Part 17 (1/2)

_Gycia._ Dost thou say this?

Is thy soul free from all offence with her, If thou camest now to judgment?

_Asan._ Ay, indeed, Free as a child's.

_Gycia._ Oh, my own love! my dear!

Ah no! too late, too late!

[_Embraces him._

_Asan._ I ask thee not Counter a.s.surance, since I know thy truth.

_Gycia._ Speakst thou of Theodorus? He loved me Before I knew thee, but I loved no man Before I met Asander. When he knelt That day, it was in pity for my grief, Thinking thee false, and all his buried love Burst into pa.s.sionate words, which on the instant I as thy wife repelled.

_Asan._ Oh, perfect woman!

[_They embrace._

O G.o.d, it is too late! Come, let us go; The guests are waiting for us. What can Fate Devise to vanquish Love.

[_Exeunt._

_Enter two drunken_ Labourers _of Cherson, bearing f.a.ggots and straw._

_1st Lab._ Well, friend, what kind of day has it been with you?

_2nd Lab._ Oh, a white day, a happy day! Plenty of food, plenty of wine, raree shows without end, such processions as were never seen--the very model of a democracy; nothing to pay, and everybody made happy at the expense of the State. I have lived in Cherson, man and boy, for fifty years, and I never saw anything to compare with it. Here's good luck to Lamachus's memory, say I, and I should like to celebrate his lamented decease as often as his daughter likes.

_1st Lab._ Didst know him, citizen?

_2nd Lab._ No, not I. He has been dead these two years. Time he was forgotten, I should think. They don't commemorate poor folk with all these fal-lals and follies.

_1st Lab._ Well, citizen, there is one comfort--the great people don't enjoy themselves as we do. Did you ever see such a set of melancholy, frowning, anxious faces as the grandees carried with them to-day? And as for the Prince and the Lady Gycia, I don't believe they spoke a word the livelong day, though they walked together. That is the way with these grandees. When you and I quarrel with our wives, it is hammer and tongs for five minutes, and then kiss and make friends.

_2nd Lab._ And fancy being drilled by that old fool from Bosphorus--”Most Ill.u.s.trious, this is your proper place;”

”Respectable sir, get you back there” (_mimics_ MEGACLES), and so forth.

_1st Lab._ Well, well, it is good to be content. But I warrant we are the only two unhappy creatures in Cherson to-night, who have the ill fortune to be sober. And such wine too, and nothing to pay!

_2nd Lab._ Never mind, citizen, we shall be paid in meal or malt, I dare say, and we are bound to keep sober. By the way, it is a curiously contrived bonfire this.

_1st Lab._ It will be the crowning triumph of the whole festival, the senator said.

_2nd Lab._ But who ever heard of a bonfire on a large scale like this, so close to an old building? You know our orders: we are to place lines of f.a.ggots and straw close to the building on every side, well soaked with oil, and certain sealed vessels full of a secret compound in the midst of them. And just before midnight we are to run with torches and set light to the whole bonfire, to amuse the n.o.ble guests at the banquet.

[IRENE _at a window, overhearing._

_1st Lab._ Ah! do you not see? It is a device of the Senate to startle our friends from Bosphorus. The f.a.ggots and straw blaze up fiercely round the wall; then, when all is confusion, the substance in the sealed vessels escapes and at once puts out the fire, and the laugh is with us. Our friends from Bosphorus know what we can do in chemistry before now.

_2nd Lab._ Faith, a right merry device! Ha! ha! What a head thou hast, citizen! Well, we must go on with our work. Lay the f.a.ggots evenly.

_Ire. (at the window above)._ Great G.o.d! what is this?