My Khalil! Thou art full of me: I fill
Thee full

my hands thus fill thee! Yestereve,
Nay, but this morn, I deemed thee ignorant
Of all to do, requiring word of mine
To teach it now, thou hast all gifts in one,
With truth and purity go other gifts,
All gifts come clustering to that. Go, lead
My people home whate'er betide!

[Turning to the Druses.] Ye take

This Khalil for my delegate? To him
Bow as to me? He leads to Lebanon

Ye follow?

Druses. We follow ! Now exalt thyself!

Dja. [raises Loys.] Then to thee, Loys! How I wronged thee, Loys!

Yet, wronged, no less thou shalt have full

Fit for thy noble self, revenge

- and thus.

revenge,

Thou, loaded with such wrongs, the princely soul,
The first sword of Christ's sepulchre

thou shalt
Guard Khalil and my Druses home again!
Justice, no less, God's justice and no more,
For those I leave! - to seeking this, devote
Some few days out of thy Knight's brilliant life :
And, this obtained them, leave their Lebanon,
My Druses' blessing in thine ears (they shall
Bless thee with blessing sure to have its way)
One cedar-blossom in thy ducal cap,
One thought of Anael in thy heart, perchance,
One thought of him who thus, to bid thee speed,
His last word to the living speaks! This done,
Resume thy course, and, first amidst the first
In Europe, take my heart along with thee!
Go boldly, go serenely, go augustly-
What shall withstand thee then?

[He bends over ANAEL.] And last to thee!
Ah, did I dream I was to have, this day,
Exalted thee? A vain dream: hast thou not
Won greater exaltation? What remains
But press to thee, exalt myself to thee?

Thus I exalt myself, set free my soul!

[He stabs himself. As he falls, supported by KHALIL and LOYS, the VENETIANS enter; the ADMIRAL advances.

Admiral. God and St. Mark for Venice! Plant the Lion! [At the clash of the planted standard, the Druses shout, and move tumultuously forward, Loys drawing his sword.

Dja. [leading them a few steps between KHALIL and LOYS.] On to the Mountain ! At the Mountain, Druses!

[Dies

SCENE I. The interior of a lodge in LORD TRESHAM's park. Many Retainers crowded at the window, supposed to command a view of the entrance to his mansion. GERARD, the Warrener, his back to a table on which are flagons, etc.

1st Ret. Ay, do! push, friends, and then you'll push down me!

What for? Does any hear a runner's foot
Or a steed's trample or a coach-wheel's cry?
Is the Earl come or his least poursuivant?
But there's no breeding in a man of you
Save Gerard yonder: here's a half-place yet,
Old Gerard!

Save your courtesies, my friend.

Ger.
Here is my place.

2d Ret.

Now, Gerard, out with it!
What makes you sullen, this of all the days
I' the year? To-day that young rich bountiful
Handsome Earl Mertoun, whom alone they match
With our Lord Tresham through the country-side,
Is coming here in utmost bravery

To ask our master's sister's hand?

Ger.

What then?

2d Ret. What then? Why, you, she speaks to, if she

meets

Your worship, smiles on as you

hold apart

The boughs to let her through her forest walks,
You, always favorite for your no-deserts,

You've heard, these three days, how Earl Mertoun sues
To lay his heart and house and broad lands too
At Lady Mildred's feet: and while we squeeze
Ourselves into a mousehole lest we miss

One congee of the least page in his train,

You sit o' one side "there's the Earl," say I— "What then?" say you!

3d Ret.

I'll wager he has let Both swans he tamed for Lady Mildred swim Over the falls and gain the river!

Ger.

Ralph,

Let Gerard be!

Is not to-morrow my inspecting-day
For you and for your hawks?
4th Ret.

He's coarse-grained, like his carved black cross-bow stock.
Ha, look now, while we squabble with him, look!
Well done, now is not this beginning, now,

To purpose?

1st Ret.

That's comfort.

Lord, how Richard holds himself
Will not a knave behind

With his white staff!

Prick him upright?

4th Ret.

He's only bowing, fool!

