Long. Now then! yet hold! wherefore come you not masked? some of the peasantry may chance to stir ere you return, and I should wish your persons were unmarked by any.
Len. I left a mask within the boat; this flowing mantle will conceal my dress—trust me both form and feature shall effectually be hid.
Bertrand makes a gesticulation of hope towards the pavilion, then glides silently round the angle of the bower, and starts along the bank.
Long. ’Tis well! (to the pavilion.) Ho! Sanguine! lead forth your charge: despatch, Lenoire! return to the boat, and row it swiftly hither! Away!
Exit Lenoire.
She comes! Ill-starred Eugenia! fate chides the lingering echo of thy step, yet but a moment and ’tis hushed forever.
Sanguine leads Eugenia from the pavilion.
Eug. Ah! whither do you lead me? Speak, in pity—nay, nay, I prithee force me not; this is a savage hour, and I must fear your purpose, speak, whither would you hurry me? Ah! Longueville! now then I read my answer—’tis to death—to murder!
Long. Lady, you misjudge my purpose—true, that once I proved myself your foe, perhaps a kindless one; time and pity have extinguished hate. Across the Rhine, upon the German bank, a safe asylum is provided, where peace shall gild the evening of your life, and cure the memory of its early woes; ’tis necessary you should cross the river before dawn; a boat is now in readiness to bear you over.
Eug. No, no, I find a language in your eye more certain than your lip—murder—midnight murder is its direful theme. Thou wretched man! rather for thee than for myself I kneel. Pause, Longueville! raise but thine eye to yon clear world, thick-sown with shining wonders—think, that throughout the boundless beauteous space, an omnipresent, and all-conscious spirit is; think, that within his awful eye-beam, now thy actions pass, and presently before his throne must wait for judgment; think, that whene’er he touched the veriest worm, that crawls on this base sphere, with life, mighty his will encompassed it with safety! then, tremble, creature as thou art, to spurn his law by whom thou wert created, nor quench with impious hand, that gifted spark Omnipotence hath once ordained to glow.