' 9 u RICHELIEU; THE C N S F IRA C Y: IN FIVE ACTS. TO WHICH AUK ADDED, HISTORICAL ODES ON THE LAST DAYS OF ELIZABETH; CROMWELL'S DREAM; THE DEATH OF NELSON. BY THE AUTHOR OF THE " LAlTY OF LYONS," " EUGENE ARAM," &C. LONDON . PUBLISHED BY SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. 1839. " Le Comte de Soissous, et le Due at en'rc Irs m;iins." Voltaire, Hi-t. G>-n. .London : 1'iinu-d by W C WAVES and bo; Sum.U'id Street. STACK ANNEX PR Al TO THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE, K.GK, THIS DRAMA AND THE ACCOMPANYING ODES ARE INSCRIBED, IN TRIBUTE TO THE TALENTS WHICH COMMAND, AND THE QUALITIES WHICH ENDEAR, RESPECT. London, March 5, 1839. 1823144 PREFACE TO RICHELIEU. THE administration of Cardinal Richelieu, whom (despite all his darker qualities) Voltaire and History justly consider the true architect of the French monarchy, and the great parent of French civilization, is characterised by features alike tragic and comic. A weak king an ambitious favourite; a despicable conspiracy against the minister, nearly always associated with a danger- ous treason against the State These, with little variety of names and dates, constitute the eventful cycle through which, with a dazzling ease, and an arrogant confidence, the great luminary fulfilled its destinies. Blent together, in startling contrast, we see the grandest achievements and the pettiest agents ; the spy the mistress the capuchin ; the destruction of feudalism ; the humiliation of Austria ; the dismemberment of Spain. Richelieu himself is still what he was in his v jji PREFACE. own day a man of two characters. It', on the one hand, he is justly represented as inflexible and vindictive, crafty and unscrupulous ; so, on the other, it cannot be denied that he was placed in times in which the long impunity of every license required stern examples that he was beset by perils and intrigues, which gave a certain excuse to the subtlest inventions of self-defence that his ambition was inseparably connected with a passionate love for the glory of his country and that, if he was her dictator, he was not less her benefactor. It has been fairly remarked, by the most impartial historians, that he was no less generous to merit than severe to crime that, in the various departments of the State, the Army, and the Church, he selected and distinguished the ablest aspirants that the wars which he con- ducted were, for the most part, essential to the preservation of France, and Europe itself, from the formidable encroachments of the Austrian House that, in spite of those wars, the people were not oppressed with exorbitant imposts and that he left the kingdom he had governed in a more flourishing and vigorous state than at any former period of the French history, or at the decease of Louis XIV. PREFACE. i x The cabals formed against .this great statesman were not carried on by the patriotism of public virtue, or the emulation of equal talent : they were but court struggles, in which the most worthless agents had recourse to the most desperate means. In each, as I have before observed, we see com- bined the twofold attempt to murder the minister and to betray the country. Such, then, are the agents, and such the designs, with which truth, in the Drama as in History, requires us to contrast the celebrated Cardinal ; not disguising his foibles or his vices, but not unjust to the grander qualities (especially the love of country), by which they were often dignified, and, at times, redeemed. The historical drama is the concentration of historical events. In the attempt to place upon the stage the picture of an era, that license with dates and details, which Poetry permits, and which the highest authorities in the Drama of France herself, have sanctioned, has been, though not un- sparingly, indulged. The conspiracy of the Due de Bouillon is, for instance, amalgamated with the denouement of The Day of Dupes ;* and circum- * Le Cardinal se croit perdu, et prepare sa retraite. Ses amis lui conseillent de tenter enfin aupres du roi un nouvel effort. Le Cardinal va trouver le roi a Versailles. Le Roi qui avail sacrifie 1 son Ministre par faiblesse, se remit par faiblesse entre ses mains, et il C X PREFACE. stances connected with the treason of Cinq Mars (whose brilliant youth and gloomy catastrophe tend to subvert poetic and historic justice, by se- ducing us to forget his base ingratitude and his perfidious apostacy) are identified with the fate of the earlier favourite Baradas,* whose sudden rise and as sudden fall passed into a proverb. I ought to add, that the noble romance of Cinq Mars sug- gested one of the scenes in the fifth act ; and that for the conception of some portion of the intrigue connected with De Mauprat and Julie, I am, with great alterations of incident, and considerable if not entire reconstruction of character, indebted to an early and admirable novel by the author of Picciola.^ London, March, 1839. lui abandonne ceux qui 1'avaient perdu. Ce jour qui est encore a present appelle la Journee des Dupes, fiit celui du pouvoir absolu du Cardinal. Voltaire Hist. Gen. * En six mois il (le Roi) fit (Baradas) premier Ecuyer, premier Gentilhomme de la chambre, Capitaine de St. Germain, et Lieu- tenant de roi, en Champagne. En moins de temps encore, on lui <5ta tout, et des debris de sa grandeur, a peine lui resta-t-il de quoi payer ses dettes: de sorte que pour signifier une grande fortune dis- sipee aussi qu'acquise on disoit en commun proverbe Fortune de Baradas. A nquetil. t It may be as well, however, to caution the English reader against some of the impressions which the eloquence of both the writers I refer to are calculated to leave. They have exaggerated the more evil, and have kept out of sight the nobler, qualities of the Cardinal. PERSONS OF THE DRAMA, AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRE-ROYAL, COVENT-G ARDEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1839. MEN. Louis THE THIRTEENTH . . MR. ELTON. GASTON, DUKE OF ORLEANS, brother to Louis XIII. . . . MR. DIDDEAR. BARADAS, Favourite of the King, first gentleman of the Chamber , Premier Ecuyer, fyc. . . . MR. WARDE. CARDINAL RICHELIEU . . . MR. MACREADY. THE CHEVALIER DE MAUPRAT . . MR. ANDERSON. THE SIEUR DE BERINGHEN (in attendance on the King,* one of the Conspirators) MR. VINING. JOSEPH, a Capuchin, Richelieu's confidant MR. PHELPS. HUGUET, an officer of Richelieu* s household guard a Spy . . . MR. GEORGE BENNETT. FRANCOIS, first Page to Richelieu . MR. HOWE. First Courtier . . , MR. ROBERTS. Captain of the Archers . . MR. MATTHEWS. First, 1 MR. TILBURY. Second, \ Secretaries of State Third I MR. YARNOLD. MR. PAYNE. Governor of the Bastile . . MR. WALDRON. Gaoler . . . . MR. AYLIFFE. Courtiers, Pages, Conspirators, Officers, Soldiers, fyc. WOMEN. JULIE DE MORTEMAR, an Orphan, Ward to Richelieu . . . Miss HELEN FAUCIT. MARION DE LORME, Mistress to Orleans, but in Richelieu's pay . , Miss CHARLES. * Properly speaking, the King's First Valet de Chambre, a post of great im- portance at that time. NOTE. The length of the Play necessarily requires curtailments on the Stage the principal of which are specified (as they occur) in marginal notes. Many of the passages thus omitted, however immaterial to the audience, must obviously be such as the reader would be least inclined to dispense with viz., those which, without being absolutely essential to the business of the Stage, contain either the subtler strokes of character, or the more poetical embellishments of de- scription. RICHELIEU; OR, THE CONSPIRACY. ACT I. SCENE I. A room in the house of Marion de Lorme ; a table towards the front of the stage (with wine, fruits, 8fc.),at which are seated Baradas, Four Courtiers, splendidly dressed in the costume of 1641-2; the Duke of Orleans reclining on a large fauteuil ; Marion de Lorme, standing at the back of his chair, offers him a goblet, and then retires. At another table , De Beringhen, De Mauprat, jjlaying at dice ; other Courtiers, of inferior rank to those at the table of the Duke, looking on. ORLEANS (drinking}. HERE'S to our enterprise ! BARADAS (glancing at Marion). Hush, Sir !- ORLEANS (aside). Nay, Count, You may trust her ; she doats on me ; no house So safe as Marion's.* At our statelier homes The very walls do play the eaves-dropper. There's not a sunheam creeping o'er our floors But seems a glance from that malignant eye Which reigns o'er France; our fatal greatness lives In the sharp glare of one relentless day. But Richelieu's self forgets to fear the sword The myrtle hides; and Marion's silken robe 10 Casts its kind charity o'er fiercer sins Than those which haunt the rosy path between * Omitted in rej resentation, from " At our statelier homes,'" line 3, to the end of speech line 13. B 2 RICHELIEU ; [ACT i. The lip and eye of beauty. Oh, no house So safe as Marion's. BARADAS. Still, we have a secret, And oil and water woman and a secret Are hostile properties. , ORLEANS. Well Marion, see How. the play prospers yonder. Marion goes to the next table, looks on for a few moments, then Exit. BARADAS (jjroducing a parchment'}. I have now All the conditions drawn ; it only needs Our signatures : upon receipt of this, (Whereto is joined the schedule of our treaty 20 With the Count- Duke,* the Richelieu of the Escurial,) Bouillon will join his army with the Spaniard, March on to Paris, there, dethrone the King : You will be Regent ; I, and ye, my Lords, Form the new Council. So much for the core Of our great scheme. ORLEANS. But Richelieu is an Argus ; One of his hundred eyes will light upon us, And then good bye to life. BARADAS. To gain the prize We must destroy the Argus : ay, my Lords, The scroll the core, but blood must fill the veins, 30 Of our design ; while this despatched to Bouillon, Richelieu despatched to Heaven ! The last my charge ! Meet here to-morrow night. Yon, Sir, as first In honour and in hope, meanwhile select Some trusty knave to bear the scroll to Bouillon ; Midst Richelieu's foes /'// find some desperate hand To strike for vengeance, while we stride to power. ORLEANS. So be it; to-morrow, midnight. Come, my Lords. Exeunt Orleans, and the Courtiers in his train. Those at the other table rise, saint e Orleans, and re-scat themselves. * Olivares, Minis'er of Spain. SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. DE BERINGHEN. Double the stakes. DE MAUPRAT. Done. DE BERINGHEN. Bravo ; faith it shames me To bleed a purse already in extremis. 40 DE MAUPRAT. Nay, as you've had the patient to yourself So long, no other doctor should despatch it. De Mauprat throws and loses. OMNES. Lost ! Ha, ha poor De Mauprat ! DE BERINGHEN. One throw mt>re ? DE MAUPRAT. No ; I am bankrupt (pushing gold}. There goes all except My honour and my sword. (They rise.} DE BERINGHEN. Long cloaks and honour Went out of vogue together, when we found We got on much more rapidly without them ; The sword, indeed, is never out of fashion, The devil has care of that. FlRST GAMESTER. Ay, take the sword To Cardinal Richelieu : he gives gold for steel, 50 When worn by brave men. DE MAUPRAT. Richelieu ! DE BERINGHEN (to Bttradas}. At that name He changes colour, bites his nether lip. Ev'n in his brightest moments whisper " Richelieu," And you cloud all his sunshine. BARADAS. I have mark'd it, And I will learn the wherefore, w n V 4 RICHELIEU; [ACT i. DE MAUPRAT. The Egyptian Dissolved her richest jewel in a draught : Would I could so melt time and all its treasures, And drain it thus {drinking). DE BERINGHEN. Come, gentlemen, what say ye, A walk on the Parade ? OMNES. Ay ; come, De Mauprat. DE MAUPRAT. Pardon me ; we shall meet again ere nightfall. 60 BARADAS. I'll stay and comfort Mauprat. DE BERINGHEN. Comfort ! when We gallant fellows have run out a friend There's nothing left except to run him through ! There's the last act of friendship. DE MAUPRAT. Let me keep That favour in reserve ; in all beside Your most obedient servant. Exeunt De Beringhen, Sfc. Manent De Mauprat and Baradas. BARADAS. You have lost Yet are not sad. DE MAUPRAT. Sad ! Life and gold have wings, And must fly one day : open, then, their cages And wish them merry. BARADAS. You're a strange enigma : Fiery in war and yet to glory lukewarm ; 70 All mirth in action in repose all gloom These are extremes in which the unconscious heart Betrays the fever of deep-fix'd disease. Confide in me ! our young days roll'd together In the same river, glassing the same stars That smile i' the heaven of hope ; alike we made Bright-winged steeds of our unform'd chimeras,^ S CENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 5 Spurring the fancies upward to the air, Wherein we shaped fair castles from the cloud. Fortune of late has sever'd us and led 80 Me to the rank of Courtier, Count, and Favourite, You to the titles of the wildest gallant And bravest knight in France ; are you content ? No ; trust in me some gloomy secret DK MAUPRAT. Ay:- A secret that doth haunt me, as, of old, Men were possess'd of fiends ! Where'er I turn, The grave yawns dark before me ! I will trust you ; Hating the Cardinal, and beguiled by Orleans, You know I join'd the Languedoc revolt Was captured sent to the Bastile BARADAS. But shared 90 The general pardon, which the Duke of Orleans Won for himself and all in the revolt, Who but obey'd his orders. DE MAUPRAT. Note the phrase ; " Obey'd his orders." Well, when on my way To join the Duke in Languedoc, I (then The down upon my lip less man than boy) Leading young valours reckless as myself, Seized on the town of Faviaux, and displaced The Royal banners for the Rebel. Orleans, (Never too daring,) when I reach'd the camp, 100 Blamed me for acting mark without his orders : Upon this quibble Richelieu razed my name Out of the general pardon. BARADAS. Yet released you From the Bastile DE MAUPRAT. To call me to his presence, And thus address me : " You have seized a town Of France, without the orders of your leader, And for this treason, but one sentence DEATH." BARADAS. Death ! 6 RICHELIEU; [ACT i. DE MAUPRAT. " I have pity on your youth and birth, Nor wish to glut the headsman ; join your troop, Now on the march against the Spaniards ; change 110 The traitor's scaffold for the soldier's grave ; Your memory stainless they who shared your crime Exil'd or dead your king shall never learn it." BARADAS. tender pity ! O most charming prospect ! Blown into atoms by a bomb, or drill'd Into a cullender by gunshot ! Well? DE MAUPRAT. You have heard if I fought bravely. Death became Desired as Daphne by the eager Daygod. Like him I chas'd the nymph to grasp the laurel ! 1 could not die ! BARADAS. Poor fellow ! DE MAUPRAT. When the Cardinal 120 Review'd the troops his eye met mine ; he frown'd, Summon'd me forth " How's this ?" quoth he ; " you have shunn'd The sword beware the axe! 'twill fall one day !" He left me thus we were recall'd to Paris, And you know all ! BARADAS. And, knowing this, why halt you, Spell'd by the rattle-snake, while in the breasts Of your firm friends beat hearts, that vow the death Of your grim tyrant ? Wake ! Be one of us ; The time invites the King detests the Cardinal, Dares not disgrace but groans to be deliver'd 130 Of that too great a subject join your friends, Free France, and save yourself. , DE MAUPRAT. Hush ! Richelieu bears A charmed life: to all, who have braved his power, One common end the block. BAKADAS. X;iy. if he live, The block your doom ; SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 7 DE MAUPRAT. Better the victim, Count, Than the assassin. France requires a Richelieu, But does not need a Mauprat. Truce to this ; All time one midnight, where my thoughts are spectres. What to me fame ? What love ? BARADAS. Yet dost thou love not ? DE MAUPRAT. Love? I am young BARADAS. And Julie fair ! (Aside) It is so, 140 Upon the margin of the grave his hand Would pluck the rose that I would win and wear ! (Aloud}* Thou lovest DE MAUPRAT. Who, lonely in the midnight tent, Gazed on the watch-fires in the sleepless air, Nor chose one star amidst the clustering hosts To bless it in the name of some fair face Set in his spirit, as that star in Heaven ? For our divine Affections, like the Spheres, Move ever, ever musical. BARADAS. You speak As one who fed on poetry. DE MAUPRAT. Why, man, 150 The thoughts of lovers stir with poetry As leaves with summer-wind. The heart that loves Dwells in an Eden, hearing angel-lutes, As Eve in the First Garden. Hast thou seen My Julie, and not felt it henceforth dull To live in the common world and talk in words That clothe the feelings of the frigid herd ? Upon the perfumed pillow of her lips As on his native bed of roses flush'd With Paphian skies Love smiling sleeps : Her voice 160 The blest interpreter of thoughts as pure As virgin wells where Dian takes delight, Or Fairies dip their changelings ! In the maze Of her harmonious beauties Modesty * Omitted in representation, from line 142 to line 176. 8 RICHELIEU; [ACT i. (Like some severer Grace that leads the choir Of her sweet sisters) every airy motion Attunes to such chaste charm, that Passion holds His burning breath, and will not with a sigh Dissolve the spell that binds him ! Oh those eyes That woo the earth shadowing more soul than lurks 1 70 Under the lids of Psyche ! Go ! thy lip Curls at the purfled phrases of a lover Love thou, and if thy love be deep as mine, Thou wilt not laugh at poets. BARADAS {aside). With each word Thou wak'st a jealous demon in my heart, And my hand clutches at my hilt DE MAUPRAT (gaily}. No more ! I love ! Your breast holds both my secrets ; Never Unbury either ! Come, while yet we may, We'll bask us in the noon of rosy life : Lounge through the gardens, flaunt it in the taverns, 180 Laugh, game, drink, feast : If so confined my days, Faith, I'll enclose the nights. Pshaw ! not so grave ; I'm a true Frenchman ! Vive la bagatelle ! (As they are going out, Enter Huguet, and four arqne- busiers.} HUGUET. Messire De Mauprat, I arrest you ! Follow To the Lord Cardinal. DE MAUPRAT. You see, my friend, I'm out of my suspense] the tiger's play'd Long enough with his prey. Farewell ! Hereafter Say, when men name me, " Adrien de Mauprat Lived without hope, and perished without fear !'' [Exeunt De Mauprat, Huguet, 8fc. BARADAS. Farewell ! I trust for ever ! I design'd thee For Richelieu's murderer but, as well his martyr ! 190 In childhood you the stronger and I cursed you In youth the fairer and I cursed you still ; And now my rival ! While the name of Julie Hung on thy lips I smiled for then I saw SCENE n.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 9 In my mind's eye, the cold and grinning Death Hang o'er thy head the pall ! Ambition, Love, Ye twin-born stars of daring destinies, Sit in my house of Life ! By the King's aid I will be Julie's husband in despite 200 Of my Lord Cardinal By the King's aid I will be minister of France in spite Of my Lord Cardinal ; and then what then ? The King loves Julie feeble Prince false master (Producing and gazing on the parchment,} Then, by the aid of Bouillon, and the Spaniard, I will dethrone the King ; and all ha ! ha ! All, in despite of my Lord Cardinal. [Exit. SCENE II. A room in the Palais Cardinal, the walls hung with arras. A large screen in one corner. A table covered with books, papers, 8fc. A rude clock in a recess. Busts, statues, bookcases, weapons of different periods, and banners sus- pended over Richelieu s chair. Richelieu. Joseph. RICHELIEU. And so you think this new conspiracy The craftiest trap yet laid for the old fox ? Fox ! Well, I like the nickname ! What did Plutarch 210 Say of the Greek Lysander ? JOSEPH. I forget. RICHELIEU. That where the lion's skin fell short, he eked it Out with the fox's ! A great statesman, Joseph, That same Lysander ! x JOSEPH. Orleans heads the traitors. RICHELIEU. A very wooden head then ! Well ? 10 RICHELIEU ; [ACT i. JOSEPH. The favourite, Count Baradas RICHELIEU. A weed of hasty growth ; First gentleman of the chamber titles, lands, And the King's ear ! it cost me six long winters To mount as high, as in six little moons This painted lizard But I hold the ladder, 220 And when I shake he falls ! What more ? JOSEPH. A scheme To make your orphan-ward an instrument To aid your foes. You placed her with the Queen, One of the royal chamber, as a watch I' th' enemy's quarters RICHELIEU. And the silly child Visits me daily, calls me " Father," prays Kind heaven to bless me And for all the rest, As well have placed a doll about the Queen ! She does not heed who frowns who smiles; with whom The King confers in whispers; notes not when 230 Men who last week were foes, are found in corners Mysteriously affectionate ; words spoken Within closed doors she never hears ; by chance Taking the air at keyholes Senseless puppet ! No ears nor eyes ! and yet she says " She loves me !" Go on JOSEPH. Your ward has charm'd the King RICHELIEU. Out on you ! Have I not, one by one, from such fair shoots Pluck'd the insidious ivy of his love ? And shall it creep around my blossoming tree Where innocent thoughts, like happy birds, make music 240 That spirits in Heaven might hear ? They're sinful too, Those passionate surfeits of the rampant flesh, The Church condemns them ; and to us. my Joseph, The props and pillars of the Church, most hurtful. SCENE H.] OB, THE CONSPIRACY. 