Early Plays - Catiline, the Warrior's Barrow, Olaf Liljekrans Part 6

CATILINE. Aurelia, alas, past is your happiness;-- There we can never, never think of going.

There we can never go!

AURELIA. You frighten me!

Yet, surely,--you are jesting, Catiline?

CATILINE. I jest! Would only that it were a jest!

Each word you speak, like the avenging dart Of Nemesis, pierces my heavy heart, Which fate will never grant a moment's rest.

AURELIA. O G.o.ds! speak, speak! What do you mean?

CATILINE. See here!

Here is your villa,--here your future joys!

[He draws out a purse filled with gold and throws it on the table.]

AURELIA. Oh, you have sold--?

CATILINE. Yes,--all I sold today;-- And to what end? In order to corrupt--

AURELIA. O Catiline, no more! Let us not think On this affair; sorrow is all it brings.

CATILINE. Your quiet-patience wounds me tenfold more Than would a cry of anguish from your lips!

[An old SOLDIER enters and approaches CATILINE.]

THE SOLDIER. Forgive me, master, that thus unannounced I enter your abode at this late hour.

Ah, be not wroth--

CATILINE. What is your errand here?

THE SOLDIER. My errand here is but a humble prayer, Which you will hear. I am a needy man, One who has sacrificed his strength for Rome.

Now I am feeble, can no longer serve; Unused my weapons rust away at home.

The hope of my old age was in a son, Who labored hard and was my one support.

Alas,--in prison now he's held for debt.

And not a ray of hope--. Oh, help me, master!

[Kneeling.]

THE SOLDIER. If but a penny! I have gone on foot From house to house; each door is long since closed.

I know not what to do--

CATILINE. The paltry knaves!

A picture this is of the many's want.

Thus they reward the old brave company.

No longer grat.i.tude is found in Rome!

Time was I might have wished in righteous wrath To punish them with sword and crimson flames; But tender words have just been spoken here; My soul is moved; I do not wish to punish;-- To ease misfortune likewise is a deed.-- Take this, old warrior;--clear with this your debt.

[He hands him the purse with the gold.]

THE SOLDIER. [Rising.]

O gracious lord,--dare I believe your words?

CATILINE. Yes; but be quick, old man; go free your son.

[The SOLDIER goes hurriedly out.]

CATILINE. A better use,--not so, Aurelia dear?-- Than bribery and purchasing of votes?

n.o.ble it is to crush the tyrant's might; Yet quiet solace too has its reward.

AURELIA. [Throws herself in his arms.]

Oh, rich and n.o.ble is your spirit still.

Yes,--now I know my Catiline again.

[An underground tomb with a freshly walled-in pa.s.sage high on the rear wall. A lamp burns faintly.]

[FURIA, in long black robes, is standing in the tomb as if listening.]

FURIA. A hollow sound. 'Tis thunder rolls above.

I hear its rumble even in the tomb.

Yet is the tomb itself so still--so still!

Am I forever d.a.m.ned to drowsy rest?

Never again am I to wander forth By winding paths, as ever was my wish?

FURIA. [After a pause.]

A strange, strange life it was;--as strange a fate.

Meteor-like all came--and disappeared.

He met me. A mysterious magic force, An inner harmony, together drew us.

I was his Nemesis;--and he my victim;-- Yet punishment soon followed the avenger.

FURIA. [Another pause.]

Now daylight rules the earth.--Am I perchance To slip--unknowing--from the realm of light?

'Tis well, if so it be,--if this delay Within the tomb be nothing but a flight Upon the wings of lightning into Hades,-- If I be nearing even now the Styx!

There roll the leaden billows on the sh.o.r.e; There silently old Charon plies his boat.

Soon am I there! Then shall I seat myself Beside the ferry,--question every spirit, Each fleeting shadow from the land of life, As light of foot he nears the river of death,-- Shall ask each one in turn how Catiline Fares now among the mortals of the earth,-- Shall ask each one how he has kept his oath.

I shall illumine with blue sulphur light Each spectral countenance and hollow eye,-- To ascertain if it be Catiline.

And when he comes, then shall I follow him;-- Together we shall make the journey hence, Together enter Pluto's silent hall.

I too a shadow shall his shade pursue;-- Where Catiline is, must Furia also be!

FURIA. [After a pause, more faintly.]

The air is growing close and clammy here,-- And every breath in turn more difficult.-- Thus am I drawing near the gloomy swamps, Where creep the rivers of the underworld.

FURIA. [She listens; a dull noise is heard.]

A m.u.f.fled sound? 'Tis like the stroke of oars.

It is the ferryman of shades who comes To take me hence. No, here--here will I wait!

[The stones in the freshly walled-in pa.s.sage are broken asunder.