CONSTANCE. Oh! thou wilt yet relent, for woman's heart Was formed to suffer and to melt. VITTORIA. Away! Why should I pity thee?-Thou wilt but prove My spirit to that dark power :-there was no guilt! ANSELMO. Aye, thus doth sensitive conscience quicken thought, Lending reproachful voices to a breeze, Keen lightning to a look. VITTORIA. Leave me in peace! Is 't not enough that I should have a sense Of things thou canst not see, all wild and dark, And of unearthly whispers, haunting me With dread suggestions, but that thy cold words, Of thee which urged me to the fearful task, The shadowy woods again, for there, perchance, Earth must have tears; yet in a heart like thine, Faith may not yield its place. CONSTANCE. Have I not heard Some fearful tale?-Who said, that there should rest Blood on my soul ?—What blood?—I never bore For my sake-e'en for mine! To give their stern and unrelenting hearts A victim in his stead. ANSELMO. Stay! wouldst thou rush On certain death? CONSTANCE. I may not falter now, -Is not the life of woman all bound up ANSELMO. Thou fair and gentle thing, Unused to meet a glance which doth not speak Or face the king of terrors? CONSTANCE. There is strength Deep bedded in our hearts, of which we reck Birth to as deep a As high in its devotion. [Exit CONSTANCE. ANSELMO. She is gone! Is it to perish?-God of mercy! lend Will bear her to destruction faster far Than I can track her path. [Exit ANSELMO. SCENE III.-Hall of a Public Building. PROCIDA, MONTALBA, GUIDO, and others, seated as on a Tribunal. PROCIDA. The morn lower'd darkly, but the sun hath now, This, our high triumph.-Lead the prisoner in. (RAIMOND is brought in fettered and guarded.) Why, what a bright and fearless brow is here! |