PAULINE. Love, sir, hath no sting. What was the slight of a poor powerless girl To the deep wrong of this most vile revenge? Oh, how I loved this man!--a serf--a slave! MEL. Hold, lady! No, not a slave! Despair is free. I will not tell thee of the throes--the struggles-- The anguish--the remorse. No, let it pass! And let me come to such most poor atonement Yet in my power. Pauline!-- PAULINE. No, touch me not! I know my fate. You are, by law, my tyrant; And I--O Heaven!--a peasant's wife! I'll work-- Toil--drudge--do what thou wilt--but touch me not! Let my wrongs make me sacred! MEL. Do not fear me. Thou dost not know me, madam; at the altar My vengeance ceased--my guilty oath expired! Henceforth, no image of some marble saint, Niched in cathedral aisles, is hallowed more From the rude hand of sacrilegious wrong. I am thy husband--nay, thou need'st not shudder!-- Here, at thy feet, I lay a husband's rights. A marriage thus unholy--unfulfill'd-- A bond of fraud--is, by the laws of France, Made void and null. To-night sleep--sleep in peace. To-morrow, pure and virgin as this morn I bore thee, bathed in blushes, from the shrine, Thy father's arms shall take thee to thy home. The law shall do thee justice, and restore Thy right to bless another with thy love. And when them art happy, and hast half forgot Him who so loved--so wrong'd thee, think at least Heaven left some remnant of the angel still In that poor peasant's nature! Ho! my mother! _Enter_ WIDOW Conduct this lady (she is not my wife; She is our guest--our honor'd guest, my mother) To the poor chamber, where the sleep of virtue Never, beneath my father's honest roof, E'en villains dared to mar! Now, lady, now I think thou wilt believe me. Go, my mother! WIDOW. She is not thy wife! MEL. Hush, hush! for mercy's sake! Speak not, but go. [_Exit_ WIDOW. PAULINE _follows, weeping--turns to look back_. All angels bless and guard her! RIP VAN WINKLE[80] WASHINGTON IRVING ACT I, SCENE I CHARACTERS: Rip Van Winkle; Derrick Von Beekman, the villain of the play, who endeavors to get Rip drunk, in order to have him sign away his property; Nick Vedder, the village innkeeper. SCENE: The village inn; present, Von Beekman, alone. _Enter_ RIP, _shaking off the children, who cling about him_