11 The King is weak whoever the King loves Must rule the King ; the lady loves another, The other rules the lady thus we're balked Of our own proper sway The King must have No goddess but the State: the State That's Richelieu! JOSEPH. This not the worst ; Louis, in all decorous, 250 And deeming you her least compliant guardian, Would veil his suit by marriage with his minion, Your prosperous foe, Count Baradas ! RICHELIEU. Ha! ha! I have another bride for Baradas. JOSEPH. You, my Lord ? RICHELIEU. Ay more faithful than the love Of fickle woman : when the head lies lowliest, Clasping him fondest ; Sorrow never knew So sure a soother, and her bed is stainless ! JOSEPH (aside). If of the grave he speaks, I do not wonder That priests are bachelors ! Enter Franqois. FRANQOIS. Mademoiselle De Mortemar. 260 RICHELIEU. Most opportune admit her. [Exit Francois. In my closet You'll find a rosary, Joseph ; ere you tell Three hundred beads, I'll summon you. Stay, Joseph ; I did omit an Ave in my matins, A grievous fault ; atone it for me, Joseph ; There is a scourge within ; I am weak, -you strong, It were but charity to take my sin On such broad shoulders. Exercise is healthful. JOSEPH. I ! guilty of such criminal presumption As to mistake myself for you No, never ! 270 Think it not ! (A-fidc) Troth, a pleasant invitation ! [Exit Joseph. 12 RICHELIEU; [ACT i Enter Julie de Mortemar. RICHELIEU. That's my sweet Julie ! why, upon this face Blushes such daybreak, one might swear the Morning Were come to visit Tithon. JULIE (placing herself at his feet). Are you gracious ? May I say "Father?" RICHELIEU. Now and ever ! JULIE. Father ! A sweet word to an orphan. RICHELIEU. No ; not orphan While Richelieu lives ; thy father loved me well ; My friend, ere I had flatterers (now, I'm great, In other phrase, I'm friendless) he died young In years, not service, and bequeath'd thee to me ; 280 And thou shalt have a dowry, girl, to buy Thy mate amidst the mightiest. Drooping ? sighs ? Art thou not happy at the court ? JULIE. Not often. RICHELIEU (aside"). Can she love Baradas ? Ah ! at thy heart There's what can smile and sigh, blush and grow pale, All in a breath ! Thou art admired art young ; Does not his Majesty commend thy beauty Ask thee to sing to him ? and swear such sounds Had smooth'd the brows of Saul? JULIE. He's very tiresome, Our worthy King. RICHELIEU. Fie ; kings are never tiresome, 290 Save to their ministers. What courtly gallants Charm ladies most ? De Sourdiac, Longueville, or The favourite Baradas ? JULIE. A smileless man I fear, and shun him. SCENE ii.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 13 RICHELIEU. Yet he courts thee ? JULIE. Then He is more tiresome than his Majesty. RICHELIEU. Right, girl, shun Baradas. Yet of these flowers Of France, not one, in whose more honied breath Thy heart hears Summer whisper? Enter Huguet. HUGUET. The Chevalier De Mauprat waits below. JULIE (starting tip]. De Mauprat ! RICHELIEU. Hem! He has been tiresome too ! Anon. [Exit Huguet. JULIE. What doth he ? 300 I mean I Does your Eminence that is Know you Messire de Mauprat ? RICHELIEU. Well ! and you Has he address'd you often ? JULIE. Often! No- Nine times ; nay, ten ; the last time, by the lattice Of the great staircase. (In a melancholy tone] The Court sees him rarely. RICHELIEU. A bold and forward royster ? JULIE. He ? nay, modest, Gentle, and sad methinks. RICHELIEU. Wears gold and azure ? JULIE. No ; sable. 14 RICHELIEU; [ACT i. RICHELIEU. So you note his colours, Julie ? Shame on you, child, look loftier. By the mass I have business with this modest gentleman. 310 JULIE. You're angry with poor Julie. There's no cause. RICHELIEU. No cause you hate my foes ? JULIE. I do! RICHELIEU. Hate Mauprat? JULIE. Not Mauprat. No, not Adrien, father. RICHELIEU. Adrien ! Familiar ! Go, child ; no, not that way ; wait In the tapestry chamber ; I will join you, go. JULIE. His brows are knit ; I dare not call him father ! But I must speak Your Eminence RICHELIEU (sternly}. Well, girl ! JULIE. Nay- Smile on me one smile more ; there, now I'm happy. Do not rank Mauprat with your foes ; he is not, I know he is not ; he loves France too well. 320 RICHELIEU. Not rank De Mauprat with my foes ? So be it. I'll blot him from that list. JULIE. That's my own father. [ Exit Julie. RICHELIEU (ringing a small bell on the table.} Huguet ! Enter Huguet. De Mauprat struggled not, nor murmur'd ? SCENE n.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 15 HUGUET. No ; proud and passive. RICHELIEU. Bid him enter. Hold : Look that he hide no weapon. Humph, despair Makes victims sometimes victors. When he has enter'd, Glide round unseen ; place thyself yonder (pointing to the screen) ; watch him; If he show violence (let me see thy carbine; So, a good weapon ;) if he play the lion, Why the dog's death. HUGUET. I never miss my mark. 330 Exit Huguet ; Richelieu seats himself at the table, and slowly arranges the papers before him. Enter DeMauprat, preceded by Huguet, who then retires behind the screen. RICHELIEU. Approach, Sir. Can you call to mind the hour, Now three years since, when in this room, methinks, Your presence honour'd me ? DE MAUPRAT. It is, my Lord, One of my most RICHELIEU (drily}. Delightful recollections.* DE MAUPRAT (aside). St. Denis ! doth he make a jest of axe And headsman ? RICHELIEU (sternly). I did then accord you A mercy ill requited you still live ? DE MAUPRAT. To meet death face to face at last, f RICHELIEU. Your words Are bold. * There are many anecdotes of the irony, often so terrible, in which Riche- lieu indulged. But he had a love for humour in its more hearty and genial shape. He would send for Boisrobert ' to make him laugh, 1 ' and grave ministers and magnates waited in the ante-room, while the great Cardinal listened and re- sponded to the sallies of the lively wit. f Omitted in representation, from line 338 to line 361. 16 RICHELIEU ; [ACT i. DE MAUPRAT. My deeds have not belied them. RICHELIEU. Deeds ! O miserable delusion of man's pride ! 340 Deeds ! cities sack'd, fields ravaged, hearths profaned, Men butcher'd ! In your hour of doom behold The deeds you boast of! From rank showers of blood, And the red light of blazing roofs, you build The Rainbow Glory, and to shuddering Conscience Cry, Lo, the Bridge to Heaven ! DE MAUPRAT. If war be sinful, Your hand the gauntlet cast. RICHELIEU. It was so, Sir. Note the distinction : I weigh'd well the cause Which made the standard holy ; raised the war But to secure the peace. France bled I groan'd ; 350 But look'd beyond ; and, in the vista, saw France saved, and I exulted. You but you Were but the tool of slaughter knowing nought, Foreseeing nought, nought hoping, nought lamenting, And for nought fit, save cutting throats for hire. Deeds, marry, deeds ! DE MAUPRAT. If you would deign to speak Thus to your armies ere they march to battle, Perchance your Eminence might have the pain Of the throat-cutting to yourself. RICHELIEU (aside). He has wit, This Mauprat (Alovd) Let it pass ; there is against you 3GO What you can less excuse. Messire de Mauprat, Doom'd to sure death, how hast thou since consumed The time allotted thee for serious thought And solemn penitence ? DE MAUPRAT (embarrassed). The time, my Lord ? RICHELIEU. Is not the question plain ? I'll answer for thee. Thou hast sought nor priest nor shrine ; no sackcloth chafed SCENE ii ] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 17 Thy delicate flesh. The rosary and the death's-head Have not, with pious meditation, purged Earth from the carnal gaze. What thou hast not done Brief told ; what done, a volume ! Wild debauch, 370 Turbulent riot : for the morn the dice-box Noon claim'd the duel and the night the wassail ; These, your most holy, pure preparatives For death and judgment. Do I wrong you, Sir? DE MAUPRAT. I was not always thus : if changed my nature, Blame that, which changed my fate. Alas, my Lord, There is a brotherhood which calm-eyed Reason* Can wot not of betwixt Despair and Mirth. My birth-place mid the vines of sunny Provence, Perchance the stream that sparkles in my veins 380 Came from that wine of passionate life which, erst, Glow'd in the wild heart of the Troubadour : And danger, which makes steadier courage wary, But fevers me with an insane delight ; As one of old who on the mountain-crags Caught madness from a Maenad's haunting eyes. Were you, my Lord, whose path imperial power, And the grave cares of reverent wisdom guard From all that tempts to folly meaner men, Were you accursed with that which you inflicted 390 By bed and board, dogg'd by one ghastly spectre The while within you youth beat high, and life Grew lovelier from the neighbouring frown of death The heart no bud, nor fruit save in those seeds Most worthless, which spring up, bloom, bear, and wither In the same hour Were this your fate, perchance, You would have err'd like me ! RICHELIEU. I might, like you, Have been a brawler and a reveller ; not, Like you, a trickster and a thief. DE MAUPRAT (advancing threateningly). Lord Cardinal! Unsay those words ! (Huguet deliberately raises the carbine). RICHELIEU (waving his hand). Not quite so quick, friend Huguet ; 400 * Omitted in representation, from line 376 to 389. C 18 RICHELIEU ; [ACT i. Messire de Mauprat is a patient man, And he can wait ! You have outrun your fortune ; I blame you not, that you would be a beggar Each to his taste ! But I do charge you, Sir, That, being beggar' d, you would coin false monies Out of that crucible, called DEBT. To live On means not yours be brave in silks and laces, Gallant in steeds splendid in banquets ; all Not yours ungiven unherited unpaid for ; This is to be a trickster ; and to filch Men's art and labour, which to them is wealth, 410 Life, daily bread, quitting all scores with " Friend, You're troublesome ! " Why this, forgive me, Is what when done with a less dainty grace Plain folks call " Theft!" You owe eight thousand pistoles, Minus one crown, two Hards ! DE MAUPRAT (aside). The old conjuror ! Sdeath, he'll inform me next how many cups I drank at dinner ! RICHELIEU. This is scandalous, Shaming your birth and blood 1 tell you, Sir, That you must pay your debts. DE MAUPRAT. With all my heart, 420 My Lord. Where shall I borrow, then, the money ? RICHELIEU (aside and laughing). A humorous dare-devil ! The very man To suit my purpose ready, frank, and bold ! (Rising, and earnestly). Adrien de Mauprat, men have called me cruel ; I am not; I am just! I found France rent asunder, The rich men despots, and the poor banditti ; Sloth in the mart, and schism within the temple ; Brawls festering to Rebellion ; and weak Laws Rotting away with rust in antique sheaths. I have re-created France ; and, from the ashes 430 Of the old feudal and decrepit carcase., Civilization on her luminous wings Soars, phxenix-like, to Jove ! What was my art ? SCENE u.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 19 Genius,, some say, some, Fortune, Witchcraft some. Not so ; my art was JUSTICE ! Force and Fraud Misname it cruelty you shall confute them ! My champion YOU ! You met me as your foe, Depart my friend You shall not die. France needs you. You shall wipe off all stains, be rich, be honour'd, Be great. (De Maupr at falls on his knee Richelieu raises him.} I ask, Sir, in return, this hand, 440 To gift it with a bride, whose dower shall match, .Yet not exceed, her beauty. DE MAUPRAT. I, my Lord, (hesitating) I have no wish to marry. RICHELIEU. Surely, Sir, To die were worse. DE MAUPRAT. Scarcely ; the poorest coward Must die, but knowingly to march to marriage My Lord, it asks the courage of a lion ! RICHELIEU. Traitor, thou triflest with me ! I know all I Thou hast dared to love my ward my charge. DE MAUPRAT. As rivers May love the sunlight basking in the beams, And hurrying on ! RICHELIEU. Thou hast told her of thy love ? 450 DE MAUPRAT. My Lord, if I had dared to love a maid, Lowliest in France, I would not so have wrong'd her, As bid her link rich life and virgin hope With one, the deathman's gripe might, from her side, Pluck at the nuptial altar. RICHELIEU. I believe thee ; Yet since she knows not of thy love, renounce her ; Take life and fortune with another ! Silent ? c 2 20 RICHELIEU; [ACT i. DE MAUPRAT. Your fate has been one triumph You know not How bless'd a thing it was in my dark hour To nurse the one sweet thought you bid me banish. 460 Love hath no need of words ; nor less within That holiest temple the heaven-builded soul Breathes the recorded vow. Base knight, false lover Were he, who barter 'd all, that brighten'd grief, Or sanctified despair, for life and gold. Revoke your mercy ; I prefer the fate I look'd for ! RICHELIEU. Huguet ! to the tapestry chamber Conduct your prisoner. (To Mauprat.} You will there behold The executioner : your doom be private And Heaven have mercy on you ! DE MAUPRAT. When I'm dead, 470 Tell her, I loved her. RICHELIEU. Keep such follies, Sir, For fitter ears; go DE MAUPRAT. Does he mock me ? Exeunt de Mauprat, Huguet. RICHELIEU. Joseph, Come forth. Enter Joseph. Methinks your cheek hath lost its rubies ; I fear you have been too lavish of the flesh; The scourge is heavy. JOSEPH. Prqjf you, change the subject. RICHELIEU. You good men are so modest ! Well, to business ! Go instantly deeds notaries ! bid my stewards Arrange my house by the Luxembourg my house SCENE u.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 21 No more ! a bridal present to my ward, Who weds to-morrow. JOSEPH. Weds, with whom ? RICHELIEU. De Mauprat. 480 JOSEPH. Penniless husband ! RICHELIEU. Bah ! the mate for beauty 1 Should be a man, and not a money-chest ! When her brave sire lay on his bed of death, I vow'd to be a father to his Julie : And so he died the smile upon his lips ! And when I spared the life of her young lover, Methought I saw that smile again ! Who else, Look you, in all the court who else so well, Brave, or supplant the favourite ; balk the King Baffle their schemes ? I have tried him : He has honour 490 And courage ; qualities that eagle-plume Men's souls, and fit them for the fiercest sun, Which ever melted the weak waxen minds That flutter in the beams of gaudy Power ! Besides, he has taste, this Mauprat : When my play Was acted to dull tiers of lifeless gapers,* Who had no soul for poetry, I saw him Applaud in the proper places : trust me, Joseph, He is a man of an uncommon promise ! JOSEPH. And yet your foe. RICHELIEU. Have I not foes enow ? 500 Great men gain doubly when they make foes friends. * The Abbe Arnaud tells us that the Queen was a little avenged on the Cardinal by the ill success of the tragi-comedy of Mirame more than suspected to be his own though presented to the world under the foster name of Des- marets. Its representation (says Pelisson) cost him 300,000 crowns. He was so transported out of himself by the performance, that at one time he thrust his person half out of his box to show himself to the assembly ; at another time he imposed silence on the audience that they might not lose " des endroits encore plus beaux ."' He said afterwards to Desmarets : " Eh bien, les Fraucuis n'auront doncjamais de guut. lls n'ont pas etc charmes de Mirame!" Aniaud says pithily, " On ne pouvoit alors avoir d'autre satisfaction des offenses d'un homme qui etoit maitre de tout, et redoutable a tout le monde." Nevertheless his style in prose, though not devoid of the [ edantic affectations of the time, often rises into very noble eloquence. 22 RICHELIEU; [ACT i. Remember my grand maxims : First employ All methods to conciliate.* JOSEPH. Failing these ? RICHELIEU (fiercely). All means to crush : as with the opening, and The clenching of this little hand, I will Crush the small venom of these stinging courtiers. So, so, we've baffled Baradas. JOSEPH. And when Check the conspiracy ? RICHELIEU. Check, check ? Full way to it, Let it bud, ripen, flaunt i' the day, and burst To fruit, the Dead Sea's fruit of ashes; ashes 510 Which I will scatter to the winds. Go, Joseph ; When you return, I have a feast for you ; The last great act of my great play : the verses, Methinks, are fine, ah, very fine. You write Verses !f (aside) suck verses! You have wit, discernment. JOSEPH (aside). Worse than the scourge ! Strange that so great a statesman Should be so bad a poet. RICHELIEU. What dost say ? * " Vialart remarque une chose qui peut expliquer la conduite de Richelieu en d'autres circonstances : c'est que les seigneurs 3. qui leur naissance ou leur merite pouvoit permettre des pretensions, il avoit pour systeme, de leur accorder au-deR me'me de leurs droits et de leurs esperances, mais, aussi, une fois combles si, au lieu de reconnoitre ses services ils se levoient centre lui, il les traitoit sans misericorde." Anqudtil. See also the Political Testament, and the Me- moires de Cardinal Richelieu, in Petitot's collection. f " Tantot fanatique tantot fourhe fonder les religieuses de Calvaire faire des vers.'' Thus speaks Voltaire of Father Joseph. His talents, and influence with Richelieu, grossly exaggerated in his own day, are now rightly estimated. " C'etoit en effet unhomme inf'atigable portantdans les entreprises, 1'activite, la souplesse, I'opiniatret6 propres a les faire r6ussir." Anquttil. He wrote a Latin poem, called ' La Turciade," in which he sought to excite the kingdoms of Christendom against the Turks. But the inspiration of Tyrtseus was denied to Father Joseph. SCENE ii.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 23 JOSEPH. That it, is strange so great a statesman should Be so sublime a poet. RICHELIEU. Ah, you rogue ; Laws die, Books never. Of my ministry 520 I am not vain ! but of my muse, I own it. Come, you shall hear the verses now (Takes up a MS.}. JOSEPH. My Lord, The deeds, the notaries ! RICHELIEU. True, 1 pity you ; But business first, then pleasure. [Exit Joseph. RICHELIEU (seats himself and reading). Ah, sublime ! Enter De Mauprat and Julie. DE MAUPRAT. Oh, speak, my Lord I dare not think you mock me, And yet RICHELIEU. Hush hush This line must be consider'd ! JULIE. Are we not both your children ? RICHELIEU. What a couplet ! How now ! Oh ! Sir you live ! DE MAUPRAT. Why, no, methinks, Elysium is not life ! JULIE. He smiles ! you smile, My father ! From my heart for ever, now, 530 I'll blot the name of orphan ! RICHELIEU. Rise, my children, For ye are mine mine both ; and in your sweet 24 RICHELIEU; [ACT i. And young delight your love (life's first-born glory) My own lost youth breathes musical ! DE MAUPRAT. I'll seek Temple and priest henceforward ; were it but To learn Heaven's choicest blessings. RICHELIEU. Thou shalt seek Temple and priest right soon ; the morrow's sun Shall see across these barren thresholds pass The fairest bride in Paris. Go, my children ; Even /loved once ! Be lovers while ye may ! 540 How is it with you, Sir ? You bear it bravely : You know, it asks the courage of a lion. [Exeunt Julie and De Mauprat. RICHELIEU. Oh ! godlike Power ! Woe, Rapture, Penury, Wealth, Marriage and Death, for one infirm old man Through a great empire to dispense withhold As the will whispers ! And shall things like motes That live in my daylight lackies of court wages, Dwarf d starvelings mannikins, upon whose shoulders The burthen of a province were a load More heavy than the globe on Atlas, cast 550 Lots for my robes and sceptre ? France ! I love thee ! All Earth shall never pluck thee from my heart ! My mistress France my wedded wife, sweet France, Who shall proclaim divorce for thee and me ! [Exit Richelieu* END OF ACT 1. SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 25 ACT II. SCENE I. A splendid Apartment in Mauprat's new House. Casements opening to the Gardens, beyond which the domes of the Luxembourg Palace. Enter Baradas. BARADAS. Mauprat's new home : too splendid for a soldier ! But o'er his floors the while I stalk methinks My shadow spreads gigantic to the gloom The old rude towers of the Bastile cast far Along the smoothness of the jocund day. Well, thou hast scaped the fierce caprice of Richelieu ; But art thou farther from the headsman, fool ? Thy secret I have whisper'd to the King ; Thy marriage makes the King thy foe. Thou stand'st On the abyss and in the pool below 10 I see a ghastly, headless phantom mirror'd ; Thy likeness ere the marriage moon hath waned. Meanwhile meanwhile ha ha, if thou art wedded, Thou art not wived. Enter Mauprat (splendidly dressed). MAUPRAT. Was ever fate like mine ? So blest, and yet so wretched ! BARADAS. Joy, de Mauprat ! Why, what a brow, man, for your wedding-day ! DE MAUPRAT. Jest not ! Distraction ! BARADAS. What your wife, a shrew Already ? Courage, man the common lot ! 26 RICHELIEU; [ACT n. DE MAUPRAT. Oh ! that she were less lovely, or less loved ! BARADAS. Riddles again ! DE MAUPRAT. You know, what chanced between 20 The Cardinal and myself. BARADAS. This morning brought Your letter : faith, a strange account ! I laugh'd And wept at once for gladness. DE MAUPRAT. We were wed At noon ; the rite perform'd, came hither ; scarce Arrived, when BARADAS. Well? DE MAUPRAT. Wide flew the doors, and lo, Messire de Beringhen, and this epistle ! BARADAS. 