LACY Stay you behind; and when the sun is down, Light up this beacon. ONE OF THE BAND You shall be obeyed. [They go out together.] SCENE--The Wood on the edge of the Moor. MARMADUKE (alone) MARMADUKE Deep, deep and vast, vast beyond human thought, Yet calm.--I could believe, that there was here The only quiet heart on earth. In terror, Remembered terror, there is peace and rest. [Enter OSWALD] OSWALD Ha! my dear Captain. MARMADUKE A later meeting, Oswald, Would have been better timed. OSWALD Alone, I see; You have done your duty. I had hopes, which now I feel that you will justify. MARMADUKE I had fears, From which I have freed myself--but 'tis my wish To be alone, and therefore we must part. OSWALD Nay, then--I am mistaken. There's a weakness About you still; you talk of solitude-- I am your friend. MARMADUKE What need of this assurance At any time? and why given now? OSWALD Because You are now in truth my Master; you have taught me What there is not another living man Had strength to teach;--and therefore gratitude Is bold, and would relieve itself by praise. MARMADUKE Wherefore press this on me? OSWALD Because I feel That you have shown, and by a signal instance, How they who would be just must seek the rule By diving for it into their own bosoms. To-day you have thrown off a tyranny That lives but in the torpid acquiescence Of our emasculated souls, the tyranny Of the world's masters, with the musty rules By which they uphold their craft from age to age: You have obeyed the only law that sense Submits to recognise; the immediate law, From the clear light of circumstances, flashed Upon an independent Intellect. Henceforth new prospects open on your path; Your faculties should grow with the demand; I still will be your friend, will cleave to you Through good and evil, obloquy and scorn, Oft as they dare to follow on your steps. MARMADUKE I would be left alone. OSWALD (exultingly) I know your motives! I am not of the world's presumptuous judges, Who damn where they can neither see nor feel, With a hard-hearted ignorance; your struggles I witness'd, and now hail your victory.