John! Caroline! nurse!
The whole house seems deaf and dumb!
But what he has just told me, is not, cannot be true; it would be too horrible!
Ah! I have never wished to wrong any human being; I would have made the whole world happy; yet I have plunged the woman who trusted herself to me, the innocent creature whom I swore to love and guard, into the hell of those already damned on earth!
I blast all upon whom I breathe; and am doomed to destroy myself also! Hell has only released me for a few hours, that I might present to men its living image upon earth!
Upon what a pillow of horror will she lay to-night her helpless head! with what harmonies have I surrounded her in the darkness?—the wild shrieks and howls of madmen in their cells!
I see her there! that brow so calm, so innocent, upon which no harsh thought ever rests, is sunk and buried in her little hands. Her pure thoughts wander idly now through space; they rove in search of the husband who deserted her—and the unfortunate weeps—and is mad! mad!
A Voice. Poet! thou chant'st a Drama!
The Man. Ha! the voice of my evil spirit!
He hurries to the door of the saloon and tears it open.