FERDINAND. You deceive yourself. These are not nature"s tears! not that warm delicious dew which flows like balsam on the wounded soul, and drives the chilled current of feeling swiftly along its course. They are solitary ice-cold drops! the awful, eternal farewell of my love! (With fearful solemnity, laying his hand on her head.) They are tears for thy soul, Louisa! tears for the Deity, whose inexhaustible beneficence has here missed its aim, and whose n.o.blest work is cast away thus wantonly.
Oh methinks the whole universe should clothe itself in black, and weep at the fearful example now pa.s.sing in its centre. "Tis but a common sorrow when mortals fall and Paradise is lost; but, when the plague extends its ravages to angels, then should there be wailing throughout the whole creation!
LOUISA. Drive me not to extremities, Walter. I have fort.i.tude equal to most, but it must not be tried by a more than human test. Walter! one word, and then--we part forever. A dreadful fatality has deranged the language of our hearts. Dared I unclose these lips, Walter, I could tell thee things! I could----But cruel fate has alike fettered my tongue and my heart, and I must endure in silence, even though you revile me as a common strumpet.
FERDINAND. Dost thou feel well, Louisa?
LOUISA. Why that question?
FERDINAND. It would grieve me shouldst thou be called hence with a lie upon thy lips.
LOUISA. I implore you, Walter----
FERDINAND (in violent agitation). No! no! That revenge were too satanic! No! G.o.d forbid! I will not extend my anger beyond the grave!
Louisa, didst thou love the marshal? Thou wilt leave this room no more!
LOUISA (sitting down). Ask what you will. I shall give no answer.
FERDINAND (in a solemn voice). Take heed for thy immortal soul! Louisa!
Didst thou love the marshal? Thou wilt leave this room no more!
LOUISA. I shall give no answer.
FERDINAND (throwing himself on his knees before her in the deepest emotion). Louisa! Didst thou love the marshal? Before this light burns out--thou wilt stand--before the throne of G.o.d!
LOUISA (starting from her seat in terror). Merciful Jesus! what was that? And I feel so ill! (She falls back into her chair.)
FERDINAND. Already? Oh, woman, thou eternal paradox! thy delicate nerves can sport with crimes at which manhood trembles; yet one poor grain of a.r.s.enic destroys them utterly!
LOUISA. Poison! poison! Oh! Almighty G.o.d!
FERDINAND. I fear it is so! Thy lemonade was seasoned in h.e.l.l! Thou hast pledged death in the draught!
LOUISA. To die! To die! All-merciful G.o.d! Poison in my drink! And to die! Oh! have mercy on my soul, thou Father in heaven!
FERDINAND. Ay, be that thy chief concern: I will join thee in that prayer.
LOUISA. And my mother! My father, too! Saviour of the world! My poor forlorn father! Is there then no hope? And I so young, and yet no hope?
And must I die so soon?
FERDINAND. There is no hope! None!--you are already doomed! But be calm. We shall journey together.
LOUISA. Thou too, Ferdinand? Poison, Ferdinand! From thee! Oh! G.o.d forgive him! G.o.d of mercy, lay not this crime on him!
FERDINAND. Look to your own account. I fear it stands but ill.
LOUISA. Ferdinand! Ferdinand! Oh! I can be no longer silent. Death-- death absolves all oaths. Ferdinand! Heaven and earth contain nothing more unfortunate than thou! I die innocent, Ferdinand!
FERDINAND (terrified). Ah! What do I hear? Would she rush into the presence of her Maker with a lie on her lips?
LOUISA. I lie not! I do not lie! In my whole life I never lied but once! Ugh! what an icy shivering creeps through my veins! When I wrote that letter to the marshal.
FERDINAND. Ha! That letter! Blessed be to G.o.d! Now I am myself again!
