Conception (rising): “Sharp on the stroke of eight they’ll die to-morrow. Your Graciousness may eat in peace at nine.”
Sanctimonious. “Well spoken, man. Unparalleled Conception.”
[Exit Conception.
SCENE V.
In a condemned cell in the Prison of Holdfast. Fortunatus is seated at a small wooden table writing. Close to him a warder sits reading.
Fortunatus (writes): “When these words reach you, Hector, o’er the tide Which leads from Death to Life I shall be moving. This Thought, which now inhabiting my brain Sends forth to you this message, will have sped Forward to mingle with Escanior’s. Yet e’er it leaves its human canopy, It wafts you the last words of Isola. These are they ‘Be you just and merciful, Become a king in deed rather than name, Work with your people and for them, Hector; Let King mean brother, treat all men as such. Sweep from the statute book all useless law, All law which harrows progress, or degrades. See to it that the young shall learn the Truth, Learn to be useful, moral, just and kind— To give to every living thing that breathes The right which Nature gives it, Happiness. Train up the youth to say “Thou shalt not kill,” To say it and to practise it as well. Abolish War and raise up Arbitration. See that each child is taught a trade, or shewn How to use hands given for work and use. See that all men have opportunity To work and win the fruits of honest toil. Let all work be Co-operative and Give unto woman what you give to man. Let principles of Fair Play animate All laws and regulations of the State; Let Reason guide their framing, not the lust Of gold, or greed, or selfishness. Be fair. Let it be ordered “Privilege shall die, Just laws alone rule o’er the Destinies Of Man and beast.” Crush Cruelty to earth. See to it that the base, ignoble crime Cursed Vivisection, be swept clean away— Totally abolished, treated as a crime, And stains no more the fame of our dear land.’ One last word, Hector. Watch o’er our Bernis, Make him a hero not a bauble prince; Let him be what Isola bore him for, To be an honest and an upright man. And with this last word let me bid you rise And call unto your side your first-born son, Give him the right to be that which he is— The Prince of Scota and your rightful heir. Farewell, Hector! For Right and Truth I die, See to it that I do not die in vain.”
Warder. “Will you not take some rest? The hour grows late. I counsel you, young Fortunatus, sleep.”
Fortunatus, rising, lies down on his bed. Then he turns on his back, puts his hands behind his head and looks up at the ceiling, mentally saying: “Bernis, my darling, be Isola’s child. Good-bye, my little man. Be kind. Be true. Use thought to think right things, be just, be brave; Be mother’s child, reflection of Isola.”
[Sleeps