'Tis the King's hand ! the royal seal ! DE MAUPRAT. Read read BARADAS (reading}. " Whereas Adrien de Mauprat, Colonel and Chevalier in our armies, being already guilty of High Treason, by the seizure of our town of Faviaux, has presumed, without our knowledge, consent, or sanction, to connect himself by marriage with Julie de Mortemar, a wealthy orphan attached to the person of Her Majesty, without our knowledge or consent We do hereby proclaim and declare the said marriage contrary to law. On penalty of death, Adrien de Mauprat will not communicate with the said Julie de Mortemar by word or letter, save in the presence of our faithful servant the Sieur de Beringhen, and then with such respect and decorum as are due to a Demoi- selle attached to the Court of France, until such time as it may suit our royal pleasure to confer with the Holy Church on the formal annulment of the marriage, and with our Council on the punishment to be awarded to Messire de Mauprat, who is SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 27 cautioned for his own sake to preserve silence as to our in- junction, more especially to Mademoiselle de Mortemar. " Given under our hand and seal at the Louvre. "LOUIS." BARADAS {returning the letter). Amazement ! Did not Richelieu say, the King Knew not your crime ? DE MAUPRAT. He said so. BARADAS. Poor de Mauprat ! See you the snare, the vengeance worse than death, 30 Of which you are the victim ? DE MAUPRAT. Ha! BARADAS (aside}. It works ! (Julie and De Beringhen in the Gardens.} You have not sought the Cardinal yet to DE MAUPRAT. No! Scarce yet my sense awaken'd from the shock ; Now I will seek him. BARADAS. Hold, beware ! Stir not Till we confer again. DE MAUPRAT. Speak out, man ! BARADAS. Hush ! Your wife ! De Beringhen ! Be on your guard Obey the royal orders to the letter. I'll look around your palace. By my troth A princely mansion ! DE MAUPRAT. Stay BARADAS. So new a bridegroom 28 RICHELIEU ; [ACT u. Can want no visiters ; Your servant, Madam ! 40 Oh ! happy pair Oh, charming picture ! [Exit through a side-door. JULIE. Adrien, You left us suddenly Are you not we'll ? DE MAUPRAT. Oh, very well that is extremely ill ! JULIE." Ill, Adrien? (taking his hand). DE MAUPRAT. Not when I see thee. (He is about to lift her hand to hi? lips when De Beringhen coughs and pidbs his mantle. Mauprat drops the hand and walks away.) JULIE. Alas! Should he not love me ? DE BERINGHEN (aside). Have a care, I must Report each word each gesture to his Majesty. DE MAUPRAT. Sir, if you were not in his Majesty's service, You'd be the most officious, impudent, Damn'd busy-body ever interfering In a man's family affairs. DE BERINGHEN. But as 50 I do belong, Sir, to his Majesty DE MAUPRAT. You're lucky ! Still, were we a story higher, 'Twere prudent not to go too near the window. JULIE. Adrien, what have I done ? Say, am I chnaged Since yesterday ? or was it but for wealth, Ambition, life that that you swore you loved rne ? DE MAUPRAT. I shall go mad ! I do, indeed I do SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 29 DE BERINGHEN (aside). Not love her ! that were highly disrespectful. JULIE. You do what, Adrien ? "DE MAUPRAT. Oh ! I do, indeed I do think, that this weather is delightful ! 60 A charming day ! the sky is so serene ! -And what a prospect ! (to 'De Beringhen) Oh ! you Popinjay ! JULIE. He jests at me ! he mocks me ! yet I love him, And every look becomes the lips we love ! Perhaps I am too grave ? You laugh at Julie ; If laughter please you, welcome be the music ! Only say, Adrien, that you love me. DE MAUPRAT (kissing her hand). Ay; With my whole heart I love you ! Now, Sir, go, And tell that to his Majesty! Who ever Heard of its being a state-offence to kiss 70 The hand of one's own wife ? JULIE. He says he loves me, And starts away, as if to say " I love you" Meant something very dreadful. Come, sit by me, I place your chair ! fie on your gallantry ! ( They sit down ; as he pushes his chair back, she draws hers nearer.) JULIE. Why must this strange Messire de Beringhen Be always here ? He never takes a hint. Do you not wish him gone ? DE MAUPRAT. Upon my soul I do, my Julie ! Send him for your bouquet, Your glove, your anything JULIE. Messire De Beringhen, 30 RICHELIEU; [ACT n. I dropp'd my glove in the gardens by the fountain, 80 Or the alcove, or slay no,, by the statue Of Cupid ; may I ask you to DE BERINGHEN. To send for it ? Certainly (ringing a bell on the table}. Andre, Pierre (your rascals, how Do ye call them ?) Enter Servants. Ah Madame has dropp'd her glove In the gardens, by the fountain, or the alcove ; Or stay no, by the statue eh? of Cupid. Bring it. DE MAUPRAT. Did ever now one pair of shoulders Carry such waggon-loads of impudence Into a gentleman's drawing-room ? Dear Julie, I'm busy letters visiters the devil ! 90 I do beseech you leave me I say leave me. JULIE (weeping}. You are unkind. Exit. (As she goes out, Mauprat drops on one knee and kisses the hem of her mantle, unseen by her.) DE BERINGHEN. Ten million of apologies DE MAUPRAT. I'll not take one of them. I have, as yet,, Withstood all things my heart my love my rights. But Julie's tears ! When is this farce to end ? DE BERINGHEN. Oh ! when you please. His Majesty requests me, As soon as you infringe his gracious orders, To introduce you to the Governor Of the Bastile. I should have had that honour Before, but, gad, my foible is good nature ; 100 One can't be hard upon a friend's infirmities. DE MAUPRAT. I know the King can send me to the scaffold SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 31 Dark prospect ! but I'm used to it; and if The Church and Council, by this hour to-morrow, One way or other settle not the matter, I w iH DE BERINGHEN. What, my dear Sir ? DE MAUPKAT. Show you the door, My dear, dear Sir ; talk as I please, with whom I please, in my own house, dear Sir, until His Majesty shall condescend to find A stouter gentleman than you, dear Sir, . 110 To take me out ; and now you understand me, My dear, most dear Oh, damnably dear Sir ! DE BERINGHEN. What, almost in a passion ! you will cool Upon reflection. Well, since Madame 's absent, I'll take a small refreshment. Now, don't stir ; Be careful ; how's your burgundy ? I'll taste it Finish it all before I leave you. Nay, No form ; you see I make myself at home. [Exit De Beringhen. DE MAUPRAT (going to the door through which Baradas had passed}. Baradas ! Count ! Enter Baradas. You spoke of snares of vengeance Sharper than death be plainer. BARADAS. What so clear? 120 Richelieu has but two passions DE MAUPRAT. Richelieu ! BARADAS. Yes! Ambition and revenge in you both blended. First for ambition Julie is his ward, Innocent docile pliant to his will He placed her at the court foresaw the rest The King loves Julie ! DE MAUPRAT. Merciful Heaven ! The King ! 32 RICHELIEU; [ACT n. BARADAS. Such Cupids lend new plumes to Richelieu's wings : But the court etiquette must give such Cupids The veil of Hymen (Hymen but in name). He look'd abroad- found you his foe : thus served 130 Ambition by the grandeur of his ward, And vengeance by dishonour to his foe ! DE MAUPRAT. Prove this. BARADAS. You have the proof the royal Letter : Your strange exemption from the general pardon, Known but to me and Richelieu ; can you doubt Your friend to acquit your foe ? The truth is glaring Richelieu alone could tell the princely Lover The tale which sells your life, or buys your honour ! DE MAUPRAT. I see it all ! Mock pardon hurried nuptials False bounty ! all ! the serpent of that smile ! 1 40 Oh ! it stings home ! BARADAS. You yet shall crush his malice ; Our plans are sure : Orleans is at our head ; We meet to night ; join us, and with us triumph. DE MAUPRAT. To night ? Oh Heaven ! my marriage night ! Revenge ! BARADAS. What class of men, whose white lips do not curse* The grim, insatiate, universal tyrant ? We, noble-born where are our antique rights Our feudal seignories our castled strength, That did divide us from the base Plebeians, And made our swords our law where are they ? trod 150 To dust and o'er the graves of our dead power Scaffolds are monuments the Kingly House Shorn of its beams the Royal Sun of France 'Clips'd by this blood-red comet. Where we turn, Nothing but Richelieu ! Armies Church State Laws, But mirrors that do multiply his beams. * Omitted in representation from line 146 to 171. SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 33 He sees all acts all Argus and Briaraeus Spy at our boards and deathsman at our hearths, Under the venom of one laidley nightshade, Wither the lilies of all France. L>E MAUPRAT (impatiently}. But Julie 160 BARADAS (unheeding him). As yet the Fiend that serves hath saved his power From every snare ; and in the epitaphs Of many victims dwells a warning moral That preaches caution. Were I not assured That what before was hope is ripen' d now Into most certain safety, trust me, Mauprat, I still could hush my hate and mark thy wrongs, And say " Be patient !" Now, the King himself Smiles kindly when I tell him that his peers Will rid him of his Priest. You knit your brows, 170 Noble impatience ! Pass we to our scheme ! Tis Richelieu's wont, each morn, within his chapel, (Hypocrite worship ended,) to dispense Alms to the Mendicant friars, in that guise A band (yourself the leader) shall surround And seize the despot. DE MAUPRAT. But the King? but Julie? BARADAS. The King, infirm in health, in mind more feeble, Is but the plaything of a Minister's will. Were Richelieu dead his power were mine ; and Louis 1 80 Soon should forget his passion and your crime. But whither now ? DE MAUPRAT. I know not ; I scarce hear thee ; A little while for thought : anon I'll join thee ; But now, all air seems tainted, and I loathe The face of man ! [Exit De Mauprat through the Gardens. BARADAS. Start from the chase, my prey, But as thou speed'st the hell-hounds of Revenge Pant in thy track and dog thee down. 34 RICHELIEU ; [ACT n. Enter De Beringhen, his mouth fall, a napkin in his hand. DE BERINGHEN. Chevalier, Your cook's a miracle, what, my Host gone ? Faith, Count, my office is a post of danger A fiery fellow, Mauprat ! touch and go, Match and saltpetre, pr r r r ! BARADAS. You 190 Will be released ere long. The King resolves To call the bride to court this day. DE BERINGHEN. Poor Mauprat ! Yet, since you love the lady, why so careless Of the King's suit? BARADAS. Because the lady's virtuous, And the King timid. Ere he win the suit He'll lose the crown, the bride will be a widow, And I the Richelieu of the Regent Orleans. DE BERINGHEN. Is Louis still so chafed against the Fox, For snatching yon fair dainty from the Lion ? BARADAS. So chafed, that Richelieu totters. Yes, the King 200 Is half conspirator against the Cardinal. Enough of this. I've found the man we wanted, The man to head the hands that murder Richelieu, The man, whose name the synonym for daring. DE BERINGHEN. He must mean me ! No, Count, 1 am I own A valiant dog but still BARADAS. Whom can I mean But Mauprat ? Mark, to-night we meet at Marion's, There shall we sign : thence send this scroll (showing it) to Bouillon. You're in that secret (affectionately} one of our new Council. DE BERINGHEN. But to admit the Spaniard France's foe 210 SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 35 Into the heart of France, dethrone the King, It looks like treason, and I smell the headsman. BARADAS. Oh, Sir, too late to falter : when we meet We must arrange the separate coarser scheme, For Richelieu's death. Of this despatch De Mauprat Must nothing learn. He only bites at vengeance, And he would start from treason. We must post him Without the door at Marion's as a sentry. (Hside) So, when his head is on the block his tongue Cannot betray our more august designs ! 220 DE BERINGHEN. I'll meet you, if the King can spare me. (Aside.) No ! I am too old a goose to play with foxes, I'll roost at home. Meanwhile, in the next room There's a delicious pate, let's discuss it. BARADAS. Pshaw ! a man fill'd with a sublime ambition Has no time to discuss your pates. DE BERINGHEN. Pshaw ! And a man fill'd with as sublime a p&te Has no time to discuss ambition. Gad, I have the best of it ! (Enter Julie hastily with first Courtier.) JULIE (to Courtier). A summons, Sir, To attend the Louvre ? On this day, too ? COURTIER. Madame, 230 The royal carriage waits below. Messire (to De Beringhen), You will return with us. JULIE. What can this mean ? Where is my husband ? BARADAS. He has left the house Perhaps till nightfall so he bade me tell you. Alas, were I the lord of such fair treasure 36 RICHELIEU ; [ACT n. JULIE (impatiently). Till nightfall ? Strange my heart misgives me ! COURTIER. Madame, My orders will not brook delay. JULIE (to Baradas). You'll see him And you will tell him ! BARADAS. From the flowers of Hybla Never more gladly did the bee bear honey, Than I take sweetness from those rosiest lips, 240 Though to the hive of others ! COURTIER (to De Beringhen). Come, Messire. DE BERINGHEN (hesitating'). One moment, just to COURTIER. Come, Sir. DE BERINGHEN. I shall not Discuss the pate after all. 'Ecod, I'm puzzled now. 1 don't know who's the best of it ! Exeunt Julie, De Beringhen, and Courtier. BARADAS. Now will this fire his fever into madness ! All is made clear : Mauprat must murder Richelieu Die for that crime : I shall console his Julie This will reach Bouillon ! from the wrecks of France I shall carve out who knows perchance a throne ! All in despite of my Lord Cardinal. 250 Enter De Mauprat from the Gardens. DE MAUPRAT. Speak ! can it be ? Methought, that from the terrace I saw the carriage of the King and Julie ! No ! no ! my frenzy peoples the void air With its own phantoms ! SCENE i.j OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 37 BARADAS. Nay, too true. Alas ! Was ever lightning swifter, or more blasting, Than Richelieu's forked guile ? DE MAUPRAT. I'll to the Louvre BARADAS. And lose all hope ! The Louvre ! the sure gate To the Bastile ! DE MAUPRAT. The King BARADAS. Is but the wax, Which Richelieu stamps ! Break the malignant seal, And I will rase the print ! Come, man, take heart ! 260 Her virtue well could brave a sterner trial Than a few hours of cold imperious courtship. Were Richelieu dust no danger ! DE MAUPRAT. Ghastly Vengeance ! To thee and thine august and solemn sister The unrelenting Death ! I dedicate The blood of Armand Richelieu ! When Dishonour Reaches our hearths Law dies, and Murther takes The angel shape of Justice ! BARADAS. Bravely said ! At midnight, Marion's ! Nay, I cannot leave thee To thoughts that DE MAUPRAT. Speak not to me ! I am yours ! 270 But speak not ! There's a voice within my soul, Whose cry could drown the thunder. Oh ! if men Will play dark sorcery with the heart of man, Let they, who raise the spell, beware the Fiend ! [Exeunt. 38 RICHELIEU; [ACT n. SCENE II. A room in the Palais Cardinal (as in the First Act). Richelieu . Joseph. Francois, writing at a table, JOSEPH. Yes ; Huguet, taking his accustora'd round, Disguised as some plain burgher, heard these rufflers Quoting your name : he listen'd, " Pshaw !" said one, " We are to seize the Cardinal in his palace To-morrow !" ' ' How ?" the other ask'd ; " You'll hear The whole design to-night ; the Duke of Orleans 280 And Baradas have got the map of action At their fingers' end." " So be it," quoth the other, " I will be there, Marion de Lorme's at midnight !" RICHELIEU. I have them, man, 1 have them ! JOSEPH. So they say Of you, my Lord ; believe me, that their plans Are mightier than you deem. You must employ Means no less vast to meet them ! RICHELIEU. Bah ! in policy We foil gigantic danger, not by giants, But dwarfs. The statues of our stately fortune Are sculptured by the chisel not the axe !* 290 Ah ! were I younger by the knightly heart That beats beneath these priestly robes, | I would * Richelieu not only employed the lowest, but would often consult men com- monly esteemed, the dullest. " 11 disoit que dans des choses de tres grande im portance, il avait expeiimente, que les moins sages donnoient souvent les rneil- leurs expediens." Le Clerc. f Both Richelieu and Joseph were originally intended for the profusion of arms. Joseph had served before he obeyed the spiritual inspiration to become a Capuchin, The death of his brother opened to Richelieu the Bishopric of Lucon ; but his military propensities were as strong as his priestly ambition. I need scarcely add that the Cardinal, during his brilliant campaign in Italy, marched at the head of his troops in complete armour. It was under his adminis- tration that occurs the last example of proclaiming war by the chivalric defiance of herald and cartel. Richelieu valued himself much on his personal ac- tivity, for his vanity was as universal as his ambition. A nobleman of the SCENE ii.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 39 Have pastime with these cut-throats ! Yea, as when, Lured to the ambush of the expecting foe, I clove my pathway through the plumed sea ! Reach me yon falchion, Franqois, not that bauble For carpet-warriors, yonder such a blade As old Charles Mart el might have wielded when He drove the Saracen from France. (Francois brings him one of the long two-handed swords worn in the Middle Ages.} With this I, at Rochelle, did hand to hand engage 300 The stalwart Englisher, no mongrels, boy, Those island mastiffs, mark the notch a deep one His casque made here, I shore him to the waist ! A toy a feather then ! (Tries to wield, and lets it fall.} You see a child could Slay Richelieu, now. FRANQOIS (his hand on his hilt}. But now, at your command Are other weapons, my good Lord. RICHELIEU (who has seated himself as to write, lifts the pen). True, THIS ! Beneath the rule of men entirely great The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold The arch-enchanter's wand ! itself a nothing ! But taking sorcery from the master-hand 310 To paralyse the Csesars and to strike The loud earth breathless ! Take away the sword States can be saved without it ! (Looking on the clock.} 'Tis the hour, Retire, Sir. [Exit Francois. (A knock is heard. A door, concealed in the arras opens .cautiously. Enter Marion de Lorrne.} house of Grammont one day found him employed in jumping, and, with all the savoir vivre of a Frenchman and a courtier, offered to jump against him. He suffered the Cardinal to jump higher, and soon after found himself rewarded by an appointment. Yet, strangely enough, this vanity did not lead to a patronage injurious to the state ; for never before in France was ability made so essential a requisite in promotion. He was lucky in finding the cleverest fellows among his adroitest flatterers. 40 RICHELIEU ; [ACT 11. JOSEPH (amazed}. Marion de Lorme ! RICHELIEU. Hist ! Joseph, Keep guard. (Joseph retires to the principal entrance.} My faithful Marion ! MARION. Good, my Lord, They meet to-night in my poor house. The Duke Of Orleans heads them. RICHELIEU. Yes go on. MARION. His Highness Much question'd if I knew some brave, discreet, And vigilant man, whose tongue could keep a secret, And who had those twin qualities for service, 320 The love of gold, the hate of Richelieu. RICHELIEU. You? MARION. Made answer, " Yes my brother ; bold and trusty ; Whose faith, my faith could pledge;" the Duke then bade me Have him equipp'd and arm'd well-mounted ready This night to part for Italy. RICHELIEU. Aha! Has Bouillon too turn'd traitor ! So, methought ! What part of Ttaly ? MARION. The Piedmont frontier, Where Bouillon lies encamp'd. SCENE ii.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 41 RICHELIEU. Now there is danger ! Great danger! If he tamper with the Spaniard, And Louis list not to my council, as, 330 Without sure proof, he will not, France is lost. What more? MARION. Dark hints of some design to seize -Your person in your palace. Nothing clear His Highness trembled while he spoke the words Did choke each other ! RICHELIEU. So! Who is the brother You recommended to the Duke ? MARION. Whoever Your Eminence may father ! RICHELIEU. Darling Marion ! * (Goes to the table, and returns with a large bag of gold.) There pshaw a trifle ! What an eye you have ! And what a smile child ! (kisses her) Ah ! you fair per- dition Tis well I'm old ! MARION (aside and seriously}. What a great man he is ! 340 RICHELIEU. You are sure they meet ? the hour ? * Voltaire openly charges Richelieu with being the lover of Marion is I'abord ; and he was no less generous to those \\ho served than severe to those who opposed him. BCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 57 RICHELIEU. Julie at this hour ! and tears ! 180 What ails thee ? JULIE. I am safe ; I am with thee ! RICHELIEU. Safe ! why in all the storms of this wild world What wind would mar the violet? JULIE. That man Why did I love him ? clinging to a breast That knows no shelter ? Listen late at noon The marriage-day ev'n then no more a lover He left me coldly, well, I sought my chamber To weep and wonder but to hope and dream. Sudden a mandate from the king to attend Forthwith his pleasure at the Louvre. 