LOUISA (her voice every moment becomes more indistinct. Her fingers tremble with a convulsive motion). That letter. Prepare yourself for a terrible disclosure! My hand wrote what my heart abhorred. It was dictated by your father! (Ferdinand stands like a statue petrified with horror. After a long silence, he falls upon the floor as if struck by lightning.) Oh! that sorrowful act!----Ferdinand--I was compelled-- forgive me--thy Louisa would have preferred death--but my father--his life in danger! They were so crafty in their villany.
FERDINAND (starting furiously from the ground). G.o.d be thanked! The poison spares me yet! (He seizes his sword.)
LOUISA (growing weaker by degrees). Alas! what would you? He is thy father!
FERDINAND (in the most ungovernable fury). A murderer--the murderer of his son; he must along with us that the Judge of the world may pour his wrath on the guilty alone. (Hastening away).
LOUISA. My dying Redeemer pardoned his murderers,--may G.o.d pardon thee and thy father! (She dies.)
FERDINAND (turns quickly round, and perceives her in the convulsions of death, throws himself distractedly on the body). Stay! stay! Fly not from me, angel of light! (Takes her hand, but lets it fall again instantly.) Cold! cold and damp! her soul has flown! (Starting up suddenly.) G.o.d of my Louisa! Mercy! Mercy for the most accursed of murderers! Such was her dying prayer! How fair, how lovely even in death! The pitying destroyer has touched gently on those heavenly features. That sweetness was no mask--the hand of death even has not removed it! (After a pause.) But how is this? why do I feel nothing.
Will the vigor of my youth save me? Thankless care! That shall it not.
(He seizes the gla.s.s.)
SCENE VIII.
FERDINAND, the PRESIDENT, WORM, and SERVANTS, who all rush in alarm into the room. Afterwards MILLER, with a crowd, and OFFICERS of justice, who a.s.semble in the background.
PRESIDENT (an open letter in his hand). My son! what means this? I never can believe----
FERDINAND (throwing the gla.s.s at his feet). Convince thyself, murderer!
(The PRESIDENT staggers back. All stand speechless. A dreadful pause.)
PRESIDENT. My son! Why hast thou done this?
FERDINAND (without looking at him). Why, to be sure I ought first to have asked the statesman whether the trick suited his cards. Admirably fine and skilful, I confess, was the scheme of jealousy to break the bond of our hearts! The calculation shows a master-mind; "twas pity only that indignant love would not move on wires like thy wooden puppets.
PRESIDENT (looking round the circle with rolling eyes). Is there no one here who weeps for a despairing father?
MILLER (calling behind the scenes). Let me in! For G.o.d"s sake, let me in!
FERDINAND. She is now a saint in heaven! Her cause is in the hands of another! (He opens the door for MILLER, who rushes in, followed by officers of justice and a crowd of people.)
MILLER (in the most dreadful alarm). My child! My child! Poison, they cry--poison has been here! My daughter! Where art thou?
FERDINAND (leading him between the PRESIDENT and LOUISA"S corpse). I am innocent. Thank this man for the deed.
MILLER (throwing himself on the body). Oh, Jesus!
FERDINAND. In few words, father!--they begin to be precious to me. I have been robbed of my life by villanous artifice--robbed of it by you!
How I may stand with G.o.d I tremble to think, but a deliberate villain I have never been! Be my final judgment what it will, may it not fall on thee! But I have committed murder! (In a loud and fearful voice.) A murder whose weight thou canst not hope that I should drag alone before the judgment-seat of G.o.d. Here I solemnly bequeath to thee the heaviest, the bloodiest part; how thou mayst answer it be that thy care! (Leading him to LOUISA.) Here, barbarian! Feast thine eyes on the terrible fruits of thy intrigues! Upon this face thy name is inscribed in the convulsions of death, and will be registered by the destroying angel!
May a form like this draw thy curtain when thou sleepest, and grasp thee with its clay-cold hand! May a form like this flit before thy soul when thou diest, and drive away thy expiring prayer for mercy! May a form like this stand by thy grave at the resurrection, and before the throne of G.o.d when he p.r.o.nounces thy doom! (He faints, the servants receive him in their arms.)