Hud. I knew the storm would sweep out Cordiaz,
So strode its back that I might hold the bit
When came my hour. My boy, you fought for me.
I made you do it—I, whom you have said
Shall be as nothing. Where's the mighty sea
Shall toss me as a straw——
Her. O, father, peace!
You see he dies!
Hud. Don't waste your tears. He'll live.
I've made good oxen out of wilder bulls.
Her. He cannot live! The pain of it, the pain!
When aspirations have returned as wounds,
Then even the soul must die!
Hud. They all get up.
Stout workers too,—quiet, serviceable,
Pestered no more with dreams. Here, give him this. [Offers a flask]
Cha. [Rousing, pushing flask aside] Ay, no more dreams.
[Springs up] But action! Keep Bolderez.
We have LeVal, whose undiscouraged heart
Bears on its tide the conquering desire
Of twenty thousand men!
Hud. Humph! Where are these
Invisible veterans?
Cha. Some gather now
About his banner,—some wait in the hills
Till they are sure it is his voice that calls,—
Some in your favor wrapped go to and fro
In your own camp, feeding a fire your gold
Can never light,—some dream till we have oped
Their prison doors,—in every part and corner
Of Goldusan, there's courage on the leap
To reach his side.
Hud. What dribble!
Cha. Rein this storm?
No human hand, nor Heaven's now, may leash it.
It is the throe when travailing Life is shaken
In absolute birth that makes undreamèd news
Even in the ear of God.