Part 20 (2/2)
_Lucifer (under the bridge)._ Ha! ha! perdition!
_Guide._ At length, the bridge being all completed, The Abbot, standing at its head, Threw across it a loaf of bread, Which a hungry dog sprang after, And the rocks reechoed with peals of laughter To see the Devil thus defeated!
(_They pa.s.s on_)
_Lucifer_ (_under the bridge_) Ha! ha! defeated!
For journeys and for crimes like this To let the bridge stand o'er the abyss!
THE ST. GOTHARD Pa.s.s.
_Prince Henry._ This is the highest point. Two ways the rivers Leap down to different seas, and as they roll Grow deep and still, and their majestic presence Becomes a benefaction to the towns They visit, wandering silently among them, Like patriarchs old among their s.h.i.+ning tents.
_Elsie._ How bleak and bare it is! Nothing but mosses Grow on these rocks.
_Prince Henry._ Yet are they not forgotten; Beneficent Nature sends the mists to feed them.
_Elsie._ See yonder little cloud, that, borne aloft So tenderly by the wind, floats fast away Over the snowy peaks! It seems to me The body of St. Catherine, borne by angels!
_Prince Henry._ Thou art St. Catherine, and invisible angels Bear thee across these chasms and precipices, Lest thou shouldst dash thy feet against a stone!
_Elsie._ Would I were borne unto my grave, as she was, Upon angelic shoulders! Even now I Seem uplifted by them, light as air!
What sound is that?
_Prince Henry_. The tumbling avalanches!
_Elsie_ How awful, yet how beautiful!
_Prince Henry_. These are The voices of the mountains! Thus they ope Their snowy lips, and speak unto each other, In the primeval language, lost to man.
_Elsie_. What land is this that spreads itself beneath us?
_Prince Henry_ Italy! Italy!
_Elsie_ Land of the Madonna!
How beautiful it is! It seems a garden Of Paradise!
_Prince Henry_. Nay, of Gethsemane To thee and me, of pa.s.sion and of prayer!
Yet once of Paradise. Long years ago I wandered as a youth among its bowers, And never from my heart has faded quite Its memory, that, like a summer sunset, Encircles with a ring of purple light All the horizon of my youth.
_Guide_. O friends!
The days are short, the way before us long; We must not linger, if we think to reach The inn at Belinzona before vespers!
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