ELDRED Nay, think not so: come, let me raise you up: [Raises him.] This is a dismal place--well--that is well-- I was too fearful--take me for your guide And your support--my hut is not far off. [Draws him gently off the stage.] SCENE--A room in the Hostel--MARMADUKE and OSWALD MARMADUKE But for Idonea!--I have cause to think That she is innocent. OSWALD Leave that thought awhile, As one of those beliefs which in their hearts Lovers lock up as pearls, though oft no better Than feathers clinging to their points of passion. This day's event has laid on me the duty Of opening out my story; you must hear it, And without further preface.--In my youth, Except for that abatement which is paid By envy as a tribute to desert, I was the pleasure of all hearts, the darling Of every tongue--as you are now. You've heard That I embarked for Syria. On our voyage Was hatched among the crew a foul Conspiracy Against my honour, in the which our Captain Was, I believed, prime Agent. The wind fell; We lay becalmed week after week, until The water of the vessel was exhausted; I felt a double fever in my veins, Yet rage suppressed itself;--to a deep stillness Did my pride tame my pride;--for many days, On a dead sea under a burning sky, I brooded o'er my injuries, deserted By man and nature;--if a breeze had blown, It might have found its way into my heart, And I had been--no matter--do you mark me? MARMADUKE Quick--to the point--if any untold crime Doth haunt your memory. OSWALD Patience, hear me further!-- One day in silence did we drift at noon By a bare rock, narrow, and white, and bare; No food was there, no drink, no grass, no shade, No tree, nor jutting eminence, nor form Inanimate large as the body of man, Nor any living thing whose lot of life Might stretch beyond the measure of one moon. To dig for water on the spot, the Captain Landed with a small troop, myself being one: There I reproached him with his treachery. Imperious at all times, his temper rose; He struck me; and that instant had I killed him, And put an end to his insolence, but my Comrades Rushed in between us: then did I insist (All hated him, and I was stung to madness) That we should leave him there, alive!--we did so. MARMADUKE And he was famished?