URSULA. It is the malediction of Eve!
ELSIE. In place of it, let me receive The benediction of Mary, then.
GOTTLIEB. Ah, woe is me! Ah, woe is me! Most wretched am I among men!
URSULA. Alas! that I should live to see Thy death, beloved, and to stand Above thy grave! Ah, woe the day!
ELSIE. Thou wilt not see it. I shall lie Beneath the flowers of another land, For at Salerno, far away Over the mountains, over the sea, It is appointed me to die! And it will seem no more to thee Than if at the village on market-day I should a little longer stay Than I am wont.
URSULA.
Even as thou sayest!
And how my heart beats, when thou stayest!
I cannot rest until my sight
Is satisfied with seeing thee,
What, then, if thou wert dead?
GOTTLIEB.
Ah me!
Of our old eyes thou art the light!
The joy of our old hearts art thou!
And wilt thou die?
URSULA.
Not now! not now!
ELSIE. Christ died for me, and shall not! Be willing for my Prince to die? You both are silent; you cannot speak This said I at our Saviour's feast After confession, to the priest, And even he made no reply. Does he not warn us all to seek The happier, better land on high, Where flowers immortal never wither; And could he forbid me to go thither?
GOTTLIEB. In God's own time, my heart's delight! When He shall call thee, not before!