The Wonder-Working Magician Part 21

CYPRIAN. Stay! funereal shadow, stay!

Now for other ends I urge thee.

CLARIN. I am a funereal body:-- Don't you see it by my bulk here?

CYPRIAN. Ah! who are you?

CLARIN. Who I am, sir, Or am not, myself doth puzzle.

CYPRIAN. Did you in the air's void s.p.a.ces, Or earth's caverns yawning under, See an icy corse here vanish, See to dust and ashes turning All the freshness and the beauty That it promised in its coming?

CLARIN. Do you take me, sir, for one Of those pitiful poor lurkers Men call spies?

CYPRIAN. What could it be?

CLARIN. And not be, in such a hurry.

CYPRIAN. Let us seek it.

CLARIN. Let's not seek it.

CYPRIAN. I must sift this matter further.

CLARIN. I would rather not.

SCENE XV.

The Demon, CYPRIAN, and CLARIN.

DEMON [aside]. Just heavens, If my nature, in conjunction, Once possessed both grace and science, When 'mongst angels I was numbered, Grace alone is what I've lost, Science no. Then why unjustly, If 'tis so, deprive my science Of its proper power and function?

CYPRIAN. Lucifer, wise master mine.

CLARIN. Pray don't call him: for he'll come here In another corse, I warrant.

DEMON. Speak, what would you?

CYPRIAN. The annulling, The redemption of those pledges, At whose very thought I shudder.

CLARIN. As I don't redeem my pledges, I'll slip off here through the bushes.

[Exit.

SCENE XVI.

CYPRIAN and The Demon.

CYPRIAN. Scarcely o'er earth's wounded bosom Had I the true spell-word uttered, When in the ensuing action, She, of all my dreams the subject, My adored, divine Justina....

But why take the useless trouble, That to tell you know already?

I embraced her, would unm.u.f.fle Her fair face, when (woe is me!) In her beauty I discovered A gaunt skeleton, a statue, A pale image, a sepulchral Show of death, which in these measured Words thus spoke (even yet I shudder), "Cyprian, such are all the glories Of the world that you so covet."-- To a.s.sert, that on thy magic As expressed by me, the burden Of the fault should lie, is vain, For I, point by point, so worked it, That of all its silent symbols There was not a line but somewhere Had its place, of all its spell-words Not one word that was not uttered.

Then, 'tis plain thou has deceived me, For though acting as instructed, I but found an empty phantom Where I sought a blissful substance.

DEMON. Cyprian, this defect from thee, Nor from me, in truth, resulted: Not from thee, because the magic Thou didst exercise with subtle Thought and skill; and not from me, For I could not teach thee further.

From a higher cause, believe me, Came this injury thou hast suffered.

But be not cast down: for I, Who in tranquil rest would lull thee, Will to thee unite Justina, By a different way and juster.

CYPRIAN. That is not my intention now.

For this strange event has struck me With such terror and confusion, That thy ways I do not covet.

And since thou has not complied with The conditions, the a.s.sumptions Of my love, I only ask thee, Now that from thy face I'm rus.h.i.+ng, As the contract is annulled, That my bond thou shouldst return me.

DEMON. What I promised was to teach thee, By a course of secret study, How to draw to thee Justina By the potent power impulsive Of thy words: and since the wind Here Justina hath conducted, I have then fulfilled my contract, I have kept my plighted word then.

CYPRIAN. What was offered to my love Was that I should surely pluck here The sweet fruit whose seeds my hope Had to these wild wastes entrusted.

DEMON. Cyprian, I was only bound Her to bring here.

CYPRIAN. A mere shuffle: To my arms you swore to give her.

DEMON. In thy arms I saw her struggle.

CYPRIAN. 'Twas a phantom.

DEMON. 'Twas a portent.

CYPRIAN. Worked by whom?

DEMON. By one who worked it To protect her.

CYPRIAN. Who was he?

DEMON [trembling]. I don't wish the name to utter.

CYPRIAN. I will turn my magic science 'Gainst thyself. By its compulsion Speak, inform me who he is.

DEMON. Well, a G.o.d who takes this trouble For Justina.

CYPRIAN. What's one G.o.d, When of G.o.ds there's such a number?

DEMON. All their power in Him is centred.

CYPRIAN. Then One only, sole and sovereign, Must He be, whose single will Their united wills outworketh.