190 RICHELIEU. Ha! You did obey the summons ; and the king Reproach'd your hasty nuptials. JULIE. Were that all ! He frown'd and chid; proclaim'd the bond unlawful: Bade me not quit my chamber in the palace, And there at night alone this night all still He sought my .presence dared thou read'st the heart, Read mine ! I cannot speak it ! RICHELIEU. He a king, You woman ; well, you yielded ! JULIE. Cardinal Dare you say " yielded ?" Humbled and abash'd, 200 He from the chamber crept this mighty Louis ; Crept like a baffled felon ! yielded ! Ah ! More royalty in woman's honest heart Than dwells within the crowned majesty And sceptred anger of a hundred kings! Yielded ! Heavens ! yielded ; 58 RICHELIEU ; [ACT HI. RICHELIEU. To my breast, close close ! The world would never need a Richelieu, if Men bearded, mailed men the Lords of Earth Resisted flattery, falsehood, avarice, pride, As this poor child with the dove's innocent scorn 210 Her sex's tempters, Vanity and Power! He left you well ! JULIE. Then came a sharper trial ! At the king's suit the Count de Baradas Sought me to soothe, to fawn, to flatter, while On his smooth lip insult appear'd more hateful For the false mask of pity : letting fall Dark hints of treachery, with a world of sighs That heaven had granted to so base a Lord The heart whose coldest friendship were to him What Mexico to misers ! Stung at last 220 By my disdain, the dim and glimmering sense Of his cloak'd words broke into bolder light, And THEN ah ! then, my haughty spirit fail'd me ! Then I was weak wept oh ! such bitter tears ! For (turn thy face aside, and let me whisper The horror to thine ear) then did I learn That he that Adrien that my husband knew The king's polluting suit, and deemed it honour I Then all the terrible and loathsome truth Glared on me ; coldness waywardness reserve 230 Mystery of looks words all unravell'd, and I saw the impostor, where I ha loved the God ! RICHELIEU. I think thou wrong'st thy husband but proceed. JULIE. Did you say " wrong'd" him? Cardinal, my father, Did yon say "wrong'd?" Prove it, and life shall grow One prayer for thy reward and his forgiveness. RICHELIEU. Let me know all. JILIE. To the despair he caused The courtier left me ; but amid the chaos Darted one guiding ray to 'scape to fly ] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 59 Reach Adrien, learn the worst 'twas then near midnight : 240 Trembling I left my chamber sought the queen Fell at her feet reveal'd the unholy peril Implored her aid to flee our joint disgrace. Moved, she embraced and soothed me ; nay, preserved ; Her word sufficed to unlock the palace-gates : I hasten'd home but home was desolate, No Adrien there ! Fearing the worst, I fled To thee, directed hither. As my wheels Paused at thy gates the clang of arms behind The ring of hoofs RICHELIEU. 'Twas but my guards, fair trembler. 250 (So Huguet keeps his word, my omens wrong'd him.) JULIE. Oh, in one hour what years of anguish crowd ! RICHELIEU. Nay, there's no danger now. Thou needest rest. Come, thou shalt lodge beside me. Tush ! be cheer'd, My rosiest Amazon thou wrong'st thy Theseus. All will be well yes, yet all well. [Exeunt through a side door. SCENE II. Enter HUGUET DE MAUPRAT, in complete armour, his vizor down. ( The moonlight obscured at the casement.) HUGUET. Not here ! UE MAUPRAT. Oh, I will find him, fear not. Hence, and guard The galleries where the menials sleep plant sentries At every outlet Chance should throw no shadow Between the vengeance and the victim ! Go ! 260 Ere yon brief vapour that obscures the moon, As doth our deed pale conscience, pass away, The mighty shall be ashes. 60 RICHELIEU; [ACT m. HUGUET. Will you not A second arm ? DE MAUPRAT. To slay one weak old man ? Away ! No lesser wrongs than mine can make This murder lawful. Hence! HUGUET. A short farewell ! [Exit HUGUET. Re-enter RICHELIEU (not perceiving DE MAUPRAT). RICHELIEU. How heavy is the air ! the vestal lamp Of the sad Moon, weary with vigil, dies In the still temple of the solemn heaven ! The very darkness lends itself to fear To treason DE MAUPRAT. And to death ! RICHELIEU. My omens lied not ! What art thou, wretch ? DE MAUPRAT. Thy doomsman ! RICHELIEU. Ho, my guards ! Huguet ! Montbrassil ! Vermont ! D DE MAUPRAT. Ay, thy spirits Forsake thee, wizard ; thy bold men of mail Are my confederates. Stir not ! but one step, And know the next thy grave ! RICHELIEU. Thou liest, knave ! I am old, infirm most feeble but thou liest ! Armand de Richelieu dies not by the hand Of man the stars have said it * and the voice * In common with his contemporaries, Richelieu was credulous in astrology and less lawf'ul arts. He was too fortunate a man not to be superstitious. SCENE ii.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 61 Of my own prophet, and oracular soul Confirms the shining Sibyls ! Call them all Thy brother butchers ! Earth has no such fiend No ! as one parricide of his father-land, Who dares in Richelieu murder France ! DE MAUPRAT. Thy stars Deceive thee, Cardinal ; thy soul of wiles May against kings and armaments avail, And mock the embattled world ; but powerless now 290 Against the sword of one resolved man, Upon whose forehead thou hast written shame ! RICHELIEU. I breathe ; he is not a hireling. Have I wronged thee ? Beware surmise suspicion lies ! I am Too great for men to speak the truth of me ! DE MAUPRAT. Thy acts are thy accusers, Cardinal ! In his hot youth, a soldier, urged to crime Against the State, placed in your hands his life ; You did not strike the blow but, o'er his head, Upon the gossamer thread of your caprice, 300 Hovered the axe. His the brave spirit's hell, The twilight terror of suspense ; your death Had set him free : he purposed not, nor prayed it. One day you summoned mocked him with smooth pardon Showered wealth upon him bade an Angel's face Turn Earth to Paradise RICHELIEU. Well! DE MAUPRAT. Was this mercy ? A Caesar's generous vengeance ? Cardinal, no ! Judas, not Caesar, was the model ! You Saved him from death for shame ; reserved to grow The scorn of living men to his dead sires 310 Leprous reproach scoff of the age to come A" kind convenience a Sir Pandarus To his own bride, and the august adulterer ! Then did the first great law of human hearts, Which with the patriot's, not the rebel's, name 62 RICHELIEU; [ACT in. Crowned the first Brutus, when the Tarquin fell, Make Misery royal raise this desperate wretch Into thy destiny ! Expect no mercy ! Behold De Mauprat ! (Lifts his vizor.} RICHELIEU. To thy knees, and crawl For pardon ; or, I tell thee, thou shalt live 320 For such remorse, that, did I hate thee, I Would bid thee strike, that I might be avenged ! It was to save my Julie from the King, That in thy valour I forgave thy crime ; It was, when thou the rash and ready tool Yea, of that shame thou loath' st did'st leave thy hearth To the polluter in these arms thy bride Found the protecting shelter thine withheld. ( Goes to the side door. ) Julie de Mauprat Julie ! Enter Julie. Lo ! my witness ! DE MAUPRAT. What marvel's this ? I dream ! My Julie thou ! 330 This, thy beloved hand ? JULIE. Henceforth all bond Between us twain is broken. Were it not For this old man, I might, in truth, have lost The right now mine to scorn thee ! o RICHELIEU. So, you hear her ? DE MAUPRAT. Thou with some slander hast her sense infected ! JULIE. No, Sir : he did excuse thee in despite Of all that wears the face of truth. Thy friend Thy confidant familiar Baradas Himself revealed thy baseness, DE MAUPRAT. Baseness ! RICHELIEU. Ay ; 340 That thou didst court dishonour. SCENE ii.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 63 X DE MAUPRAT. Baradas ! Where is thy thunder, Heaven ? Duped ! snared ! undone ! Thou thou could'st not believe him ! Thou dost love me ! Love cannot feed on falsehoods ! JULIE (aside). Love him ! Ah ! Be still, my heart ! Love you I did : how fondly, -Woman if women were my listeners now 1 Alone could tell ! For ever fled my dream : Farewell all's over ! RICHELIEU. Nay, my daughter, these Are but the blinding mists of day-break love Sprung from its very light, and heralding 350 A noon of happy summer. Take her hand And speak the truth, with which your heart runs over That this Count Judas this Incarnate Falsehood Never lied more, than when he told thy Julie That Adrien loved her not except, indeed, When he told Adrien, Julie could betray him. JULIE (embracing De Mauprai). You love me, then ! you love me ! and they wrong'd you ! DE MAUPRAT. Ah ! could'st thou doubt it ? RICHELIEU. Why, the very mole Less blind than thou ! Baradas loves thy wife ; Had hoped her hand aspired to be that cloak 360 To the king's will, which to thy bluntness seems The Centaur's poisonous robe hopes even now To make thy corpse his footstool to thy bed ! Where was thy wit, man ? Ho ! these schemes are glass ! The very sun shines through them. DE MAUPRAT. O, my Lord, Can you forgive you ? RICHELIEU. Ay, and save you ! \ 64 RICHELIEU ; [ACT ni DE MAUPRAT. Save ! Terrible word ! O, save thyself: these halls Swarm with thy foes : already for thy blood Pants thirsty Murder ! JULIE. Murder ! RICHELIEU. Hush! put by The woman, Hush ! a shriek a cry a breath 370 Too loud, would startle from its horrent pause The swooping Death ! Go to the door, and listen ! Now for escape ! DE MAUPRAT. None none ! Their blades shall pass This heart to thine. RICHELIEU (drily). An honourable outwork, But much too near the citadel. I think That I can trust you now (slowly, and gazing on him) : yes ; I can trust you. How many of my troop league with you ? DE MAUPRAT. All ! We are your troop ! RICHELIEU. And Huguet ? DE MAUPRAT. Is our captain. RICHELIEU. A retribution Power ! This comes of spies ! All ? then the lion's skin too short to-night, 380 Now for the fox's ! JULIE. A hoarse, gathering murmur ! Hurrying and heavy footsteps ! RICHELIEU. Ha ! the posterns ? SCENE ni.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 65 DE MAUPRAT. No egress where no sentry ! RICHELIEU. Follow me I have it ! to my chamber quick ! Come, Julie ! Hush! Mauprat, come ! Murmur at a distance Death to the Cardinal ! RICHELIEU. Bloodhounds, I laugh at ye ! ha ! ha ! we will Baffle them yet. Ha ! ha"! Exeunt Julie, Mauprat, Richelieu. HUGUET (without). This way this way ! SCENE III. Enter Huguet and the Conspirators. HUGUET. De Mauprat's hand is never slow in battle ; Strange, if it falter now ! Ha ! gone ! FIRST CONSPIRATOR. Perchance The fox had crept to rest ; and to his lair 390 Death, the dark hunter, tracks him. Enter Mauprat (throwing open the doors of the recess, in which a bed, whereon Richelieu lies extended.} MAUPRAT. Live the King ! Richelieu is dead ! HUGUET (advancing towards the recess ; MAUPRAT following, his hand on his dagger}. Are his eyes open ? As if in life ! DE MAUPRAT. Ay. 66 RICHELIEU; [ACT m. HUGUET (turning back}. I will not look on him. You have been long. ~ DE MAUPRAT. I watch'd him till he slept. Heed me. No trace of blood reveals the deed ; Strangled in sleep. His health hath long been broken Found breathless in his bed. So runs our tale, Remember ! Back to Paris Orleans gives Ten thousand crowns, and Baradas a lordship, To him who first gluts vengeance with the news 400 That Richelieu is in heaven ! Quick, that all France May share your joy ! HUGUET. And you ? DE MAUPRAT. Will stay, to crush Eager suspicion to forbid sharp eyes To dwell too closely on the clay ; prepare The rites, and place him on his bier this my task. I leave to you, sirs, the more grateful lot Of wealth and honours. Hence! HUGUET. I shall be noble ! DE MAUPRAT. Away ! FIRST CONSPIRATOR. Five thousand crowns ! OMNES. To horse ! to horse ! [Exeunt Conspirators. SCENE iv.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 67 SCENE IV. Still night. A room in the house of Count De Baradaft, lighted, 8fc. Orleans, De Beringhen. DE BERINGHEN. I understand. Mauprat kept guard without : Knows nought of the despatch but heads the troop 410 Whom the poor Cardinal fancies his protectors. Save us from such protection ! ORLEANS. Yet, if Huguet, By whose advice and proffers we renounced Our earlier scheme, should still be Richelieu's minion, And play us false DE BERINGHEN. The fox must then devour The geese he gripes, (I'm out of it, thank Heaven !) And you must swear you smelt the trick, but seem'd To approve the deed to render up the doers. Enter BARADAS. BARADAS. Julie is fled : the King, whom now I left To a most thorny pillow, vows revenge 420 On her on Mauprat and on Richelieu ! Well ; We loyal men anticipate his wish Upon the last and as for Mauprat, (Showing a writ.) DE BERINGHEN. Hum! They say the devil invented printing ! Faith, He has some hand in writing parchment eh, Count ? What mischief now ? BARADAS. The King, at Julie's flight Enraged, will brook no rival in a subject So on this old offence the affair of Faviaux Ere Mauprat can tell tales of us, we build His bridge between the dungeon and the grave. 430 F 2 68 RICHELIEU ; [ACT in. ORLEANS. Well ; if our courier can but reach the army, The cards are ours ! and yet, I own, I tremble. Our names are in the scroll discovery, death ! BARADAS. Success, a crown ! DE BERINGHEN (apart to Bar ada.v). Our future regent is No hero. BARADAS (to De Bcrincjhen}. But his rank makes others valiant ; And on his cowardice I mount to power. Were Orleans Regent what were Baradas ? Oh ! by the way I had forgot, your highness. Friend Huguet whisper'd me, " Beware of Marion : I've seen her lurking near the Cardinal's palace/' 440 Upon that hint I've found her lodgings elsewhere. ORLEANS. You wrong her, Count : Poor Marion ! she adores me. BARADAS (apologetically}. Forgive me, but Enter Page. PAGE. My Lord, a rude, strange soldier, Breathless with haste, demands an audience. BARADAS. So! The archers ? PAGE. In the ante-room, my Lord, As you desired. BARADAS. Tis well admit the soldier. [ Exit Page. Huguet ! I bade him seek me here ! Enter Huguet. HUGUET. My Lords, The deed is done. Now, Count, fulfil your word, And make me noble ! SCENE iv.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 69 BARADAS. Richelieu dead ? art sure ? How died he ? HUGUET. Strangled in his sleep : no blood, 450 No tell-tale violence. BARADAS. Strangled ? monstrous villain ! Reward for murder ! Ho, there ! [Stamping. Enter Captain, with five Archers. HUGUET. No, thou durst not ! BARADAS. Seize on the ruffian bind him gag him ! Off To the Bastile ! HUGUET. Your word your plighted faith ! BARADAS. Insolent liar ! ho, away ! HUGUET. Nay, Count; I have that about me, which . BARADAS. Away with him ! [Exeunt Hitguet and Archers. Now, then, all's safe ; Huguet must die in prison, So Mauprat : coax or force the meaner crew To fly the country. Ha, ha ! thus, your highness, Great men make use of little men. DE BERINGHEN. My Lords, 460 Since our suspense is ended you'll excuse me ; 'Tis late and, entre nous, I have not supp'd yet ! I'm one of the new Council now, remember ; I feel the public stirring here already ; A very craving monster. Au revoir ! [Exit de Beringhen. ORLEANS. No fear, now Richelieu's dead. 70 RICHELIEU; [ACT in BAR AD AS. And could he come To life again, he could not keep life's life - His power, nor save De Mauprat from the scaffold, Nor Julie from these arms nor Paris from "The Spaniard nor your highness from the throne ! 470 All ours ! all ours ! in spite of my Lord Cardinal ! Enter Page. PAGE. A gentleman, my Lord, of better mien Than he who last BARADAS. Well, he may enter. [ Exit Page. ORLEANS. Who Can this be ? BARADAS. One of the conspirators : Mauprat himself, perhaps. Enter Francois. FRANCOIS. My Lord BARADAS. Ha, traitor ! In Paris still ? FRANCOIS. The packet the despatch- Some knave play'd spy without, and reft it from me, Ere I could draw my sword. BARADAS. Play'd spy without ! Did he wear armour ? FRANCOIS. Ay, from head to heel. ORLEANS. One of our band. Oh, heavens ! SCENE iv.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 71 BARADAS. Could it be Mauprat ? 480 Kept guard at the door knew nought of the despatch How HE? and yet, who other ? FRANCOIS. Ha, De Mauprat ! The night was dark his vizor closed. BARADAS. 'Twas he ! How could he guess? 'sdeath ! if he should betray us. His hate to Richelieu dies with Richelieu and He was not great enough for treason. Hence ! Find Mauprat beg, steal, filch, or force it back, Or, as I live, the halter FRANCOIS. By the morrow I will regain it, (aside) and redeem my honour ! (Exit FRANCOIS.) ORLEANS. Oh ! we are lost BARADAS. Not so ! But cause on cause 490 For Mauprat's seizure silence death ! Take courage. ORLEANS. Should it once reach the King, the Cardinal's arm Could smite us from the grave. BARADAS. Sir, think it not ! I hold De Mauprat in my grasp. To-morrow And France is ours ! Thou dark and fallen Angel, Whose name on earth's AMBITION thou thatmak'st Thy throne on treasons, stratagems, and murder And with thy fierce and blood-red smile canst quench The guiding stars of solemn empire hear us ( For we are thine) and light us to the goal ! 500 END OF ACT III. 72 RICHELIEU ; [ACT iv. ACT IV. Qan. SCENE I. The Gardens of the Louvre. Orleans, Baradas, De Berin- ghen, Courtiers, 8fc. ORLEANS. How does my brother bear the Cardinal's death ? BAR AD AS. With grief, when thinking of the toils of State ; With joy, when thinking on the eyes of Julie : At times he sighs, " Who now shall govern France ?" Anon exclaims " Who now shall baffle Louis?" (Enter Louis and of her Courtiers. They uncover.} ORLEANS. Now, my hege, now, I can embrace a brother. LOUIS. Dear Gaston, yes. I do believe you love me; Richelieu denied it sever'd us too long. A great man., Gaston ! Who shall govern France ? BARADAS. Yourself, my liege. That swart and potent star 10 Eclipsed your royal orb. He serv'd the country, But did he serve, or seek to sic ay the King ? LOUIS. You're right he was an able politician * That's all : between ourselves, Count, I suspect The largeness of his learning specially In falconsf a poor huntsman, too ! * Omitted in representation from line 13 lo 66. t Louis XIII. is said to have possessed some natural tilenis, and in earlier youth to have exhibited the germs of noble qualities ; but a blight s-eems to have passed over his maturer life. Personally brave, but morally timid, always governed, whether by his mother or his minister, and always repining at the yoke. The only affection amounting to a passion that he betrayed was for SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 13 BARADAS. Ha ha ! Your Majesty remembers LOUIS. Ay, the blunder Between the greffier and the souillard when (Checks and crosses himself.) Alas ! poor sinners that we are ! we laugh While this great man a priest,, a cardinal, 20 A faithful servant out upon us! BARADAS. Sire, If my brow wear no cloud, 'tis that the Cardinal No longer shades the King. LOUIS (looking up at the skies). Oh, Baradas ! Am I not to be pitied? what a day For BARADAS. Sorrow ? No, sire ! LOUIS. Bah ! for hunting, man. And Richelieu's dead ; 'twould be an indecorum Till he is buried (yawns) life is very tedious. I made a madrigal on life last week : You do not sing,* Count ? Pity ; you should learn. Poor Richelieu had no ear yet a great man. 30 Ah ! what a weary weight devolves upon me ! These endless wars these thankless Parliaments the sports of the field ; yet it was his craving weakness (and this throws a kind of false interest over his character,) to wish to be loved. He himself loved no one. He suffered the only woman who seems to have been attached to him to wither in a convent he gave up favourite after favourite to exile or the block. When Richelieu died, he said coldly, " Voila UH grand politique mort !" and when the ill-fated but unprincipled Cinq Mars, whom he called le cher ami, was beheaded, he drew out his watch at the fatal hour, and said with a smile, " I think at this moment that le cher ami fait une vilaine mine." Neverthe- less his conscience at times (for he was devout and superstitious) made him gei.tle, and his pride and his honour would often, when least expected, rouse him into haughty but brief resistance to the despotism under which he lived. * Louis had some musical taste and accomplishment, wherewith he often communicated to his favourites some of that wearisome ennui under which he himself almost unceasingly languished. 