Now go! Now go!--Yes, kiss me through the bars: My kiss shall help to win the battle. Go! [He kisses her, and goes out. The scene closes. SCENE II.--The Scottish Camp at Bamwckburn. Bruce in his tent at night. Bruce. This drowned and abject mood; this sodden brain; This broken back; this dull insanity, That mopes and broods and has no thought at all; This dross, that, in exchange for molten gold Of madness thrice refined, were hell for heaven; This flabby babe; this hare; this living death; This sooty-hued, cold-blooded melancholy! We know it for a subtle, potent lie-- A vapour, a mere mood! But when it comes, Stealing upon us like unwelcome sleep In high festivity, we've no more power To shake our souls alive, than if we'd drunk Of Lapland philtres,--muddy brew of hell! When we, like beakers brimmed with wine, are full Of living in the hand of God, there strikes Some new divine idea through His brain, And in the careless instant we are spilled To be replenished never: so we feel. We feel? How hard it is to fix the mind! Only less hard than to withdraw it. Sleep? No; not to-night. Heart, faithless heart, grow strong. Ay, now I have remembrance of a thought A dear breath whispered making wisdom sweet. "Husband," she said, "when faith is strong in you, Then only have you any right to think, To judge, to act." And kissed me then, as if Her healing truth had need of honey! O, Love with its simple glance can pierce the night, When drowsy sages at their tapers nod! I will not trust myself but when self-trust Is buoyant in me. And I surely know to-morrow's battle finds one soul sufficient.-- I wonder how my wife is! Have these years, These days, these hours--it is the hours that tell-- Dealt kindly with her in her nunnery? Poor lady! She is gentle, delicate-- A lute that can respond to nothing harsh. If she be shattered by this heavy stroke Of separation! I, with sinewy strings, Endure the constant quivering---- Enter Guard. What now? Guard. The leaders wait without, your majesty. Bruce. Is it that time? Well, bid them enter. Enter Edward Bruce, Douglas, Randolf, and Walter the Steward.