LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

       QUEEN.

       Then fly!

       CARLOS.

       God!

       QUEEN.

       With tears I do conjure you, Carlos, fly!

       I ask no more. O fly! before my court,

       My guards, detecting us alone together,

       Bear the dread tidings to your father's ear.

       CARLOS.

       I bide my doom, or be it life or death.

       Have I staked every hope on this one moment,

       Which gives thee to me thus at length alone,

       That idle fears should balk me of my purpose?

       No, queen! The world may round its axis roll

       A hundred thousand times, ere chance again

       Yield to my prayers a moment such as this.

       QUEEN.

       It never shall to all eternity.

       Unhappy man! What would you ask of me?

       CARLOS.

       Heaven is my witness, queen, how I have struggled,

       Struggled as mortal never did before,

       But all in vain! My manhood fails—I yield.

       QUEEN.

       No more of this—for my sake—for my peace.

       CARLOS.

       You were mine own—in face of all the world—

       Affianced to me by two mighty crowns,

       By heaven and nature plighted as my bride,

       But Philip, cruel Philip, stole you from me!

       QUEEN.

       He is your father?

       CARLOS.

       And he is your husband!

       QUEEN.

       And gives to you for an inheritance,

       The mightiest monarchy in all the world.

       CARLOS.

       And you, as mother!

       QUEEN.

       Mighty heavens! You rave!

       CARLOS.

       And is he even conscious of his treasure?

       Hath he a heart to feel and value yours?

       I'll not complain—no, no, I will forget,

       How happy, past all utterance, I might

       Have been with you—if he were only so.

       But he is not—there, there, the anguish lies!

       He is not, and he never—never can be.

       Oh, you have robbed me of my paradise,

       Only to blast it in King Philip's arms!

       QUEEN.

       Horrible thought!

       CARLOS.

       Oh, yes, right well I know

       Who 'twas that knit this ill-starred marriage up.

       I know how Philip loves, and how he wooed.

       What are you in this kingdom—tell me, what?

       Regent, belike! Oh, no! If such you were,

       How could fell Alvas act their murderous deeds,

       Or Flanders bleed a martyr for her faith?

       Are you even Philip's wife? Impossible—

       Beyond belief. A wife doth still possess

       Her husband's heart. To whom doth his belong?

       If ever, perchance, in some hot feverish mood,

       He yields to gentler impulse, begs he not

       Forgiveness of his sceptre and gray hairs?

       QUEEN.

       Who told you that my lot, at Philip's side

       Was one for men to pity?

       CARLOS.

       My own heart!

       Which feels, with burning pangs, how at my side

       It had been to be envied.

       QUEEN.

       Thou vain man!

       What if my heart should tell me the reverse?

       How, sir, if Philip's watchful tenderness,

       The looks that silently proclaim his love,

       Touched me more deeply than his haughty son's

       Presumptuous eloquence? What, if an old man's

       Matured esteem——

       CARLOS.

       That makes a difference! Then,

       Why then, forgiveness!—I'd no thought of this;

       I had no thought that you could love the king.

       QUEEN.

       To honor him's my pleasure and my wish.

       CARLOS.

       Then you have never loved?

       QUEEN.

       Singular question!

       CARLOS.

       Then you have never loved?

       QUEEN.

       I love no longer!

       CARLOS.

       Because your heart forbids it, or your oath?

       QUEEN.

       Leave me; nor never touch this theme again.

       CARLOS.

       Because your oath forbids it, or your heart?

       QUEEN.

       Because my duty—but, alas, alas!

       To what avails this scrutiny of fate,

       Which we must both obey?

       CARLOS.

       Must—must obey?

       QUEEN.

       What means this solemn tone?

       CARLOS.

       Thus much it means

       That Carlos is not one to yield to must

       Where he hath power to will! It means, besides,

       'That Carlos is not minded to live on,

       The most unhappy man in all his realm,

       When it would only cost the overthrow

       Of Spanish laws to be the happiest.

       QUEEN.

       Do I interpret rightly? Still you hope?

       Dare you hope on, when all is lost forever?

       CARLOS.

       I look on naught as lost—except the dead.

       QUEEN.

       For me—your mother, do you dare to hope?

       [She fixes a penetrating look on him, then continues

       with dignity and earnestness.

       And yet why not? A new elected monarch

       Can do far more—make bonfires of the laws

       His father left—o'erthrow his monuments—

       Nay, more than this—for what shall hinder him?—

       Drag from his tomb, in the Escurial,

       The sacred corpse of his departed sire,

Скачать книгу