74 RICHELIEU ; [ACT iv. The- snares in which he tangled States and Kings, Like the old fisher of the fable, Proteus,, Netting great Neptune's wariest tribes, and changing Into all shapes when Craft pursued himself : Oh, a great man ! BARADAS. Your royal mother said so, And died in exile. LOUTS (sadly}. True : I loved my mother ! * BARADAS. The Cardinal dies. Yet day revives the earth ; The rivers run not back. In truth, my liege, K ) Did your high orb on others shine as him, Why, things as dull in their own selves as I am Would glow as brightly with the borrowed beam.! LOUIS. Ahem ! He was too stern. ORLEANS. A very Nero. BARADAS. His power was like the Capitol of old Built on a human skull. LOUIS. And, had he lived, I know another head, my Baradas, * One of Louis's most bitter complaints against Richelieu was the continued banishment of the Queen Mother. It is impossible, however, not to he con- \ inced that the return of that most worthless intriguante was wholly incom- patible with the tranquillity of the kingdom. Ytt, on the other hand, the poverty and privation which she endured in exile, are discreditable to the genero- sity and the gratitude of Richelieu she was his first patron, though afterwards his most powerful persecutor. f In his Memoirs Richelieu gives an amusing account of the insolence and arts of Baradas, and observes, with indignant astonishment, that the favourite was never weary of repeating to the King that he (Baradas) would have made just as great a minister as Richelieu. It is on the attachment of Baradas to La Cressias, a maid of honour to the Queen Mother, of whom, according to Baradas, the King was enamoured also, that his love for the Julie de Mortemar of the play has been founded. The secret of Buradas" sudden and extraordinary influence with the King seems to vest in the personal adoration which he pro- fessed for Louis, with whom he affected all the jealousy of a lover, but whom be flattered with the ardent chivalry of a knight. Even after his disgrace he placed upon his banner, " Fiat voluntas tua.'' SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 75 That would have propp'd the pile : I've seen him eye thee With a most hungry fancy. BAR AD AS (anxiously}. Sire, I knew You would protect me. LOUIS. Did you so : of course ! 50 "And yet he had a way with him a something That, always But no matter he is dead. And, after all, men called his King " The Just,"* And so I am. Dear Count, this silliest Julie, I know not why, she takes my fancy. Many As fair, and certainly more kind ; but yet It is so. Count, I am no lustful Tarquin, And do abhor the bold and frontless vices Which the Church justly censures; yet, 'tis sad On rainy days to drag out weary hours f 60 Deaf to the music of a woman's voice Blind to the sunshine of a woman's eyes. It is no sin in Kings to seek amusement ; And that is all I seek. I miss her much She has a silver laugh a rare perfection. BARADAS. Richelieu was most disloyal in that marriage. LOUIS (querulously}. He knew that Julie pleased me : a clear proof He never loved me ! BARADAS. Oh, most clear ! But now No bar between the lady and your will ! This writ makes all secure : a week or two 70 In the Bastile will sober Mauprafs love, And leave him eager to dissolve a hymen That brings him such a home. * Louis was called The Just, but for no other reason than that he was born tinder the Libra. f Louis XIII. did not resemble either his father or his son in the ardour of his attachments ; if not wholly platonic, they were wholly unimpassioned : yet no man was more jealous, or more unscrupulously tyrannical when the jealousy was aroused. 76 RICHELIEU ; [ACT iv. LOUIS. See to it, Count ; (Exit Baradas.) I'll summon Julie back. A word with you. ( Takes aside First Courtier and De Beringhcn, and passes, conversing with them, through the gardens.} Enter Francois. FRANCOIS. All search, as yet, in vain for Mauprat ! Not At home since yesternoon a soldier told me He saw him pass this way with hasty strides ; Should he meet, Baradas they'd rend it from him And then benignant Fortune smiles upon me SO I am thy son ! if thou desert'st me now, Come, Death and snatch me from disgrace. But, no, There's a great Spirit ever in the air That from prolific and far-spreading wings Scatters the seeds of honour yea, the walls And moats of castled forts -the barren seas, The cell wherein the pale-eyed student holds Talk with melodious science all are sown With everlasting honours, if our souls Will toil for fame as boors for bread (Enter Mauprat.} MAUPRAT. Oh, let me- ( JO Let me but meet him foot to foot. I'll dig The Judas from his heart ; albeit the King Should o'er him cast the purple ! FRANCOIS. Mauprat ! hold : Where is the MAUPRAT. Well ! What would'st thou ? FRANCOIS. The despatch ! The packet. LOOK ON ME I serve the Cardinal You know me. Did you not keep guard last night By Marion's house? MAUPRAT. I did : no matter now ! They told me, he was here ! SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 77 FRANCOIS. joy ! quick quick The packet (hou didst wrest from me ? MAUPRAT. The packet? What art thou lie, I deem'd the Cardinal's spy 100 (Dupe that I was) and overhearing Marion FRANCOIS. .The same restore it ! haste ! MAUPRAT. 1 have it not : Methought it but reveal'd our scheme to Richelieu, And, as we mounted, gave it to (Enter Baradas.) Stand back ! Now, villain ! now I have thee ! (To Francois.) Hence, Sir ! Draw ! FRANCOIS. . Art mad? the King's at hand ! leave him to Richelieu ! Speak the despatch to whom MAUPRAT (dashing him aside and rushing to Baradas). Thou triple slanderer ! I'll set rny heel upon thy crest ! (A few passes.) FRANCOIS. Fly fly ! The King !- Enter at one side Louis, Orleans, De Beringhen, Courtiers. c. at the other, the Guards hastily. LOUIS. Swords drawn before our very palace! Have our laws died with Richelieu ? BARADAS. Pardon, Sire, 110 My crime but self-defence.* (Aside to King.) It is De Mauprat ! * One of Richelieu's severest and least politic laws was that which made duelling a capital crime. Never was the punishment against the offence more relentlessly enforced ; and never were duels so desperate and so numerous. The punishment of death must be evidently ineffectual so long as to refuse a duel is to be dishonoured, and s.> long as men hold the doctrine, however wrong, that it is better to part with the lite that Heaven gave than the honour man makes. In fact, the greater the danger he incurred, the greater was the punctilio of the cavalier of that time in braving it. 78 RICHELIEU ; [ACT iv. LOUIS. Dare he thus brave us ? (Baradas goes to the guard and gives the writ.) MAUPRAT. Sire, in the Cardinal's name BARADAS. Seize him disarm to the Bastile ! (De Mauprat seized, struggles with the guard Francois restlessly endeavouring to pacify and speak to him when the yates open. Enter Richelieu Joseph fol- lowed by arquebus siers.} BARADAS. The Dead Return'd to life ! LOUIS. What a mock death ! this tops The Infinite of Insult. DE MAUPRAT (breaking from the guards}. Priest and Hero! For you are both protect the truth ! RICHELIEU (taking the writ from the fjuard.} What's this ? DE BERINGHEX. Fact in Philosophy. Foxes have got Nine lives, as well as cats ! BARADAS. Be firm,, my liege. LOUIS. I have assumed the sceptre I will wield it ! JOSEPH. The tide runs counter there'll be shipwreck somewhere. 120 (Baradas and Orleans keep close to the King whisper- ing and 'prompting him when Richelieu speaks.} RICHELIEU. High treason Faviaux ! still that stale pretence ! My liege, bad men (ay, Count, most knarish men !) Abuse your royal goodness. For this soldier, France hath none braver and his youth's hot folly, Misled (by whom your Highness may conjecture !) Is long since cancell'd by a loyal manhood. I, Sire, have pardoned him. SCENE i.j OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 79 LOUIS. And we do give Your pardon to the winds. Sir, do your duty ! RICHELIEU. What, Sire ? you do not know Oh, pardon me You know not yet, that this brave, honest, heart 130 Stood between mine and murder ! Sire ! for my sake For your old servant's sake undo this wrong. -See, let me rend the sentence. LOUIS. At your peril ! This is too much : Again, Sir, do your duty ! RICHELIEU. Speak not, but go : I would not see young Valour So humbled as grey Service ! DE MAUPRAT. Fare you well ! Save Julie, and console her. FRANCOIS (aside to Mauprat). The despatch ! Your fate, foes, life, hang on a word ! to whom ? DE MAUPRAT. To Huguet. FRANCOIS. Hush keep council ! silence hope ! (Exeunt Mauprat art:). Guard.) BARADAS (aside to Francois). Has he the packet ? FRANCOIS. He will not reveal 140 (Aside.} Work, brain ! beat, heart ! " There's no such word an fail" (Exit Francois.) RICHELIEU (fiercely). Room, my Lords, room ! The minister of France Can need no intercession with the King. (They fall back.) LOUIS. What means this false report of death, Lord Cardinal ? RICHELIEU. Are you then anger'd, Sire, that I live still? 80 RICHELIEU ; [ACT iv. LOUIS. No ; but such artifice RICHELIEU. Not mine : look elsewhere ! Louis my castle swarm'd with the assassins. BARADAS (advancing}. We have punish'd them already. Huguet now In the Bastile. Oh ! my Lord, we were prompt To avenge you we were RICHELIEU. WE ? Ha ! ha ! you hear, 150 My liege ! What page, man, in the last court grammar Made you a plural? Count, you have seized the hireling : Sire, shall I name the master! LOUIS. Tush ! my Lord, The old contrivance : ever does your wit Invent assassins, that ambition may Slay rivals RICHELIEU. Rivals, sire ! in what ? Service to France ? / have none ! Lives the man Whom Europe, paled before your glory, deems Rival to Armand Richelieu ? LOUIS. What, so haughty ! Remember, he who made, can unmake. 160 RICHELIEU. Never ! Never ! Your anger can recall your trust, Annul my office, spoil me of my lands, Rifle my coffers, but my name my deeds, Are royal in a land beyond your sceptre ! Pass sentence on me, if you will; from Kings, Lo, I appeal to Time ! *Be just, my liege I found your kingdom rent with heresies And bristling with rebellion ; lawless nobles And breadless serfs ; England fomenting discord ; Austria her clutch on your dominion ; Spain 170 Forging the prodigal gold of either Ind To armed thunderbolts. The Arts lay dead, Trade rotted in your marts, your Armies mutinous, Your Treasury bankrupt. Would you now revoke * Omitted in representation, from " Be just,'' &c., line 167, to line 188. SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 81 Your trust, so be it! and I leave you, sole Supremest Monarch of the mightiest realm, From Ganges to the Icebergs : Look without No foe not humbled ! Look within ; the Arts Quit for your schools their old Hesperides The golden Italy ! while through the veins 180 Of your vast empire flows in strengthening tides TRADE, the calm health of nations ! Sire, I know Your smoother courtiers please you best nor measure Myself with them, yet sometimes I would doubt If Statesmen rock'd and dandled into power Could leave such legacies to kings ! (Louis appears irresolute.} BARADAS (passing him, whispers'). But Julie, Shall I not summon her to Court ? LOUIS (motions to Baradas and turns haughtily to the Car dinar). Enough ! Your Eminence must excuse a longer audience. To your own palace : For our conference, this 190 Nor place nor season. RICHELIEU. Good my liege, for Justice All place a temple, and all season, summer ! Do you deny me justice? Saints of Heaven ! He turns from me ! Do you deny me justice ? For fifteen years, while in these hands dwelt Empire, The humblest craftsman the obscurest vassal The very leper shrinking from the sun, Tho' loathed by Charity, might ask for justice ! Not with the fawning tone and crawling mien Of some I see around you Counts and Princes 200 Kneeling for favours ; but, erect and loud, As men who ask man's rights ! my liege, my Louis, Do you refuse me justice audience even In the pale presence of the baffled Murth<*r ?* * For the haughty and rebuking tone which Richelieu as-umed in his ex- postulations with the Kinp, see his Memoirs (passim) in Petitot's collection, vols. 22 30 (bii). Montesquieu, in one of his brilliant antitheses, says well of Richelieu, "11 avila le roi, mais il iilustra le regne." G 82 RICHELIEU; LACT iv. LOUIS. Lord Cardinal one by one you have sever'd from me The bonds of human love. All near and dear Mark'd out for vengeance exile or the scaffold. You find me now amidst my trustiest friends, My closest kindred ; you would tear them from me ; They murder you forsooth, since me they love. 210 Eno' of plots and treasons for one reign ! Home ! Home ! and sleep away these phantoms ! RICHELIEU. Sire! I patience, Heaven! sweet Heaven! Sire, from the foot Of that Great Throne, these hands have raised aloft On an Olympus, looking down on mortals And worshipp'd by their awe before the foot Of that high throne, spurn you the grey-hair'd man, Who gave you empire and now sues for safety ? LOUIS. No : when we see your Eminence in truth At the foot of the throne we'll listen to you. 220 [Exit Louis. ORLEANS. Saved ! BARADAS. For this deep thanks to Julie and to Mauprat ! RICHELIEU. My Lord de Baradas I pray your pardon You are to be my successor ! your hand, sir ! BARADAS (aside). What can this mean ? RICHELIEU. It trembles, see ! it trembles ! The hand that holds the destinies of nations Ought to shake less ! poor Baradas ! poor France ! / BARADAS. Insolent [Exeunt Baradas and Orleans. SCENE xv.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 83 SCENE IV. RICHELIEU. Joseph Did you hear the king ? JOSEPH. did there's danger! Had you been less haughty*- RICHELIEU. And suffer'd slaves to chuckle " see the Cardinal How meek his Eminence is to-day" I tell thee 230 This is a strife in which the loftiest look Is the most subtle armour JOSEPH. But RICHELIEU. No time For ifs and buts. I will accuse these traitors ! Franqois shall witness that De Baradas Gave him the secret missive for De Bouillon, And told him life and death were in the scroll. I will I will JOSEPH. Tush ! Franqois is your creature ; So they will say, and laugh at you ! your witness Must be that same Despatch. RICHELIEU. Away to Marion ! JOSEPH. I have been there she is seized removed imprison 'd 240 By the Count's orders. * However " orgueilleux" and " colere" in his disputes with Louis, the Cardinal did not always disdain recourse to the arts of the courtier ; once, after an angry discussion with the king, in which, as usual, Richelieu got the better, Louis, as they quitted the palace together, said, rudely, ' Sortez le premier ; vous etes bien le roi de France." " Si je passe le premier," replied the minister, after a mo- ment's hesitation, and wiih great adroitness, " ce ne peut tre que comme le plus humble de vos serviteurs ;" and he took a flambeau from one of the pages, to light the king as he walked before him" en reculant et sans tourner le dos." G 2 84 RICHELIEU; [ACT iv. % RICHELIEU. Goddess of bright dreams, My Country shalt thou lose me now, when most Thou need'st thy worshipper ? My native land ! Let me but ward this dagger from thy heart, And die but on thy bosom ! Enter JULIE. JULIE. Heaven ! I thank thee ! Ifcannot be, or this all-powerful man Would not stand idly thus. RICHELIEU. What dost thou here ? Home ! JULIE. Home ! is Adrien there ? you 're dumb yet strive For words ; I see them trembling on your lip, 250 But choked by pity. It was truth all truth ! Seized the Bastile and in your presence too ! Cardinal, where is Adrien ? Think he saved Your life : your name is infamy, if wrong Should come to his ! RICHELIEU. Be sooth'd, child. JULIE. Child no more ; I love, and I am woman ! Hope and suffer Love, suffering, hope, what else doth make the strength And majesty of woman ? Where is Adrien ? RICHELIEU to JOSEPH. Your youth was never young you never loved : 260 Speak to her JOSEPH. Nay, take heed the king's command, 'Tis true I mean the JULIE to RICHELIEU. Let thine eyes meet mine ; Answer me but one word I am a wife I ask thee for my home my FATE my ALL ! Where is my husband 9 SCENE iv.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 85 RICHELIEU. You are Richelieu's ward, A soldier's bride: they who insist on truth Must out- face fear ; you ask me for your husband? There where the clouds of heaven look darkest, o'er The domes of the Bastile ! JULIE. I thank you, father, You see I do not shudder. Heaven forgive you 270 The sin of this desertion ! RICHELIEU (detaining her}. Whither wouldst thou ? JULIE. Stay me not, Fie ! I should be there already. I am thy ward, and haply he may think Thou'st taught me also to forsake the wretched ! RICHELIEU. I've fill'd those cells with many traitors all. Had they wives too ? Thy memories, Power, are solemn ! Poor sufferer ! think' st thou that yon gates of woe Unbar to love ? Alas ! if love once enter, 'Tis for the last farewell ; between those walls And the mute grave* the blessed household sounds 280 Only heard once while, hungering at the door, The headsman whets the axe. JULIE. O, mercy ! mercy ! Save him, restore him, father ! Art thou not The Cardinal- King? the Lord of life and death Beneath whose light, as deeps beneath the moon, The solemn tides of Empire ebb and flow ? Art thou not Richelieu ? RICHELIEU. Yesterday I was ! To-day, a very weak old man ! To-morrow, I know not what ! JULIE. Do you conceive his meaning ? Alas ! I cannot. But, methinks, my senses 290 Are duller than they were ! * Selon 1'usage de Louis XIII.,faire arriter quelqu'un pour crime d'etat, et le faire mourir, 1'etait a peu pres le me me chose, Le Clerc. 86 RICHELIEU; [ACT iv. JOSEPH. The King is chafed Against his servant. Lady, while we speak, The lackey of the ante-room is not More powerless than the Minister of France. RICHELIEU. And yet the air is still ; Heaven wears no cloud ;* From Nature's silent orbit starts no portent To warn the unconscious world ; albeit, this night May with a morrow teem which, in my fall, Would carry earthquake to remotest lands, And change the Christian globe. What would'st thou, woman ? Thy fate and his, with mine, for good or ill, [300 Are woven threads. In my vast sum of life Millions such units merge. Enter First Courtier. FIRST COURTIER. Madame de Mauprat ! Pardon, your Eminence even now I seek This lady's home commanded by the King To pray her presence. JULIE (clinging to Richelieu'). Think of my dead father ! Think, how, an infant, clinging to your knees, And looking to your eyes, the wrinkled care Fled from your brow before the smile of childhood, Fresh from the dews of heaven ! Think of this, 310 And take me to your breast. RICHELIEU. To those who sent you ! And say you found the virtue they would slay Here couch'd upon this heart, as at an altar, And shelter'd by the wings of sacred Rome ! Begone ! FIRST COURTIER. My Lord, I am your friend and servant Misjudge me not ; but never yet was Louis So roused against you : shall I take this answer ? It were to be your foe. * Omitted in representation from line 295 to 302. SCENE iv.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 8*7 RICHELIEU. All time my foe, If I, a Priest, could cast this holy Sorrow Forth from her last asylum ! FIRST COURTIER. He is lost ! 320 (Exit First Courtier.) RICHELIEU. God help thee, child ! she hears not ! Look upon her ! The storm, that rends the oak, uproots the flower. Her father loved me so ! and in that age When friends are brothers ! She has been to me Soother, nurse, plaything, daughter. Are these tears ?* Oh ! shame, shame ! dotage ! JOSEPH. Tears are not for eyes That rather need the lightning, which can pierce Through barred gates and triple walls, to smite Crime, where it cowers in secret ! The Despatch ! Set every spy to work ; the morrow's sun 330 Must see that written treason in your hands, Or rise upon your ruin. RICHELIEU. Ay and close Upon my corpse ! I am not made to live Friends, glory, France, all reft from me ; my star Like some vain holiday mimicry of fire, Piercing imperial heaven, and falling down Rayless and blacken' d, to the dust a thing For all men's feet to trample ! Yea ! to-morrow Triumph or death ! Look up, child ! Lead us, Joseph. As they are going out, enter Baradas and De Beringhen. BARADAS. My Lord, the King cannot believe your Eminence 340 So far forgets your duty, and his greatness, As to resist his mandate ! Pray you, Madam, Obey the King no cause for fear ! * Like Cromwell and Rienzi, Richelieu appears to have been easily moved to tears. The Queen Mother, who put the hardestjnterpretation on that humane weakness, which is natural with very excitable temperaments, said that "II pleurait quand il voulait," 88 RICHELIEU ; [ACT iv. JULIE. My father ! RICHELIEU. She shall not stir ! BARADAS. You are not of her kindred An orphan RICHELIEU. And her country is her mother ! BARADAS. The country is the King ! RICHELIEU. Ay, is it so ; Then wakes the power which in the age of iron Burst forth to curb the great, and raise the low. Mark, where she stands ! around her form I draw The awful circle of our solemn church ! 350 Set but a foot within that holy ground, And on thy head yea, though it wore a crown I launch the curse of Rome ! BARADAS. I dare not brave you ! I do but speak the orders of my King. The church, your rank, power, very word, my Lord, Suffice you for resistance : blame yourself, If it should cost you power ! RICHELIEU. That my stake. Ah ! Dark gamester ! what is thine 9 Look to it well ! Lose not a trick. By this same hour to-morrow Thou shalt have France, or I thy head ! BARADAS (aside to De Beringken). He cannot 360 Have the despatch ? DE BERINGHEN. No : were it so, your stake Were lost already. JOSEPH (aside). Patience is your game : Reflect you have not the Despatch ! SCENE iv.