The Earl's man bent us lower by this much.

1st Ret. That 's comfort. Here's a very cavalcade!
3d Ret. I don't see wherefore Richard, and his troop
Of silk and silver varlets there, should find
Their perfumed selves so indispensable

On high days, holidays! Would it so disgrace
Our family, if I, for instance, stood

In my right hand a cast of Swedish hawks,
A leash of greyhounds in my left ?-
Ger.

The logman for supporter, in his right

- With Hugh

The bill-hook, in his left the brushwood-shears!

3d Ret. Out on you, crab! What next, what next? The Earl!

1st Ret. Oh Walter, groom, our horses, do they match

The Earl's? Alas, that first pair of the six

They paw the ground

Ah Walter! and that brute

Ay Ay !

Just on his haunches by the wheel!

6th Ret.

You, Philip, are a special hand, I hear,

At

soups and sauces: what's a horse to you?

D'ye mark that beast they've slid into the midst
So cunningly? - then, Philip, mark this further;
No leg has he to stand on!

1st Ret.

No? That's comfort. 2d Ret. Peace, Cook! The Earl descends.

see

Well, Gerard,

The Earl at least! Come, there's a proper man,
I hope! Why, Ralph, no falcon, Pole or Swede,
Has got a starrier eye.

3d Ret.

But leave my hawks alone!

4th Ret.

So tall and shapely!

His eyes are blue

-

So young, and yet

Here's Lord Tresham's self!

5th Ret.

There now- there's what a nobleman should be!

He's older, graver, loftier, he's more like

Richard and his white staff are on the move —
Back fall our people (tsh!there 's Timothy
Sure to get tangled in his ribbon-ties,

And Peter's cursed rosette 's a-coming off!)

-

At last I see our lord's back and his friend's;

And the whole beautiful bright company

Close round them-in they go! [Jumping down from the window-bench, and making for the table and its jugs.] Good health, long life,

Great joy to our Lord Tresham and his House!
6th Ret. My father drove his father first to court,
After his marriage-day-ay, did he !

2d Ret.

God bless

Lord Tresham, Lady Mildred, and the Earl!

Here, Gerard, reach your beaker!

Ger.

Don't mind me

Drink, my boys!

all 's not right about me - drink!

2d Ret. [Aside.] He's vexed, now, that he let the show

escape!

[To GER.] Remember that the Earl returns this way.

Will die soon - mind, I said it! He was used

To care about the pitifullest thing

That touched the House's honor, not an eye
But his could see wherein and on a cause
Of scarce a quarter this importance, Gerard
Fairly had fretted flesh and bone away

In cares that this was right, nor that was wrong,
Such point decorous, and such square by rule
He knew such niceties, no herald more :

And now

you see his humor: die he will!

2d Ret. God help him! Who's for the great servant To hear what's going on inside? They'd follow Lord Tresham into the saloon.

3d Ret.

4th Ret.

I!

I!

Leave Frank alone for catching, at the door,
Some hint of how the parley goes inside!
Prosperity to the great House once more!
Here's the last drop!

1st Ret.

Have at you! Boys, hurrah!

SCENE II. A saloon in the Mansion.

Enter LORD TRESHAM, LORD MERTOUN, AUSTIN, and GUENDOLEN.

Tresh. I welcome you, Lord Mertoun, yet once more,

To this ancestral roof of mine.

Your name

Noble among the noblest in itself,

Yet taking in your person, fame avers,

New price and lustre,

(as that gem you wear,

Transmitted from a hundred knightly breasts,
Fresh chased and set and fixed by its last lord,
Seems to re-kindle at the core)

Would win you welcome!

Mer.

Tresh.

your name

But add to that.

Thanks!

The worthiness and grace and dignity
Of your proposal for uniting both
Our Houses even closer than respect
Unites them now add these, and you must grant
One favor more, nor that the least, to think
The welcome I should give; - 't is given!
My only brother, Austin - he's the king's.
Our cousin, Lady Guendolen betrothed
To Austin all are yours.
:

Mer.
For the expressed commendings which your seal,