DUET—SOPHIA and COUNT.
SOPHIA.
This gloomy cell is my abode at last;
The sole reward for all my perils past.
'Tis strange that love within the breast should dwell,
When hope, dejected, bids the heart farewell!
COUNT.
What sounds are these? No human form is near,
And yet that well-known voice I faintly hear,
'Twas sure the fancied music of the mind,
Whose breathings mingled with the midnight wind.
BOTH.
Yes!—'Tis lost!—'Tis gone!—Hark! it comes again,
Like distant echoes of a melting strain:
In melody {her/his} spirit floats around!—
That voice!—These walls are vocal with the sound.
I hear its music near me still!—'Tis there!
Sure 'tis some gentle spirit of the air!
(During the duet, the moon has been gradually rising, and the light falls through the grated windows of the Prison.)
(enter JAILOR, from the Tower, to COUNT LANISKA.)
JAILOR.
Count Laniska—a friend, with an order form the king.
COUNT.
I attend him. [Exit Count LANISKA.
(Jailor closes the iron door over the grated window, locks it, and retires.)
SOPHIA.
'Twas but a dream!—'Tis past, and all is still again!