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 89 RICHELIEU. O ! monk ! Leave patience to the saints for / am human ! Did not thy father die for France, poor orphan ? And now they say thou hast no father ! Fie ! Art thou not pure and good ? if so, thou art A part of that the Beautiful, the Sacred Which in all climes, men that have hearts adore, By the great title of their mother country I 370 BARADAS (aside). He wanders ! RICHELIEU. So cling close unto my breast, Here where thou droop'st lies France ! I am very feeble Of little use it seems to either now. Well, well we will go home. BARADAS. In sooth, my Lord, You do need rest the burthens of the state O'ertask your health ! RICHELIEU (to Joseph). I'm patient, see ! BARADAS (aside). His mind And life are breaking fast ! RICHELIEU (overhearing him). Irreverent ribbald ! If so, beware the falling ruins! Hark ! I tell thee, scorner of these whitening hairs, When this snow melteth there shall come a flood ! 380 Avaunt! my name is Richelieu I defy thee! Walk blindfold on ; behind thee stalks the headsman. Ha ! ha ! how pale he is ! Heaven save my country ! [Falls back in Joseph's arms. (Baradas exit, followed by De Beringhen, betraying his exultation by his gestures.) END OF ACT IV. 90 .nOHELIEU ; [ACT v. ACT V. SCENE I. The Bastile a corridor in the back-ground the door of one of the condemned cells. Enter Joseph and Gaoler. GAOLER. Stay, father, I will call the governor. [Exit Gaoler. JOSEPH. He has it, then this Huguet ; so we learn From Francois ; Humph ! Now if I can but gain One moment's access, all is ours ! The Cardinal Trembles 'tween life and death. His life is power : Smite one slay both ! No ^Esculapian drugs, By learned quacks baptised with Latin jargon, E'er bore the healing which that scrap of parchment Will medicine to Ambition's flagging heart. France shall be saved and Joseph be a bishop ! 10 Enter Governor and Joseph. GOVERNOR. Father, you wish to see the prisoners Huguet And the young knight De Mauprat ? JOSEPH. So my office, And the Lord Cardinal's order warrant, son ! GOVERNOR. Father, it cannot be : Count Baradas Has summon'd to the Louvre Sieur De Mauprat. JOSEPH. Well, well ! But Huguet GOVERNOR. Dies at noon. SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 91 JOSEPH. At noon ! No moment to delay the pious rites Which fit the soul for death quick, quick admit me ! GOVERNOR. You cannot enter, monk ! Such are my orders ! JOSEPH. Orders ! vain main ! the Cardinal still is minister. 20 His orders crush all others ! GOVERNOR (lifting his hat}. Save his king's ! See, monk, the royal sign and seal affix'd To the count's mandate. None may have access To either prisoner, Huguet or De Mauprat, Not even a priest, without the special passport Of Count de Baradas. I'll hear no more ! JOSEPH. Just Heaven ! and are we baffled thus ! Despair ! ! Think on the Cardinal's power beware his anger. GOVERNOR. I'll not be menaced, Priest ! Besides, the Cardinal Is dying and disgraced all Paris knows it. 30 You hear the prisoner's knell. [Bell tolls. JOSEPH. I do beseech you The Cardinal is not dying But one moment And hist ! five thousand pistoles ! GOVERNOR. How ! a bribe ! And to a soldier, grey with years of honour ! Begone ! JOSEPH. Ten thousand twenty ! GOVERNOR. Gaoler put This monk without our walls. 92 RICHELIEU ; [ACT v. JOSEPH. By those grey hairs. Yea, by this badge (touching the cross of St. Louis worn by the Governor} the guerdon of your valour By all your toils hard days and sleepless nights Borne in your country's service, noble son Let me but see the prisoner ! GOVERNOR. No ! 40 JOSEPH. He hath Secrets of state papers in which GOVERNOR (interrupting). I know Such was his message to Count Baradas, Doubtless the Count will see to it JOSEPH. The Count ! Then not a hope ! You shall GOVERNOR. Betray my trust ! Never not one word more you heard me, gaoler ! JOSEPH. What can be done ? distraction ! Richelieu yet Must what? I know not, thought, nerve, strength, forsake me. Dare you refuse the Church her holiest rights ? GOVERNOR. I refuse nothing I obey my orders 50 JOSEPH. And sell your country to her parricides ! Oh, tremble yet ! Richelieu GOVERNOR. Begone ! JOSEPH. Undone ! (Exit Joseph.) SCENE i.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 93 GOVERNOR. A most audacious shaveling interdicted Above all others by the Count GAOLER. I hope, Sir, I shall not lose my perquisites. The Sieur De Mauprat will not be reprieved? GOVERNOR. Oh, fear not : The Count's commands by him who came for Mauprat Are to prepare headsmen and axe by noon ; The Count will give you perquisites enough ; Two deaths in one day ! GAOLER. Sir, may Heaven reward him ! 60 Oh, by the way, that troublesome young fellow, Who calls himself the prisoner Huguet's son, Is here again implores, weeps, raves, to see him. GOVERNOR. Poor youth, I pity him ! Enter De Beringhen, followed by Francois. DE BERINGHEN (to Francois). Now, prithee, friend, Let go my cloak ; you really discompose me. FRANCOIS. No, they will drive me hence : my father ! Oh ! Let me but see him once but once one moment ! DE BERINGHEN (to Governor). Your servant, Messire, this poor rascal, Huguet, Has sent to see the Count de Baradas Upon state secrets, that afflict his conscience. 70 The Count can't leave his Majesty an instant : I am his proxy. GOVERNOR. The Count's word is law ! Again, young scapegrace ! How com'st thou admitted ? DE BERINGHEN. Oh ! a most filial fellow : Huguet's son ! 94 RICHELIEU ; [ACT v. I found him whimpering in the court below. I pray his leave to say good bye to father, Before that very long unpleasant journey Father's about to take. Let him wait here Till I return. FRANCOIS. No ; take me with you. DE BERINGHEN. Nay; After me, friend the Public first ! GOVERNOR. The Count's 80 Commands are strict. No one must visit Huguet Without his passport. DE BERINGHEN. Here it is ! Pshaw ! nonsense ! I'll be your surety. See, my Cerberus, He is no Hercules ! GOVERNOR. Well, you're responsible. Stand there, friend. If, when you come out, my Lord, The youth slip in, 'tis your fault. DE BERIXGHEN. So it is ! [Exit through the door of the cell, followed by the Gaoler. GOVERNOR. Be calm, my lad. Don't fret so. I had once A father too ! I'll not be hard upon you, And so stand close. I must not see you enter : You understand. Between this innocent youth And that intriguing monk there is, in truth, A wide distinction. Re-enter GAOLER. Come, we'll go our rounds ; I'll give you just one quarter of an hour ; And if my Lord leave first, make my excuse. Yet stay, the gallery's long and dark ; no sentry Until he reach the grate below. He'd best Wait till I come. If he should lose the way, We may not be in call. SCENE H.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 95 FRANCOIS. I'll tell him, Sir, [Exeunt Governor and Gaoler. He's a wise son that knoweth his own father. I've forged a precious one ! So far, so well ! 100 Alas, what then ? this wretch has sent to Baradas Will sell the scroll to ransom life. Oh, Heaven ! On what a thread hangs hope ! [Listens at the door. Loud words a cry ! [Looks through the key-hole. They struggle ! Ho ! the packet ! ! ! [Tries to open the door. Lost ! He has it The courtier has it Huguet, spite his chains, Grapples ! well done ! Now now ! [Draws back. The gallery's long ! And this is left us ! [Drawing his dagger, and standing behind the door. Re-enter De Beringhen, with the packet. Victory ! Yield it, robber Yield it or die [A short struggle. DE BERINGHEN. Off! ho! there! FRANCOIS (grappling with him). Death or honour ! [Exeunt struggling. SCENE II. The King's closet at the Louvre. A suite of rooms in perspective at one side. Baradas Orleans. BARADAS. All smiles ! the Cardinal's swoon of yesterday Heralds his death to-day ; could he survive, 110 96 RICHELIEU ; [ACT v. It would not be as minister so great The king's resentment at the priest's defiance ! All smiles ! and yet, should this accurs'd De Mauprat Have given our packet to another 'Sdeath ! I dare not think of it ! ORLEANS. You've sent to search him ? BARADAS. Sent, Sir, to search ? that hireling hands may find Upon him, naked, with its broken seal, That scroll, whose every word is death ! No no These hands alone must clutch that awful secret. I dare not leave the palace, night or day, 120 While Richelieu lives his minions creatures spies Not one must reach the king ! ORLEANS. What hast thou done ? BARADAS. Summoned De Mauprat hither? ORLEANS. Could this Huguetj Who pray'd thy presence with so fierce a fervour, Have thieved the scroll ? BARADAS. Huguet was housed with us, The very moment we dismiss'd the courier. It cannot be ! a stale trick for reprieve. But, to make sure, I've sent, our tru&tiest friend To see and sift him. Hist ! here comes the King How fare you, Sire ? Enter Louis. LOUIS. In the same mind I have 130 Decided ! yes, he would forbid your presence, My brother, your's, my friend, then Julie, too ; Tiiwarts braves defies (suddenly turning to Baradas) We make you minister. Gaston, for you the baton of our armies. You love me, do you not ? SCENE n.J OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 97 ORLEANS. Oh, love you, Sire ? {aside.) Never so much as now, BARADAS. May I deserve Your trust (aside) until you sign your abdication ! My liege, but, one way left to daunt De Mauprat, And Julie to divorce. We must prepare The death-writ ; what, tho' sign'd and seal'd ? we can 1 40 Withhold the enforcement. LOUIS. Ah, you may prepare it ; We need not urge it to effect. BARADAS. Exactly ! No haste, my liege (looking at his watch, and aside). He may live one hour longer. (Enter Courtier). COURTIER. The Lady Julie, Sire, implores an audience. LOUIS. Aha ! repentant of her folly i Well, Admit her. BARADAS. Sire, she comes for Mauprat 1 s pardon, And the conditions LOUIS. You are minister, We leave to you our answer. {As Julie enters, the Captain of the Archers, by another door, and whispers Baradas). CAPTAIN. The Chevalier De Mauprat waits below. BARADAS (aside). Now the despatch ! [Exit with Officer, 98 RICHELIEU, [ACTV. Enter Julie. JULIE My liege, you sent for me. I come where Grief 150 Should come when guiltless, while the name of King Is holy on the earth ! Here, at the feet Of Power, I kneel for mercy. LOUIS. Mercy, Julie, Is an affair of state. The Cardinal should In this be your interpreter. JULIE. Alas ! I know not if that mighty spirit now Stoop to the things of earth. Nay, while I speak, Perchance he hears the orphan by the throne Where Kings themselves need pardon ; O my liege, Be father to the fatherless ; in you 160 Dwells my last hope ! Enter Baradas. BARADAS (aside). He has not the despatch ; Smiled, while we search'd, and braves me. Oh ! LOUIS (gently). What would'st thou ? JULIE. A single life. You reign o'er millions. What Is one man's life to you ? and yet to me 'Tis France 'tis earth 'tis everything ! a life A human life my husband's. LOUIS (aside). Speak to her, I am not marble, give her hope or BARADAS. Madam, Vex not your King, whose heart, too soft for justice, Leaves to his ministers that solemn charge. [Louis walks up the stage.] SCENE ii.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 99 JULIE. You were his friend. BARADAS. I was before I loved thee. 170 JULI-E. Loved me ! BARADAS. Hush, Julie : could'st thou misinterpret -My acts, thoughts, motives, nay, my very words, Here in this palace ? JULIE. Now I know I'm mad; Even that memory fail'd me. BARADAS. I am young, Well-born and brave as Mauprat : for thy sake I peril what he has not fortune power ; All to great souls most dazzling. I alone Can save thee from yon tyrant, now rny puppet ! Be mine ; annul the mockery of this marriage, And on the day I clasp thee to my breast 1 80 De Mauprat shall be free. JULIE. Thou durst not speak Thus in his ear (pointing to Louis}. Thou double traitor ! tremble. I will unmask thee. BARADAS. I will say thou ravest. And see this scroll ! its letters shall be blood ! Go to the King, count with me word for word ; o * And while you pray the life I write the sentence ! JULIE. Stay, stay (rushing to the King). You have a kind and princely heart, Tho' sometimes it is silent : you were born To power it has not flush'd you into madness, As it doth meaner men. Banish my husband 1 ( .)0 Dissolve our marriage cast me to that grave Of human ties, where hearts congeal to ice, In the dark convent's everlasting winter (Surely eno' for justice hate revenge) 100 RICHELIEU ; [ACT v. But spare this life, thus lonely, scathed, and bloomless ; And when thou stand'st for judgment on thine own, The deed shall shine beside thee as an angel. LOUIS (much affected}. Go, go, to Baradas : annul thy marriage, And JULIE (anxiously, and watching his countenance'}. Be his bride ! LOUIS. A form, a mere decorum, Thou know'st I love thee. JULIE. O thou sea of shame, 200 And not one star. ( The King goes up the stage, and passes through the suite of rooms at the side in evident emotion.} BARADAS. Well, thy election, Julie ; This hand his grave ! JULIE. His grave ! and I BARADAS. Can save him. Swear to be mine. JULIE. That were a bitterer death ! Avaunt, thou tempter ! I did ask his life A boon, and not the barter of dishonour. The heart can break, and scorn you : wreak your malice ; Adrien and I will leave you this sad earth, And pass together hand in hand to Heaven ! BARADAS. You have decided. [ Withdraws to the side scene for a moment, and returns.] Listen to me, Lady ; I am no base intriguer. I adored thee From the first glance of those inspiring eyes ; With thee entwined ambition, hope, the future. / will not lose thee ! I can place thee nearest stENE ii.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 101 Ay, to the throne nay, on the throne, perchance; My star is at its zenith. Look upon me ; Hast t.hou decided ? JULIE. No, no ; you can see How weak I am : be human, Sir one moment. BARADAS (stamping his foot, De Mauprat appears at the side of the stage, guarded}. "Behold thy husband ! Shall he pass to death, And know thou could'st have saved him ? JULIE. Adrien, speak ! But say you wish to live I if not your wife, 220 Your slave, do with me as you will ? DE MAUPRAT. Once more! Why this is mercy, Count ! Oh, think, my Julie, Life, at the best, is short, but love immortal ! BARADAS (taking Julie's hand}. Ah, loveliest JULIE. Go, that touch has made me iron. We have decided death ! BARADAS (to De Mauprat). Now, say to whom Thou gavest the packet, and thou yet shalt live. DE MAUPRAT. I'll tell thee nothing! BARADAS. Hark, the rack ! DE MAUPRAT. Thy penance For ever, wretch ! What rack is like the conscience ? JULIE. I shall be with thee soon. BARADAS (giving the writ to the Officer). Hence, to the headsman. 102 RICHELIEU ; [ACT v/ The doors are thrown open. The Hnissier announces " His Eminence the Cardinal Duke de Richelieu." Enter Richelieu, attended by Gentlemen, Pages, fyc., pale, feeble, and leaning on Joseph, followed by three Secretaries of State, attended by Sub-secretaries with papers, 8fc. JULIE (rushing to Richelieu). You live you live and Adrien shall not die ! 230 RICHELIEU. Not if an old man's prayers, himself near death, Can aught avail thee, daughter! Count, you now Hold what I held on earth : one boon, my Lord, This soldier's life. BARADAS. The stake, my head ! you said it. I cannot lose one trick. Remove your prisoner. JULIE. No ! No ! Enter Louis from the rooms beyond. RICHELIEU (to Officer}. Stay, Sir, one moment. My good liege, Your worn-out servant, willing. Sire, to spare you Some pain of conscience, would forestall your wishes. I do resign my office. DE MAUPRAT. You ! JULIE. All's over ! RICHELIEU. My end draws near. These sad ones. Sire, I love them, 240 I do not ask his life; but suffer justice To halt, until I can dismiss his soul, Charged with an old man's blessing. LOUIS. Surely ! BARADAS. Sire LOUIS. Silence small favour to a dying servant. SCENE HI.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 103 RICHELIEU. You would consign your armies to the baton Of your most honour'd brother. Sire, so be it ! Your minister, the Count de Baradas ; A most sagacious choice ! Your Secretaries Of State attend me, Sire, to render up The ledgers of a realm. I do beseech you, 250 Suffer these noble gentlemen to learn The nature of the glorious task that waits them, Here, in my presence. LOUIS. You say well, my Lord. (To Secretaries, as he seats himself.} Approach, Sirs. RICHELIEU. I I faint ! air air (Joseph and a gentleman assist him to a sofa, placed beneath a window.) I thank you Draw near, my children. BARADAS. He's too weak to question, Nay, scarce to speak ; all's safe. SCENE III. Manent Richelieu, Mauprat, and Julie, the last kneeling be- side the Cardinal ; the Officer of the Guard behind Mau- prat. Joseph near Richelieu, watching the King. Louis. Baradas at the back of the King's chair, anxious and disturbed. Orleans at a greater distance, careless and triumphant. The Secretaries. As each Secretary advances in his turn, he takes the portfolios from the Sub-secretaries. FIRST SECRETARY. The affairs of Portugal, Most urgent, Sire : One short month since the Duke O * ' Bragariza was a rebel. 104 RICHELIEU ; [ACT v. LOUIS. And is still ! FIRST SECRETARY. No, Sire, he has succeeded ! He is now Crown'd King of Portugal craves instant succour 260 Against the arms of Spain. LOUIS. We will not grant it Against his lawful king. Eh, Count ? BARADAS. No, Sire. FIRST SECRETARY. But Spain's your deadliest foe : whatever Can weaken Spain must strengthen France. The Cardinal Would send the succours: {solemnly} balance, Sire, of Europe ! LOUIS. The Cardinal ! balance ! We'll consider. Eh, Count ? BARADAS. Yes, Sire ; fall back. FIRST SECRETARY. But BARADAS. Oh ! fall back. Sir. JOSEPH. Humph ! SECOND SECRETARY. The affairs of England, Sire, most urgent : Charles The First has lost a battle that decides One half his realm, craves moneys, Sire, .and succour. 270 LOUIS. He shall have both. Eh, Baradas ? BARADAS. Yes, Sire. (Oh that despatch ! my veins are fire !) SCENE in.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 105 RICHELIEU {feebly, but with great distinctness.) My liege Forgive me Charles's cause is lost ! A man, Named Cromwell, risen a great man ! your succour Would fail your loans be squander'd ! Pause reflect.* LOUIS. Reflect. Eh, Baradas ? BARADAS. Reflect, Sire. JOSEPH. Humph ! LOUIS (aside). I half repent ! No successor to Richelieu ! Round me thrones totter ! dynasties dissolve ! The soil he guards alone escapes the earthquake ! JOSEPH. Our star not yet eclipsed ! you mark the King ? 280 Oh ! had we the despatch ! RICHELIEU, Ah! Joseph ! Child- Would I could help thee ! Enter Gentleman, whispers Joseph, who exit hastily. BARADAS (to Secretary). Sir, fall back. SECOND SECRETARY. But BARADAS. Pshaw, Sir ! THIRD SECRETARY (mysteriously). The secret correspondence, Sire, most urgent, Accounts of spies deserters heretics Assassins poisoners schemes against yourself! LOUIS. Myself! most urgent ! (looking on the documents.) * See in " Cinq Mars," vol. v., the striking anil brilliant chapter from which the interlude of the Secretaries is borrowed. 106 RICHELIEU ; [ACT v. Re-enter Joseph with Francois, whose pourpoint is streaked with blood. Francois passes behind the Cardinals attend- ants, and, sheltered by them from the sight of Baradas, fyc., falls at Richelieu s feet. FRANCOIS. O ! my Lord ! RICHELIEU. Thou art, bleeding ! FRANCOIS. A scratch I have not fail'd ! (gives the packet.} RICHELIEU. Hush ! (looking at the contents.} THIRD SECRETARY (to King}. Sire, the Spaniards Have reinforced their army on the frontiers. The Due de Bouillon RICHELIEU. Hold ! In this department A paper here, Sire, read yourself then take 290 The Count's advice in't. Enter De Beringhen hastily, and draws aside Baradas. (Richelieu, to Secretary, giving an open parchment.) BARADAS (bursting from De Beringhen). What ! and reft it from thee ! Ha ! hold ! JOSEPH. Fall back, son, it is your turn now ! BARADAS. Death ! the Despatch ! LOUIS (reading). To Bouillon and sign'd Orleans ! Baradas, too ! league with our foes of Spain ! Lead our Italian armies what ! to Paris ! Capture the King my health require repose SCENE in.J OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 107 Make me subscribe my proper abdication Orleans, my brother, Regent ! Saints of Heaven ! These are the men I loved ! (Bar ad as draws, attempts to rush out, is arrested. Orleans, endeavouring to escape more quickly, meets Josephs eye, and stops short.} ( Richelieu fa Us back.} JOSEPH. See to the Cardinal ! 300 BARADAS. He's dying ! and I yet shall dupe the King ! LOUIS (rushing to Richelieu). Richelieu ! Lord Cardinal ! 'tis / resign ! Reign thou ! JOSEPH. Alas ! too late ! he faints ! LOUIS. Reign, Richelieu ! RICHELIEU (feebly}. With absolute power ? LOUIS. Most absolute ! Oh ! live ! If not for me for France ! RICHELIEU. FRANCE ! LOUIS. Oh ! this treason ! The army Orleans Bouillon Heavens ! the Spaniard ! Where will they be next week ? RICHELIEU (starting up}. There, at my feet ! (To First and Second Secretary.} Ere the clock strike ! The Envoys have their answer ! (To Third Secretary, with a ring.