_Lew._ This sudden turn of joy perhaps. He wants rest too. Last night was dreadful to him. His brain is giddy. _Char._ Ay, never to be cured. Why, brother!--O! I fear! I fear! _Mrs. Bev._ Preserve him, heaven!--My love! my life! look at me!--How his eyes flame! _Bev._ A furnace rages in this heart--I have been too hasty. _Mrs. Bev._ Indeed!--O me! O me!--Help, Jarvis! Fly, fly for help! Your master dies else--Weep not, but fly! (_Exit Jarvis_) What is this hasty deed?--Yet do not answer me--My fears have guessed it. _Bev._ Call back the messenger. 'Tis not in medicine's power to help me. _Mrs. Bev._ Is it then so? _Bev._ Down, restless flames!--(_Laying his hand on his heart_) down to your native hell!-- there you shall rack me--O! for a pause from pain! _Mrs. Bev._ Help, Charlotte! Support him, Sir! (_To Lewson_) _Bev._ What river's this? I'll plunge, and cool me! (_Flings himself upon the ground._) O! 'tis a sea of fire!--Lift me! lift me! [_They raise him to his chair._ _Mrs. Bev._ This is a killing fight! _Bev._ (_Starting_) That pang was well. It has numbed my senses. Where's my wife? Can you forgive me, love? _Mrs. Bev._ Alas! for what? _Bev._ (_Starting again_) And there's another pang--Now all is quiet. Will you forgive me? _Mrs. Bev._ I will. Tell me for what? _Bev._ For meanly dying. _Mrs. Bev._ No--do not say it. _Bev._ As truly as my soul must answer it. Had Jarvis staid this morning, all had been well. But pressed by shame; pent in a prison; tormented with my pangs for You; driven to despair and madness; I took the advantage of his absence, corrupted the poor wretch he left to guard me, and--swallowed poison. _Mrs. Bev._ O! fatal deed! _Char._ Dreadful and cruel! _Bev._ Ay, most accursed--And now I go to my account. This rest from pain brings death; yet 'tis heaven's kindness to me. I wished for ease, a moment's ease, that cool repentance and contrition might soften vengeance. Bend me, and let me kneel. (_They lift him from his chair, and support him on his knees_) I'll pray for You too. Thou Power that mad'st me, hear me! If for a life of frailty, and this too hasty deed of death, thy justice dooms me, here I acquit the sentence. But if, enthroned in mercy where thou sitt'st, thy pity has beheld me, send me a gleam of hope; that in these last and bitter moments, my soul may taste of comfort! And for these mourners here, O! let their lives be peaceful, and their deaths happy! Now raise me. [_They lift him to the chair._ _Mrs. Bev._ Restore him, heaven! Stretch forth thy arm omnipotent, and snatch him from the grave! O save him! save him! _Bev._ Alas! that prayer is fruitless: already death has seized me. Yet heaven is gracious. I asked for hope, as the bright presage of forgiveness, and like a light, blazing through darkness, it came and cheared me. 'Twas all I lived for, and now I die. _Mrs. Bev._ Not yet!--Not yet!--Stay but a little, and I'll die too.