_Man_. Hear me, hear me-- Astarte! my belovéd! speak to me: I have so much endured--so much endure-- Look on me! the grave hath not changed thee more Than I am changed for thee. Thou lovedst me 120 Too much, as I loved thee: we were not made To torture thus each other--though it were The deadliest sin to love as we have loved. Say that thou loath'st me not--that I do bear This punishment for both--that thou wilt be One of the blesséd--and that I shall die; For hitherto all hateful things conspire To bind me in existence--in a life Which makes me shrink from Immortality-- A future like the past. I cannot rest. 130 I know not what I ask, nor what I seek: I feel but what thou art, and what I am; And I would hear yet once before I perish The voice which was my music--Speak to me! For I have called on thee in the still night, Startled the slumbering birds from the hushed boughs, And woke the mountain wolves, and made the caves Acquainted with thy vainly echoed name, Which answered me--many things answered me-- Spirits and men--but thou wert silent all. 140 Yet speak to me! I have outwatched the stars, And gazed o'er heaven in vain in search of thee. Speak to me! I have wandered o'er the earth, And never found thy likeness--Speak to me! Look on the fiends around--they feel for me: I fear them not, and feel for thee alone. Speak to me! though it be in wrath;--but say-- I reck not what--but let me hear thee once-- This once--once more! _Phantom of Astarte_. Manfred! _Man_. Say on, say on-- I live but in the sound--it is thy voice! 150 _Phan_. Manfred! To-morrow ends thine earthly ills. Farewell! _Man_. Yet one word more--am I forgiven? _Phan_. Farewell! _Man_. Say, shall we meet again? _Phan_. Farewell! _Man_. One word for mercy! Say thou lovest me. _Phan_. Manfred! [_The Spirit of_ ASTARTE _disappears_. _Nem_. She's gone, and will not be recalled: Her words will be fulfilled. Return to the earth. _A Spirit_. He is convulsed--This is to be a mortal, And seek the things beyond mortality. _Another Spirit_. Yet, see, he mastereth himself, and makes His torture tributary to his will.[149] 160 Had he been one of us, he would have made An awful Spirit. _Nem_. Hast thou further question Of our great Sovereign, or his worshippers? _Man_. None. _Nem_. Then for a time farewell.