} This to De Chavigny he knows the rest 108 RICHELIEU; [ACT v. No need of parchment here he must not halt For sleep for food. In my name, MINE ! he will 310 Arrest the Due de Bouillon at the head Of his army ! Ho ! there, Count de Baradas Thou hast lost the stake ! Away with him !* (As the Guards open the folding-doors, a view of the ante-room beyond, lined with Courtiers. Baradas passes through the line.) Ha! ha!- (Snatching De Mauprafs death-warrant from the officer.) See here De Mauprat's death-writ, Julie ! Parchment for battledores ! Embrace your husband ! At last the old man blesses you ! JULIE. Ojoy! You are saved ; you live I hold you in these arms. MAUPRAT. Never to part JULIE. No never, Adrien never! LOUIS (peev.ishly). One moment makes a startling cure, Lord Cardinal ; f 320 RICHELIEU. Ay, Sire, for in one moment there did pass Into this wither'd frame the might of France ! My own dear France I have thee yet I have saved thee ! I clasp thee still ! it was thy voice that call'd me Back from the tomb ! What mistress like our country ? * The passion of the drama requires this catastrophe for Baradas. He, how- ever, survived his disgrace, though stripped of all his rapidly-acquired fortunes and the daring that belonged to his character won him distinction in foreign service. He returned to France after Richelieu's death, liut never regained the same court influence. He had taken the vows of a knight of Malta, and Louis made him a Prior ! f- The sudden resuscitation of Richelieu (not to strain too much on the real passion which supports him in this scene) is in conformance with the more dis- simulating part of his character. The extraordinary mobility of his countenance (latterly so deathlike, save when the mind spoke in the features) always lent itself to stage effect of this nature. The queen mother said of him, that she had seen him one moment so feeble, cast down, and " semi-mort," that he Deemed on the point of giving up the ghost and the next moment he would start up full of animation, energy, and life. SCENE HI.] OR, THE CONSPIRACY. 109 LOUIS. For Mauprat's pardon well ! But Julie, Richelieu, Leave me one thing to love ! RICHELIEU. A subject's luxury ! Yet, if you must love something, Sire, love me ! LOUIS (smiling in spite of himself). Fair proxy for a young fresh Demoiselle ! RICHELIEU. Your heart speaks for my clients : Kneel, my children, 330 And thank your King JULIE. Ah, tears like these, my liege, Are dews that mount to Heaven. LOUIS. Rise rise be happy. (Richelieu beckons to De Beringhen.) DE BERINGHEN (falteringly). My Lord you are most happily recover'd. RICHELIEU. But you are pale, dear Beringhen : this air Suits not your delicate frame I long have thought so : Sleep not another night in Paris : Go, Or else your precious life may be in danger. Leave France, dear Beringhen ! DE BERINGHEN. I shall have time, More than I ask'd for, to discuss the p&te. [Exit De Beringhen. RICHELIEU (to Orleans). For you, repentance absence and confession ! 340 (To Francois.) Never say fail again. Brave Boy ! ( To Joseph.) He'll be- A Bishop first. 110 RICHELIEU. [ACT v. JOSEPH. Ah, Cardinal RICHELIEU. Ah, Joseph ! (To Louis a* De Mauprat and Julie converse apart}. See, my liege see thro' plots and counterplots Thro 1 gain and loss thro' glory and disgrace Along the plains, where passionate Discord rears Eternal Babel srill the holy stream Of human happiness glides on ! LOUIS. And must we Thank for that also our prime Minister ? RICHELIEU. No let us own it : there is ONE above Sways the harmonious mystery of the world 350 Ev'n better than prime ministers; Alas ! Our glories float between the earth and heaven Like clouds which seem pavilions of the sun, And are the playthings of the casual wind; Still, like the cloud which drops on unseen crags The dews the wild flower feeds on, our ambition May from its airy height drop gladness down On unsuspected virtue ; and the flower May bless the cloud when it hath pass'd away !* THE END OF RICHELIEU. * The image and the sentiment in the concluding linos arc borrowed from a passage in one of the writings attributed to the Cardinal. ODES. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE ODES. .TiiE connexion between the Lyric and Dramatic forms of poetical composition is sufficiently ancient and established to warrant me, I trust, in subjoining to an Historical Play three attempts, equally elaborate, in the less cultivated art of the Historical Ode. Written at least, with the advantage of mature experience, I venture to express a hope that these Odes may, in some degree, redeem the faults of poems put forth, a few years since, in the rashness of early youth : If I require an additional apology for associating them with the Drama of " Richelieu," let me frankly acknowledge that I am not uninfluenced by the belief, that, should their more obtrusive companion meet with any success, they are likely to obtain a larger circle of readers, and therefore a fairer judgment, than, in the present indisposition to poetry, an author whose reputation, such as it may be, lies in other departments of literature, could reasonably expect for a volume exclusively devoted to lyrical compositions : and, on the other hand, if impartial judges should pass an un- favourable verdict on their pretensions, I have, at least, put them forward in a more unassuming shape than that of a separate publication. London, March 5, 1839. ODE I. THK LAST DAYS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. "' Her delight is to sit in the dark, and sometimes, with shedding tears, to bewail Essex." Contemporaneous Correspondence. " She refused all consolation ; few words she uttered, and they were all ex- pressive of some hidden grief which she cared not to reveal. But sighs and groans were the chief vi nt which she gave to her despondency, and which tho' they discovered her sonows were never able to ease or assuage them. Ten days and nights she lay upon the carpet leaning on cushions which her maids brought her, &c." Hume. I. Rise from thy bloody grave Thou soft Medusa of the Fated Line* Whose evil beauty look'd to death the Brave; Discrowned Queen, around whose passionate shame Terror and Grief the palest flowers entwine, That ever veil'd the ruins of a Name With the sweet parasites of song divine ! Arise, sad Ghost, arise, And, if Reven ge outlive the Tomb, Thou art avenged Behold the Doomer brought, to Doom ! * Mary Stuart " The soft Medusa " is an expression strikingly applied (o her in her own day. i2 116 Lo, where thy mighty Murderess lies, The sleepless couch the sunless room, And, quell'd the eagle eye "and lion mien, The woe-worn shadow of t he Titan Queen ! i II. There, sorrow-stricken, to the ground, Alike by night and day, The heartVblood from the inward wound Ebbs silently away. And oft she turns from face to face A sharp and eager gaze, As if the Memory sought to trace The sign of some lost dwelling-place Belov'd in happier Days ; Ah, what the clue supplies In the cold vigil of a hireling's eyes ? Ah, sad in childless age to weep alone, And start and gaze, to find no sorrow save our own !- O Soul, thou speedest to thy rest away, But not upon the pinions of the Dove ; When Death draws nigh, how miserable they Who have outlived all Love! As on the solemn verge of Night Lingers a weary Moon, She wanes, the last of every glorious light That bath'd with splendour her majestic noon : The stately stars that clustering o'er the isle LulPd into glittering rest the subject sea ; Gone the great Masters of Italian wile False to the world beside, but true to thee ! Burleigh, the subtlest builder of thy fame, 117 The gliding craft of winding Walsinghame ;- They who exalted yet before thee bowed ; And that more dazzling chivalry the Band That made thy Court a Faery Land, -. In which thou wert enshrin'd to reign alone The Gloriana of the Diamond Throne ; All gone, and left thee sad amidst the cloud ! III. To their great Sires, to whom thy youth was known, Who from thy smile, as laurels from the Sun, Drank the immortal greenness of renown, Succeeds the cold lip- homage scantly won From the new race whose hearts already bear The Wise-man's offerings to the' unworthy Heir. There, specious Bacon's * unimpassion'd brow, And crook-back Cecil's ever earthward eyes Watching the glass in which the sands run low ; But deem not fondly there To weep the fate or pour the' averting prayer Have come those solemn spies ! Lo, at the Regal Gate The impatient Couriers wait ; To speed from hour to hour the nice account That registers the grudg'd unpitied sighs Which yet must joy delay, before The Stuart's tottering step shall mount The last great Tudor's throne, red with his Mother's gore ! * See the servile and heart-sickening correspondence maintained byFrancis Bacon and Robert Cecil (the sons of Elizabeth's most faithful friends) with the Scottish Court, during the Queen's last illness. 118 IV. O piteous mockery of all pomp thou art, Poor Child of Clay, worn out with toil and years ! As, layer by layer, the granite of the heart Dissolving, melteth to the weakest tears That ever Village Maiden shed above The grave that robb'd her quiet world of love. Ten days and nights upon that floor Those weary limbs have lain ; And every hour but added more Of heaviness to pain. As gazing into dismal air She sees the headless phantom there, The victim round whose image twined The last wild love of woman-kind ; That love which in its dire excess Will blast where it can fail to bless, And, like ihe lightning, flash, and fade In gloom along the ruins it has made. "Twere sad to see from those stern eyes The' unheeded anguish feebly flow ; And hear the broken word that dies In moanings faint and low ; But sadder still to mark the while, The vacant stare the marble smile, And think, that goal of glory won. How slight a shade between The idiot moping in the sun And England's Giant Queen !* * " It was after labouring for nearly three tvetiks u;.der a morbid melancholy, which brought on a stumor not unmixed with some indications of a disordered 119 V. Call back the gorgeous Past ! Lo, England white-robed for a holyday ! While, choral to the clarion's kingly blast, Peals shout on shout along the Virgin's way, As thro' the swarming streets rolls on the long array. Mary is dead ! Look from your fire-won homes, Exulting Martyrs ! on the mount shall rest Truth's ark at last ! the' avenging Lutheran comes And clasps THE BOOK ye died for to her breast !* With her, the flower of all the Land, The high-born gallants ride, And, ever nearest of the band, With watchful eye and ready hand, Young Dudley's form of pride \"\~ fancy, that the Queen expired. Aikirfs translation of a Latin fetter (author unknown) to Edmund Lambert. Robert Carey, who was admitted to an interview with Elizabeth in her last illness, after describing the passionate anguish of her sighs, observes, " that, in all his lifetime before, he never knew her fetch a sigh but when the Queen of Scots was beheaded." Yet this Robert Carey, the well-born mendicant of her bounty, was the first whose eager haste and joyous countenance told James that the throne of the Tudors was at last vacant. * " When she (Elizabeth) was conducted thro' London amidst the joyful acclamations of her subjects, a boy, who personated Truth, was let down from one of the triumphal arches, and presented to her a copy of the Bible. She received the book with the most gracious deportment, placed it next her bosom," &c. Hume. t Robert Dudley, afterwards the Leicester of doubtful fame, attended Elizabeth in her passage to the Tower. The streets, as she passed along, were spread with the finest gravel ; banners and pennons, hangings of silk, of velvet, of cloth of gold, were suspended from the balconies, musicians and singers were stationed amidst the populace ; as she rode along in her purple robes, preceded by her heralds, &c. 120 Ah, ev'n in that exulting hour, Love half allures the soul from Power , And blushes, half suppress'd, betray The woman's hope and fear ; Like blooms which in the early May Bud forth beneath a timorous ray, And mark the mellowing year . - While steals the sweetest of all worship, paid Less to the Monarch than the Maid, Melodious on the ear ! VI. Call back the gorgeous Past ! The lists are set, the trumpets sound, Bright eyes sweet judges thron'd around ; And stately on the glittering ground The Old Chivalric Life ! " Forward*." The signal word is given Beneath the shock the greensward shakes The lusty cheer, the gleaming spear The snow-plume's falling flakes The fiery joy of strife ! Thus, when, from out a changeful heaven O'er waves in eddying tumult driven A stormy smile is cast, Alike the gladsome anger takes The sunshine and the blast ! Who is the Victor of the Day? Thou of the delicate form, and golden hair, And Manhood glorious in its midst of May; * The customary phrase was ' Laissez alter.' 121 Thou who upon, thy shield of argent, bearest . The bold device, " The Loftiest is the Fairest !" As bending low thy stainless crest, 4 The Vestal throned by the West' Accords the old Provencal crown Which blends her own with thy renown; Arcadian Sidney Nursling of the Muse, Flower of Fair Chivalry, whose bloom was fed With daintiest Castaly's most silver dews, Alas ! how soon thy amaranth leaves were shed Born, what, the 'Ausonian Minstrel dream'd, to be * Time's knightly Epic pass'd from Earth with thee ! VII. Call back the gorgeous Past ! Where, bright and broadening to the main, Rolls on the scornful River, Stout hearts beat high on Tilbury's plain, Our Marathon for ever ! No breeze above, but on the mast The pennon shook as with the blast. Forth from the cloud the day- god strode, O'er bristling helms the splendour glow'd, Leapt the loud joy from Earth to Heaven, As, thro' the ranks asunder riven, The Warrior- Woman rode ! * What difference between the Tancred of Tasso and the Sidney of Eng- land, except that the last was of bone and flesh ? " The Life of Sir Philip Sidney," as Campbell finely expresses it, ' was Poetry put in action." With him died the Provengal and the Norman the Ideal of the Middle Ages. 122 Hark, thrilling thro' the armed Line The martial accents ring, " Though mine the Woman's form yet mine, " The Heart of England's King!"* Woe to the Island and the Maid ! The Pope has preach'd the New Crusade, f His sons have caught the fiery zeal ; The Monks are merry in Castile ; Bold Parma on the Main ; And thro' the deep exulting sweep The Thunder- Steeds of Spain. J What meteor rides the sulphurous gale ? The Flames have caught the giant sail ! Fierce Drake is grappling prow to prow ; God and St. George for Victory now ! Death in the Battle and the Wind Carnage before and Storm behind Wild shrieks are heard above the hurtling roar By Orkneys' rugged strands, and Erin's ruthless shore. Joy to the Island and the Maid ! Pope Sixtus wept the Last Crusade ; * " I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England too." Elizabeth's harangue at Tilbury Camp. She rode bareheaded thro' the ranks, a page bearing her helmet, mounted on a war-horse, clad in steel, and wielding a general' s truncheon in her hand. Nothing in Napoleon's speeches excels the simple and grand eloquence of her imperishable address to her soldiery. f " Sextus Quintus, the present Pope, famous for his capacity and his tyranny, had published a crusade against England, and had granted plenary indulgences to every one engaged in the present invasion." Hume. This Pope was nevertheless Elizabeth's admirer as well as foe, and said, not very cleri- cally, ' If a son could be born from us two, he would be master of the world.'' J '' Steeds of the Sea,'' was the poetic synonym for ships with the old Runic bards. 123 His sons consum'd before his zeal, The Monks are woeful in Castile ; Your Monument the Main, The glaive and gale Record your tale, Ye Thunder-Steeds of Spain ! VIII. Turn from the gorgeous Past ; Its lonely Ghost thou art ! A tree, that, in a world of bloom, Droops, spectral in its leafless gloom, Before the griding blast ; But art thou fallen then so low Art thou so desolate ? wan Shadow, No ! Crouch'd, suppliant by the Grave's unclosing portal, Love which proclaims thee human, bids thee know A truth more lofty in thy lowliest hour Than shallowest Glory taught to deafened Power, "WHAT'S HUMAN is IMMORTAL !" 'Tis sympathy which makes sublime ! Never so reverent in thy noon of Time As now when o'er thee hangs the midnight pall No comfort, Pomp ; and Wisdom no protection Hope's 'cloud-capt towers and solemn temples' gone Mid Memory's wrecks, eternal and alone, Type of the Woman- Deity AFFECTION; That only Eve which never knew a fall Sad as the Dove, but, like the Dove, surviving all ! 124 ODE II. CROMWELL'S DREAM. [The conception of this Ode originated in a popular tradition of Cromwell's earlier days. It is thus strikingly related by Mr. Forster, in his recent and very valuable Life of Cromwell : " He had laid himself down, too fatigued to hope for sleep, when suddenly the curtains of his bed were slowly with- drawn by a gigantic figure, which bore the aspect of a woman, and which, gazing at him silently for a while, told him that he should, before his death, be the greatest man in England. He remembered when he told the story, and the recollection marked the current of his thoughts, that the figure had not made mention of the word King." Alteration has been made in the scene of the vision, and the age of Cromwell.] THE Moor spread wild and far In the sharp whiteness of a wintry shroud, Midnight yet moonless ; and the winds ice-bound, And a grey dusk not darkness reign'd around, Save where the paleness of a sudden star Peer'd o'er some haggard precipice of cloud. Where on the wold, the triple pathway crost, A sturdy wanderer wearied, lone, and lost, Paus'd and gaz'd round ; a dwarf'd but aged yew O'er the wan rime its gnome -like shadow threw ; The spot invited, and by sleep opprest, Beneath the boughs he laid him down to rest. A man of stalwart limbs and hardy frame, Meet for the antique time when force was fame, Youthful in years the features yet betray Thoughts rarely mellow'd till the locks are grey ; Round the firm lips the lines of solemn wile Might warn the wise of danger in the smile ; 125 But the blunt aspect spoke more sternly still That craft of craft THE STUBBORN WFLL : That which, let what may betide Never halts nor swerves aside ; From afar its victim viewing, Slow of speed, but sure-pursuing ; Thro' maze, up mount, still hounding on its way, Till it is grimly couch'd beside the conquered prey ! II. The loftiest fate will longest lie In unrevealing sleep ; And yet unknown the destined race, Nor yet his Soul had walk'd with Grace ; Still, on the seas of Time Drifted the ever-careless prime, But many a blast that o'er the sky All idly seems to sweep, Still while it speeds, may spread the seeds, The toils of autumn reap : And we must blame the soil, and not the wind, If hurrying passion leave no golden grain behind. III. Seize seize seize !* Bind him strong in the chain, On his heart, on his brain, Clasp the gyves of the iron Sleep. Seize seize^ seize Ye fiends that dimly sweep Up from the cloudy deep, Where Death holds ghastly watch beside his brother, * Ae, Xt, Xaft, Xafie, (seize, seize, seize). .T'schyl. Eumen. 125. 12G Ye pale Impalpables, that are Shadows of Truths afar, Prophets that men call DREAMS The phantom birth of that mysterious Mother, Who, by the Ebon Gate, Beyond the shore where Daylight streams, Sits, muttering spells for mortal slate, Young with eternal years, the Titan-Sibyl FATE ! Prophets that men call Dreams ! Seize seize seize Bind him strong in the chain, On his heart, on his brain, Clasp the gyves of the iron Sleep ! Awakes or dreams he still? His eyes are open with a glassy stare, On the fix'd brow the large drops gather chill, And Horror like a Wind stirs thro' the lifted hair*. Before him stands the Thing of Dread A Giant Shadow motionless and pale ! As those dim Lemur- Vapours f that exhale From the rank grasses rotting o'er the Dead, And startle midnight with the mocking shew Of the still, shrouded bones that sleep below So the wan image which the Vision bore Was outlined from the air, no more Than served to make the loathing sense a bond Between the World of Life, and grieslier worlds beyond. Soph. CEdip. Col. 1465. f The Lemures or Larvse, the evil spirits of the (:ead, as the Lares wen; the good. They haunted sepulchres ' loath to leave the bodies that they loved." 