SCENE XX.
The Demon, a crowd of People.—THE SAME.
DEMON [within]. Ware! beware! He's mad! he's mad!
GOVERNOR. What is this?
LELIUS. I'll go and see.
[He goes to the door, and after a pause returns.
GOVERNOR. In this palace hall these cries,
From what cause can they arise?
FLORUS. Something serious it must be.
LELIUS. This confusion is occasioned
(Hear a singular adventure),
Sir, by Cyprian, who being absent
Many days again has entered*
Antioch completely mad.
[footnote] *Asonante in e-e which continues to the end.
FLORUS. It was doubtless the fine essence
Of his mind that thus has brought him
To this lamentable ending.
PEOPLE [within]. Ware the madman! ware the madman!
SCENE XXI.
CYPRIAN, half naked; People.—THE SAME.
CYPRIAN. Never was I more collected;
It is you yourselves are mad.
GOVERNOR. Cyprian, what is all this ferment?
CYPRIAN. Governor of Antioch,
Viceroy of great Caesar Decius,
Florus, Lelius, my young friends,
Whom I valued and respected,
Proud nobility, great people,
To my words be all attentive:
I am Cyprian, I am he
Once so studious, and so learned,
I the wonder of the schools,
Of the sciences the centre.
What I gained from all my studies
Was one doubt, a doubt that never
Left my wildered mind a moment,
Ever troubling and perplexing.
I Justina saw, and seeing,
To her charms my soul surrendered,
And for soft voluptuous Venus
Left the wise and learn'd Minerva.
Baffled by Justina's virtue,
I, pursuing though rejected,
And from one extreme to another
Passing on as passion led me,
To my guest, who from the sea
Found my feet a port of shelter,
For Justina pledged my soul,
Since at once he charmed my senses
And my intellect, by giving
Love its hopes, and thought its treasures.
From that hour, as his disciple
Lived I in these lonely deserts,
And to his laborious teaching
I am for a power indebted,
By which I can move even mountains
And in different places set them:
Yet although these mighty wonders
I can do to-day, I'm helpless
By the voice of my desire
To draw towards me one fair vestal.
And the cause why I am powerless
To subdue that beauteous virgin
Is that by a God she's guarded,
Whom, now knowing by His blessed
Grace bestowed, I come to acknowledge
As the Infinite, the Eternal.
Yes, the great God of the Christians
I now openly confess here.
And though true it is I am
Still of hell the slave and servant,
Having with my very blood
Signed a certain secret cedule,
Yet my blood that blood may blot out
In the martyrdom I'm expecting.
If you are a judge, if Christians
You pursue with bloody vengeance,
I am one: for in these mountains
A grave venerable elder
The first sacrament conferring
With its sacred sign impressed me.
This being so, why wait? Your orders
Give unto the bloody headsman,
Tell him here to strike this neck
And from it my head dissever.
Try my firmness as you will,
For I, resolute and determined,
Will endure a thousand deaths
Since this truth at last I've learned,
That without the great God, whom
Now I seek, adore, and reverence,
Human glories are but ashes,
Dust, smoke, wind, delusive, empty.
[He falls as if in a swoon, with his face to the ground.
GOVERNOR. So absorbed, so lost in wonder,
Cyprian, has thy daring left me,
That considering modes of torture
I have yet not one selected.
Rise. Bestir thee.
[Spurns him with his foot.
FLORUS. As a statue
Formed of ice he lies extended
SCENE XXII.
Soldiers, JUSTINA.—THE SAME.
A SOLDIER. Here, your Highness, is Justina.
GOVERNOR [aside]. I must go, her face unnerves me.—
With this living corse here lying
[Aside to his retinue.
Let us leave her for the present.
For the two being here confined,
It may alter their intentions,
Seeing that they are condemned
Both to die: if not, 'tis certain,
That unless they adore our gods
Frightful torments soon shall end them.
LELIUS [aside]. I remain 'twixt love and fear
Quite bewildered and suspended.
FLORUS [aside]. So affected have I been,
I scarce know what most affects me.
[Exeunt all, except JUSTINA.
SCENE XXIII.
JUSTINA; CYPRIAN, insensible on the ground.
JUSTINA. What! without a word you leave me?
When I come here, calm, contented,
Even to die. Ah! wishing death,
Am I then of death prevented?—
[She perceives CYPRIAN.
But my punishment is, doubtless,
Thus locked up to face the terrors
Of a slow and lingering death,
With the body of this wretch here
Left alone, my sole companion
Being a corse. O thou, re-entered
Into thy original earth,
Happy wert thou, if thy sentence
Was passed on thee for the faith
I adore!
CYPRIAN [recovering consciousness]. O proud avenger
Of your gods, why wait, the thread
Of my life to cut?...
[He perceives JUSTINA, and rises.
Heaven bless me!—
[Aside.
Can I trust my eyes? Justina!
JUSTINA [aside]. Cyprian, do I see? O Heaven!
CYPRIAN [aside]. No, it is not she, my thought
Fills the void air with her presence.
JUSTINA [aside]. No, it is not he, the wind
Forms this phantom to divert me.
CYPRIAN. Shadow of my fantasy...
JUSTINA. Of my wish, delusive spectre...
CYPRIAN. Terror of my startled senses...
JUSTINA. Horror of my heart's dejection...
CYPRIAN. What, then, wouldst thou?
JUSTINA. What, then, wouldst thou?
CYPRIAN. I invoked thee not. What errand
Has thou come on?
JUSTINA. Why thus seek me?
I to thee no thought directed.
CYPRIAN. Ah! I sought thee not, Justina.
JUSTINA. Nor here at thy call I entered.
CYPRIAN. Then why here?
JUSTINA. I am a prisoner.—
Thou?
CYPRIAN. I, too, have been arrested.
But, Justina, say what crime
Could thy virtue have effected?
JUSTINA. It is not for any crime,
It is from their deep resentment,
Their abhorrence of Christ's faith,
Whom I as my God confess here.
CYPRIAN. Thou dost owe Him that, Justina,
For thy God was thy defender,
He watched o'er thee in His goodness.
Get my prayers to Him accepted.
JUSTINA. Pray with faith, and He will listen.
CYPRIAN. Then with that I will address Him.
Though a fear, that's not despair,
Makes me for my great sins tremble.
JUSTINA. Oh! have confidence.
CYPRIAN. My crimes are
So immense.
JUSTINA. But more immense are
His great mercies.
CYPRIAN. Then, will He
Pardon have on me?
JUSTINA. 'Tis certain.
CYPRIAN. How, if my soul surrendered
To the Demon's self, as purchase
Of thy beauty?
JUSTINA. Oh, there are not
Stars as many in the heavens,
Sands as many on the shore,
Sparks within the fire as many,
Motes as many in the beam,
On the winds so many feathers,
As the sins He can forgive.
CYPRIAN. I believe it, and am ready
Now a thousand lives to give Him.—
But I hear some people enter.