BEGGAR Yes, to my sorrow--under the great oak At Herbert's door--and when he stood beside The blind Man--at the silent Girl he looked With such a look--it makes me tremble, Sir, To think of it. OSWALD Enough! you may depart. MARMADUKE (to himself) Father!--to God himself we cannot give A holier name; and, under such a mask, To lead a Spirit, spotless as the blessed, To that abhorrèd den of brutish vice!-- Oswald, the firm foundation of my life Is going from under me; these strange discoveries-- Looked at from every point of fear or hope, Duty, or love--involve, I feel, my ruin. ACT II SCENE--A Chamber in the Hostel--OSWALD alone, rising from a Table on which he had been writing. OSWALD They chose _him_ for their Chief!--what covert part He, in the preference, modest Youth, might take, I neither know nor care. The insult bred More of contempt than hatred; both are flown; That either e'er existed is my shame: 'Twas a dull spark--a most unnatural fire That died the moment the air breathed upon it. --These fools of feeling are mere birds of winter That haunt some barren island of the north, Where, if a famishing man stretch forth his hand, They think it is to feed them. I have left him To solitary meditation;--now For a few swelling phrases, and a flash Of truth, enough to dazzle and to blind, And he is mine for ever--here he comes. [Enter MARMADUKE.] MARMADUKE These ten years she has moved her lips all day And never speaks! OSWALD Who is it? MARMADUKE I have seen her. OSWALD Oh! the poor tenant of that ragged homestead, Her whom the Monster, Clifford, drove to madness. MARMADUKE I met a peasant near the spot; he told me, These ten years she had sate all day alone Within those empty walls. OSWALD I too have seen her; Chancing to pass this way some six months gone, At midnight, I betook me to the Churchyard: The moon shone clear, the air was still, so still The trees were silent as the graves beneath them. Long did I watch, and saw her pacing round Upon the self-same spot, still round and round, Her lips for ever moving. MARMADUKE At her door Rooted I stood; for, looking at the woman, I thought I saw the skeleton of Idonea. OSWALD But the pretended Father--