
With which they used to lull my infancy--
(Falls at Sultan's feet.)
SALADIN (raising him).
There, mark the rascal! though he knew something
Of what has chanced, he was content that I
Should have become his murderer! Beware.
(The curtain falls whilst they repeatedly embrace each other in silence.)
END OF VOL. I.
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET
AND CHARING CROSS.
York Street, Covent Garden,
November, 1877.