in a man,
That it would need the tears of all the angels
To blot the record out!

[Enter MELNOTTE, pale and agitated.

I need not tell thee! Thou hast heard--

Mel. The worst! I have!

Damas. Be cheer'd; others are fair as she is!

Mel. Others! The world is crumbled at my feet!
She was my world; fill'd up the whole of being--
Smiled in the sunshine--walk'd the glorious earth--
Sate in my heart--was the sweet life of life.
The Past was hers; I dreamt not of a Future
That did not wear her shape! Mem'ry and Hope
Alike are gone. Pauline is faithless! Henceforth
The universal space is desolate!

Damas. Hope yet.

Mel. Hope, yes!--one hope is left me still--
A soldier's grave! Glory has died with love.
I look into my heart, and, where I saw
Pauline, see Death!

[After a pause].--But am I not deceived?
I went but by the rumor of the town;
Rumor is false,--I was too hasty! Damas,
Whom hast thou seen?

Damas. Thy rival and her father. Arm thyself for the truth.--He heeds
not.

Mel. She.

Will never know how deeply she was loved!
The charitable night, that wont to bring
Comfort to-day, in bright and eloquent dreams,
Is henceforth leagued with misery! Sleep, farewell,
Or else become eternal! Oh, the waking
From false oblivion, and to see the sun,
And know she is another's!

Damas. Be a man!

Mel. I am a man!--it is the sting of woe
Like mine that tells us we are men!

Damas. The false one
Did not deserve thee.

Mel. Hush!--No word against her!
Why should she keep, through years and silent absence,
The holy tablets of her virgin faith
True to a traitor's name! Oh, blame her not;
It were a sharper grief to think her worthless
Than to be what I am! To-day,--to-day!
They, said "To-day!" This day, so wildly welcomed--
This clay, my soul had singled out of time
And mark'd for bliss! This day! oh, could I see her,
See her once more unknown; but hear her voice.
So that one echo of its music might
Make ruin less appalling in its silence.

Damas. Easily done! Come with me to her house;
Your dress--your cloak--moustache--the bronzed hues
Of time and toil--the name you bear--belief
In your absence, all will ward away suspicion.
Keep in the shade. Ay, I would have you come
Ther