127 V. " Behold !" the Shadow said, and lo, Where the blank heath had spread, a smiling scene; Soft, woodlands sloping from a village green,* And, waving to blue Heaven, the happy cornfields glow : A modest roof, with ivy clustered o'er, And Childhood's busy mirth beside the door. But, yonder, sunset sleeping on the sod, Bow Labour's rustic sons in solemn prayer ; And, self-made Teacher of the truths of God, The Dreamer sees the Phantom-Cromwell there ! " Art thou content, of these the greatest Thou" Murmured the Fiend, " the Master and the Priest?" A sullen anger knit the Dreamer's brow, And from his scornful lips the words came slow, " The greatest of the Hamlet, Demon, No!" Loud laugh'd the Fiend then trembled thro' the sky, Where haply angels watch'd. a waining sigh; And Darkness swept, the scene, and golden Quiet ceas'd. VI. " Behold !" the Shadow said a hell-born ray Shoots thro' the Night, up-leaps the unblessed Day, Spring from the earth the Dragon's armed seed, The ghastly squadron wheels, and neighs the spectre-steed. * The farm of St. Ives, where Cromwell spent three years, afterwards recalled with regret though not unafflicted with dark hypochondria ar.d sullen discontent. Here, as Mr. Forster impressively observes, '< in the tenants that rented from him, in the labourers that served under him, he sought to sow the seeds of his after troop of Ironsides. . . . All the famous doctrine* of /its later and more celebrated years were tried and tested in the little farm of St. Ives. . . . Before going to their fieldwork in the morning' they (his servants) knelt down with their mast* i in the touching equality of prayer ; in the evening they shared with him again the comfort and exaltation of divine precepts." Forster's Cromwell. 1-28 Unnatural sounds the Mother-tongue As loud from host to host the English warcry rung ; Kindred with kindred blent in slaughter, lo The dark phantasma of the Prophet- Woe ! A gay and glittering band ! Apollo's lovelocks in the crest of Mars Light-hearted Valour, laughing scorn to scars A gay and glittering band, Unwitting of the scythe the Lilies of the Land ! Pale in the midst, that stately squadron boast A princely form, a mournful brow ; And still, where plumes are proudest, seen, With sparkling eye and dauntless mien, The young Achilles * of the host. On rolls the surging war and now Along the closing columns ring "Rupert" and "Charles" "The Lady of the Crownf," " Down with the Roundhead Rebels, down ! ' " St. George and England's king." A stalwart and a sturdy band, Whose souls of sullen zeal Are made by the Immortal Hand, Invulnerable steel ! A kneeling host, a pause of prayer, A single voice thrills through the air " They come. Up Ironsides ! " For TRUTH and PEACE unsparing smite ! " Behold the accurs'd Amalekite !" * Prince Rupert. Henrietta Maria was the popular watchword of the Cavaliers. The Dreamer's heart beat high and loud, For, calmly through the carnage-cloud, The Scourge and Servant of the Lord, This hand the Bible that the Sword The Phantom-Cromwell rides ! A lurid darkness swallows the array, One moment lost the darkness rolls away, And, o'er the slaughter done, Smiles, with his eyes of love, the setting Sun. Death makes our Foe our Brother ; And, meekly, side by side, Sleep scowling Hate, and sternly smiling Pride, On the kind breast of Earth, the quiet Mother ! Lo, where the Victor sweeps along, The Gideon of the gory throng, Beneath his hoofs the harmless dead The sunlight glory on his helmed head Before him steel-clad Victory bending, Around, from earth to heaven ascending The fiery incense of triumphant, song. So, as some orb above a mighty stream Sway'd by its law and sparkling in its beam, A Power apart from that tempestuous tide, Calm and aloft behold the Phantom-Conqueror ride ! " Art thou content of these the greatest Thou, " Hero and Patriot ?" murmured then the Fiend. The unsleeping Dreamer answered, " Tempter, nay, " My soul stands breathless on the mountain's brow And looks beyond /" Again swift darkness screen'd The solemn Chieftain and the fierce array, And armed Glory pass'd, like happier Peace, away. 130 VII. He looked again, and saw A chamber with funereal sables hung Wherein there lay a ghastly headless thing That once had been a king And by the corpse a living man, whose doom, Had both been left to Nature's quiet Law, Were riper for the Garner-House of Gloom.* Rudely beside the gory clay were flung A broken sceptre and an antique crown, So, after some imperial Tragedy August alike with sorrow and renown, We smile to see the gauds that mov'd our awe, Purple and orb ; in dusty lumber lie, Alas, what thousands, on the stage of Time, Envied the baubles, and revered the Mime ! Placed by the trunk with long and whitening hair By dark-red gouts besprent, the severed head Up to the Gazer's musing eyes, the while, Look'd with its livid brow and stony smile. On that sad scene, his gaze the Dreamer fed, Familiar both the Living and the Dead ; Terror, and hate, and strife concluded there, Calm in his six-feet realm-}- the monarch lay ; And by the warning victim's mangled clay * The reader will recall the well known story of Cromwell opening the coffin of Charles with the hilt of a private soldier's sword, and, after gazing on the body some time, observing calmly, that it seemed made for long lifet " Had Nature been his Executioner, He would have outlived Me !" Cromwell, a MS. tragedy, f A whole epic was in tb.e stern epigram of the Saxon when asked by the rival to his throne " What share of territory wilt thou give me ?" " Six feet of land for a grave !" 131 The Phantom-Cromwell smil'd, and bending down With shadowy fingers toy'd about the shadowy crown. " Art thou content, at last, a Greater thou " Than one to whom the loftiest bent the knee, " Brand to the False but Banner to the Free " Avenger and Deliverer !" " Fiend," replied The Dreamer, " who shall palter with the tide ? " Deliverer ! Pilots who the vessel save " Leave not the helm while winds are on the wave. " THE FUTURE is the Haven of THE Now !" " True," quoth the Fiend Again the darkness spread, And Night gave back to Air the Doomsman and the Dead ! VIII. He look'd again ; and now A lofty Senate stern with many a Form, Not unfamiliar to the former strife ; An anxious passion knit each gathered brow ; O'er all, that hush deep not serene, in life, As in the air, prophetic of wild storm. Uprose a stately shape* with dark-bright eye And worn cheek lighted with a feverish glow ; It spoke and at the aspect and the sound The Dreamer breath'd a fierce and restless sigh ; An instinct bade him hate and fear That unknown shape as if a foe were near * When Cromwell came down (leaving his musqueteers without the door) to dissolve the Long Parliament, Vane was in the act of urging through the last stage the Bill that would have saved the republic. See Forster's spirited account of this scene, Life of Vane, 152. K2 132 For, mighty in that mien of thoughtful youth, Spoke Fraud's most deadly foe a soul on fire with . Truth ; A soul without one stain Save England's hallowing tears ; the sad and starry Vane ! There enters on that conclave high A solitary Man ; And rustling thro' the conclave high A troubled murmur ran ; A moment more loud riot all With pike and morion gleam the startled hall : And there, where, since the p'rimal date Of Freedom's glorious morn, The Eternal People solemn sate The People's Champion spat his ribald scorn ! Dark moral to all ages ! Blent in one The broken fasces and the shattered throne ; The deed that damns immortally is done ; And FORCE, the Cain of Nations reigns alone ! The veil is rent the crafty soul lies bare ! " Behold," the Demon cried, " the Future Cromwell, there ! " Art thou content, on Earth the Greatest thou, " APOSTATE AND USURPER?" From his rest The Dreamer started with a heaving breast, The better angels of the human heart Not dumb to his, The Hell-Born laugh'd aloud And o'er the Evil Vision rush'd the Cloud ! ODE III THE DEATH OF NELSON, I. THE wind comes gently from the west ;* The smile is on the face of day ; And gaily o'er the ocean's breast, The breezes are at play ; Along the deep upon the foe, The sails of England bear ; Above, the busy murmurs glow,f Hush'd in the cabin, kneels below, A lonely man in prayer. He pray'd as ought to pray the brav Before the seraph- guarded throne; He pray'd to conquer and to save. The morn of that immortal strife, More anxious for a foeman's life,| Than hopeful for his own. * The wind was now from the west, light breezes, &c. Having seen that all was as it should be, Nelson retired to his cabin and wrote the following prayer, &c. Souihey's Nelson. t '' Tne busy murmur glows." Gray. I " May humanity after victory be the predominant feature in the British fleet. For myself, individually, I commit my life to Him that made me," &c. NeJson's last prayer. 134 II. He rose ; Before him glovv'd, In limned loveliness, that haunting face,* Where, through the roseate bloom of its abode Look'd out the starry soul ! Celestial, thus, Thro' sunset clouds, Idalian Hesperus, Breaks on the lover, loitering by the sea, That laves the passionate shores of soft Parthenope.f The youngest-born of the Olympian race, The Hebe of the Martyr- Demi god, Never with looks of more voluptuous light The golden Ether trod ; Slow-steaiing where at length from earth reposed. Her hero-bridegroom, as more blandly bright, Grew with her blush, the glory-purpled skies, Grim bv the throne of Zeust the Eagle closed */ T At her melodious step his charmed eyes, And worn Alcides, of his woes beguil'd, Turn'd from the whispering Mars, and Love ambrosial smil'd. III. What thoughts were his, the doomed and lonely one, Feeding the last look on that fatal face ? Did conscience darken o'er the evil done, Or deem that love so deep could be disgrace ? * A portrait of Lady Hamilton hung in his cabin. The undisguised and romantic passion with which he regarded it, amounted almost to superstition. Sou/key's Nelson. f Parthenope, the poetical name of Naples. It was in that city that Nelson first saw Lady Hamilton. J Find. Pyth. 1. I need scarcely perhaps inform even the general reader, that Zeus, in an application of Greek mythology, is a more appropriate name for thti Thunder-Goil than that of Jupiter. 135 Did that sole deed of vengeance wild and weak, Which bow'd the Warrior to the Woman's slave, Ghastly and mournful o'er his memory break ? Mark'd he the corpse, rejected by the wave, Floating once more upon the accusing sea ; The livid aspect and the snow-white hair ; The fix'd eyes fearful with a stony glare ; Life-like in death, the wrong' d Caraccioli ?* Saw he the dark-wing'd Malice cower above The doubtful bowers of his Armida-love ? Heard he the sighs which gentler spirits breathe O'er the one rose-leaf in the laurel-wreath? For Envy harmless o'er the laurel blows, But when did worm forego, or canker spare the rose ? Away ; the centered soul, in hours like these. Daunts not itself with phantom images; One voice alone is heard within the hearf, " We loved, and we must part !" Yet while the voice was heard ; and heavily Round that low cell boom'd the voice-echoing sea, As clouds obscure the unswerving planet, fast Across the luminous spirit rush'd the Past. * Prince Francesco Caraccioli was at the head of the marine ; neariy seventy years of age ; served under the Neapolitan or Parthenopsean re- public against his late Sovereign. When the recovery of Naples was evi- dently near, he applied to Cardinal Ruffo and the Duke of Calvirrano for protection, afterwards endeavoured to secret himself, was discovered in the disguise of a peasant, and carried on board Lord Nelson's ship. He was tried, found guilty, sentenced to death by hanging, the evening of his ap- prehension, the President (Count Thurn) of the court-martial was his per- sonal enemy. . . .He entreated that he might he shot in vain. It was ob- vious, says Mr. Southey, from whom this account is abridged, that Nelson was influenced by an infatuated attachment to Lady Hamilton, then on board, whose hatred against those whom she regarded the enemies of the Neapolitan IV. The Boy once more he was the lonely boy,* Dreaming oracular sounds and weird, to hear Where the Brook murmur'd in a restless joy Or asking anxious Age with wonder " What is Fear?" Away, upon the Warrior Seas, Amidst the icebergs of the death-like Main Where daylight bleaches in the dreary air ; *f- The broken frame, the fell disease And the dull anguish of the bed of pain ; The Hour when Youth first wrestles with Despair J When the far Alps of Fame, more giant seem Seen thro' the morning mists that struggle with the beam ; Court, made her forget what was due to the character ot' her sex as well as uf her country. The body was carried out to a considerable distance and sunk in the bay, with three double-headed shot, weighing '250 pounds, tied to its legs. Between two and three weeks afterwards, when the King was on board the Foudroyant, a Neapolitan fisherman came to the ship, and solemnly declared t hat Caraecioli had risen from the bottom of the sea, and was coining as fast as he could to Naples, swimming half out of the water. The day being fair, Nelson, to please the King, stood out to sea; but the ship had not proceeded far, before a body was distinctly seen upright in the wat--r, and approaching them. It was soon recognized to be, indeed, the corpse of Caraecioli, which had risen and floated, while the great weights attached to the legs kept the body in a position like that of a living man. Sottthey's Ne'son. * When a mere child he stray'd a Uird's nesting from his grandmother's house the dinner-hour elapsed -he was absent and could not be found the alarm of the family was very great, &c. At length, after search had been made for him in various direct ions, he was discovered alone sitting composedly by the side of a brook which he could not get over. " I wonder, child," said the old ladyj when she saw him, " that hunger and fear did not drive you home.' " Fear/' replied the future hero, " I never saw Fear, what is it ? " Ibid. t The voyage of discovery towards the North Pole, in which Nelson served. ''The sky was generally loaded with hard white clouds, from which it was never entirely free, even in the clearest weather." Ibid, t "The disease baffled all power of rmdicine ; he was reduced almost to 137 Till sudden o'er the spiritual eye there broke The Radiant Orb of the to-come Renown, And from the nightmare-sleep, prophetic woke Genius which is but Hope to Action grown, And hail'd in Titan crags the footstool to its throne ! Yet ever in that high career What stinging Doubts pursued ! Hiss'd Hydra Envies in his ear And, round the steps of bleeding Toil, The creeping things that clog the soil, And, while they cumber, wound, in thorny fetters coil. O Fountain heard afar but rarely view'd, As the Hart panteth for the water-brook, So, in the burning waste doth Glory look For thy life-giving well, melodious Gratitude ! V. Fast, flashing, like the phosphor gleam Upon the southern seas; Shine, rippling o'er his waking dream, The vvavelike memories. They rush'd the triumphs of that crowded life The hot Delight of Strife. skeleton ; the use of his limbs was for some time entirely lost, &c. * * * Long afterwards, when the name of Nelson was known as widely as that of England itself, he spoke of the feelings which he at this time endured. " I felt impressed," said he, " with a feeling that I should never rise in my profession. My mind was staggered with a view of the difficulties I had to surmount. I could discover no means of reaching the object of my ambition. After a long and gloomy reverie, in which I almost wished to throw myself overboard, a sudden glow of patriotism was kindled within me, &c." From that time he often said, a radiant orb was suspended in his mind's eye, which urged him onward to renown." Ibiil. 138 The Nile's avenging day, Aboukir's reddening Bay, The thunder-sceptre ravish'd from the Gaul, They rush'd the visions and the victories ; The swarming streets the festive hall ; A nation's choral and sublime acclaim ; And as the air with one orb's arrowy light, Earth radiant with one name ! From these he turn'd to holier thoughts, away, Sad with the wisdom of the Preacher's song ; For he had felt how loud applauses die, As custom hacknies to the vulgar eye The Fame, not so the Wrong ! For Slander is the echo of Repute, And strikes from hill to hill when Glory's tromp is mute. To the calm spot in this loud world, he turn'd Where laugh'd the eyes too young his loss to weep ; Oh, how, once more, the boding Father yearn'd To watch one fair face in the happy sleep, As, when (that parting hour) in pious care By his child's couch he knelt* she did not hear his prayer ! VI. The Phantom shapes are flown ! As ghosts before the day, The unsubstantial memories glide away, Into their closing grave. * Horatia Nelson Thompson, believed to be his daughter, and so indeed he called her the last time that he pronounced her name. The last minutes which Nelson passed at Merton were employed in praying over this child as she lay sleeping. Sou/key's Nelson. 139 The Hour has claimed its own ! Aloft, the hurrying tread, the gathering hum ; Around, the brightening sky, the fresh'ning water More near and near the fated squadrons come Fast o'er the dread suspense rushes the storm of slaughter And the heart bounds forth from its gloom, Over the tides of its solemn doom, As the hero's bark, when the rousing gale Shakes the sullen sleep from its gladdening sail, Bounds over the roaring wave ! VII. Hurrah ! hurrah ! from wave to sky, Arose the Sea-Queen's signal-cry ; From heart to heart electric ran Those words of simple beauty, ENGLAND EXPECTS THAT EVERY MAN THIS DAY SHALL DO HIS DUTY ! VIII. Full on the foe the sunbeams shine, And our seamen gaze on the glittering line, Thirty and three, their numbers be, Like giants they stride thro' the groaning sea. Our seamen gazed with a glad delight Ne'er had they seen such a goodly sight ; Then they glanc'd at each other, and " Oh," they said, " How well they will look at our own ' Spithead.' "* * The sun shone on the sails of the enemy, and their well-formed line, with their numerous three-deckers, made an appearance which any other assailants would have thought formidable. But the British sailors only admired the beauty and the splendour of the spectacle ; and, in full confidence of winning what they saw, remarked to each other, ' What a fine sight yonder ships would make at Spithead !" Ibid. 140 IX. At the head of the line goes the " Victory"* With Nelson on the deck ; And on his breast the orders shinef Like the stars on a shattered wreck. For ruthless had the lightning been That flash'd from the stormy fame ; And only spar'd the laurels, green J O'er the rents of the ruin'd frame. " Look out, look out," cried Nelson, " see (For so the fight began) " How ' the Sovereign' steers thro' the Frenchman's line " Astern of the Santa Ann." " Look out, look out," cried Collingwood, As he burst thro' the Frenchman's line, " If Nelson cou'd, in our place have stood, " And have been but here, the first to steer " Thro' the midst of the Frenchman's line."|| Now from the fleet of the foemen past Ahead of " the Victory," A four-deck'd ship with a flagless mast An Anak of the sea His gaze on the ship, Lord Nelson cast, " Oho, my old friend," quoth he, * " The Victory," Nelson's ship. \ He wore that day, as usual, his admiral's frock coat, bearing ou the left breast four stars of the different orders with which he was invested. Southey'* Nels'm. J I need scarcely observe that according to the poetical superstition of the ancients the lightning never scathed the laurel. The Royal Sovereign, commanded by Collingwood. |] "What would Nelson give to be here !" said Collingwood. delighted at being first in the heat of the fire. Southey^s Nelson. 141 " Since again we have met, we must all be glad To pay our respects to the Trinidad !"* Full on the bow, of the giant foe, Our gallant " Victory" runs ; Thro' the dark'ning smoke, the thunder broke O'er her deck from a hundred guns : But we answered not, b'y a single shot, Though our booms and the maintop fell, Until we were suited with two to one, For we liked the odds we had always won. Here, to the left, at length we had The saint of the ocean Trinidad ; There, to the right, loom'd the bulky might Of the grim Redoutable. Then out in her pride, and from either side Spoke the wrath of the " Victory." Cries Hardy, " My Lord, we must run on board "One of their braggarts to break the line, " Which shall it be ?" Saith our King of the Sea, (And we heard through the roar his careless voice,) " It matters not much, you may take your choice."-)- So the helm to port ; O'er the bounding brine With a shout we burst, where the shot came worst From the grim Redoutable. As swarms of bees on the summer trees, Her tops were filled with the Tyrolese, J And their bullets came with a dastard aim * The Santissima Trinidad, Nelson's old acquaintance as he used to call her, was distinguishable only by her four decks. t " Take your choice, Hardy, it does not signify much." Sou t hey' t Nelson. J "Her tops, like those of all the enemy's ships, were filled with rifle- men (the Tyrolese)." Southry's Nelion. 142 Round the mark which the Brave would have deemed divine ; Where, o'er the gentlest heart that e'er Bade carnage cease or conquest spare, The stars of glory shine. On the other side of the foeman prest Our dauntless Temeraire ; Boarded in turn- for the ships were four, And the huge guns plied with a slackened roar, As, breast to breast, the vessels rest, We fought like landsmen there ! The Redout able no more replied To our guns