PLACE—Home of Pastor Gerbhert.
Enter CATHERINE, mother to MARGARET.
CATH. What can keep her, what can keep her? Oh, here she comes.
Enter MARGARET, weeping.
MAR. Mother, mother, take me, take me home.
Home? Where be home? Are not these walls familiar?
Did they not mean the place where we had dwelt,
And hoped and loved? And what are they made now,
But empty phantasies of a broken past [Page 264]?
O mother, mother, bring me to my child.
The world is dead, the world is aged and dead!
CATH. My God, my God, Margaret, are you mad?
MAR. My husband! Oh, my husband!
CATH. Gerbhert! What of Gerbhert? Is he dead?
MAR. Aye, dead to me.
CATH. You speak in riddles, daughter.
MAR. Life is a hideous riddle unto some,
That it were better they had never solved.
CATH. Margaret, I am your mother. Tell me quick,
Gerbhert, where is Gerbhert? Will he come?
MAR. He will never come. O mother! mother!
CATH. What are your words? Where hath he gone, my child?
MAR. How can I tell you? 'Tis the Church's will
That he must leave me, I must be no wife,
Or he no priest. The holy Pope hath sworn it.
CATH. The Pope! The Pope, you say?
MAR. Aye, the Pope.
CATH. Nay, not the Pope. You are dreaming, dreaming, child;
This working with the sick hath turned your brain.
MAR. Nay, mother, 'twere a blessing were I mad.
'Tis only but too true, I heard it now
Out in the market. Gerbhert heard it, too,
And he hath gone. O God! yes, he hath gone,
And on his face the doom of d**h was writ.
CATH. Mother of Heaven! and it hath come to this!
Is there no God, that men in Heaven's name
Break up earth's homes, and make a waste like this?
Daughter, Margaret, where hath Gerbhert gone?
MAR. Let me die. But let me die in peace.
CATH. Nay, nay, this shall not be, this hideous law
Must drift aside. Daughter, hearken me.
MAR. There is no hope. The Pope hath willed it so [Page 265].
CATH. Nay, he will hear me, I will make him hear
I have a secret you have never known,
Nor any in Italy.
MAR. The Cardinals at Rome will never hear thee.
Gregory will never, never hear thee.
'Tis vain.
CATH. Fear not for me; I will at once to Rome
And crush this evil matter, get his will
To bring back Gerbhert. If he will not hearken—
MAR. We can but die!
CATH. I will go and make all matters ready,
So early dawn surprise me on my journey.
MAR. Nay, mother, leave me not. I feel as though
All life were desolated. Leave me not.
[Her child cries within.
Yea, my sweet, fatherless babe, I'll come to thee,
Not all Rome's Popes can say nay, nay, to that.
[Goes within.
CATH. (going out) O thou that cursed me in my early days,
And cast this shadow all across my life,
Wilt thou now add this sorrow to mine age?
And darken my last years? Is there no God?
O Night, who art the same, whose stars look down
On peace and madness, human joy and pain,
If there be help within thy mighty depths
For earth's poor creatures, help me, help me, now.
[Goes out.
Enter ARIALD.
AR. She is alone. My power, this is thine hour.
Margaret! Margaret!
Enter MARGARET eagerly.
MAR. O Gerbhert! have you come?
AR. Margaret [Page 266]!
MAR. Sir!—Oh, cruel disappointment! I had thought
It were my husband.
AR. 'Tis but a friend.
MAR. Then, friend, bring back my husband, bring him back!
On my knees I beg it.
AR. I may not, Margaret; Heaven only hath power
To stay your parting. Think no more on Gerbhert.
MAR. Then wherefore here?
AR. In pity for your sorrow I have come.
A wedded woman, yet no longer wed,
So young and fair, so helpless to protect
Yourself and child against this wicked world:
Yea, I would help you.
MAR. My heart, had it but room for else than sorrow,
Would thank your kindness. You can help me best
By bringing back the father of my child,
The friend who one-time loved you.
AR. It cannot be. In all things else than that
My power can help you. You sin grievous sin
When you still mourn him.
MAR. Nay, nay, if sin, then life is all one sin,
One hideous hell, and God but a great devil.
AR. Woman, you blaspheme.
MAR. Nay, rather thou blasphemest, teaching me
That human love be contraband to heaven.
Not all your Popes and Cardinals standing by
Can make me, looking on my baby's face,
Forget his father.
AR. Margaret, by this love you bear your child,
Forget this Gerbhert. He was never yours.
By right divine he ever was Holy Church's.
You only damn his soul do you succeed.
MAR. Never! never! This be hideous, hideous!
My womanhood calls out against this lie.
AR. If you are wise you will forget this man [Page 267].
I tell you he is dead to you and earth.
A few short years for prayer and cloister tears
Are all that's left him. Margaret, you are fair,
And young and budding for the joys of earth.
Forget this Gerbhert. There are other men
Would seek thy love.
MAR. What mean these words? Insult not this my sorrow.
AR. Margaret, if thou wouldst only but trust me,
My love is thine.
MAR. Thou devil!
AR. Margaret, know my power. Thou art alone,
With me to make thy life a hell or heaven.
MAR. Nay, I have God. O Heaven, show thy face
Through this dread blackness!
AR. Not God nor any can give thee succour now.
Thy husband dead to thee for evermore,
Choose! Black Starvation knocketh at thy door!
Pity thy child if thou wilt not thyself.
I have long loved thee. Margaret, trust to me;
Bethink thee of thy child.
MAR. Out! out! blasphemer! If the Church be vile,
If justice be swept from earth and pity dead,
Though devils walk this world, though God be gone,
Know there be left one righteous woman's scorn
For such as thee!
AR. When thou dost see bleak desolation come,
Gaunt, burning hunger fill thy baby's eyes,
Thou'lt come to me.
MAR. If thou be Satan, thou black Prince of Fiends,
Thou wearest this man's form, thou firest his heart.
(to ARIALD) Go! go! ere I forget my womanhood.
AR. (going out) Remember!
MAR. If there be nothing in this world for me,
I have a friend no priest nor Pope can take,
Whose name be d**h [Page 268].
CURTAIN.