Part 14 (1/2)

And you do not strike.

REDFEATHER [_dreamily_].

Indeed, poor soul, such magic would be kind And full of pity as a fairy-tale: One touch of this bright wand [_Lifts his sword_]

and down would drop The dark abortive blunder that is you.

And you would change, forgiven, into flowers.

LORD ORM.

And yet--and yet you do not strike me dead.

I do not draw: the sword is in your hand-- Drive the blade through me where I stand.

REDFEATHER.

Lord Orm, You asked the Lady Olive (I can speak As to a toad to you, my lord)--you asked Olive to be your paramour: and she--

LORD ORM.

Refused.

REDFEATHER.

And yet her father was at stake, And she is soft and kind. Now look at me, Ragged and ruined, soaked in b.e.s.t.i.a.l sins: My lord, I too have my virginity-- Turn the thing round, my lord, and topside down, You cannot spell it. Be the fact enough, I use no sword upon a swordless man.

LORD ORM.

For her?

REDFEATHER.

I too have my virginity.

LORD ORM.

Now look on me: I am the lord of earth, For I have broken the last bond of man.

I stand erect, crowned with the stars--and why?

Because I stand a coward--because you Have mercy--on a coward. Do I win?

REDFEATHER.

Though there you stand with moving mouth and eyes, I think, my lord, you are not possible-- G.o.d keep you from my dreams.

[_Goes out._]

LORD ORM.

Alone and free.

Since first in flowery meads a child I ran, My one long thirst--to be alone and free.

Free of all laws, creeds, codes, and common tests, Shameless, anarchic, infinite.

Why, then, I might have done in that dark liberty-- If I should say 'a good deed,' men would laugh, But here are none to laugh.

The G.o.dless world Be thanked there is no G.o.d to spy on me, Catch me and crown me with a vulgar crown For what I do: if I should once believe The horror of that ancient Eavesdropper Behind the starry arras of the skies, I should--well, well, enough of menaces-- should not do the thing I come to do.

What do I come to do? Let me but try To spell it to my soul.

Suppose a man Perfectly free and utterly alone, Free of all love of law, equally free Of all the love of mutiny it breeds, Free of the love of heaven, and also free Of all the love of h.e.l.l it drives us to; Not merely void of rules, unconscious of them; So strong that naught alive could do him hurt, So wise that he knew all things, and so great That none knew what he was or what he did-- A lawless giant.