Be wild and dark enough, but ye must heap

Crime upon crime?-Be ye content :-your dreams,
Your councils, and your banquetings, will yet

Be haunted by the voice which doth not sleep,

E'en though this maid be spared !—Constance, look up! Thou shalt not die.

RAIMOND.

Oh! death e'en now hath veil'd

The light of her soft beauty.-Wake, my love;

Wake at my voice!

PROCIDA.

Anselmo, lead her hence,

And let her live, but never meet my sight.

-Begone !-My heart will burst.

RAIMOND.

One last embrace!

-Again life's rose is opening on her cheek;

Yet must we part.-So love is crush'd on earth!
But there are brighter worlds!-Farewell, farewell!

(He gives her to the care of ANSELMO.) CONSTANCE (slowly recovering).

There was a voice which call'd me.-Am I not
A spirit freed from earth?-Have I not pass'd
The bitterness of death?

ANSELMO.

Oh, haste away!

CONSTANCE.

Yes! Raimond calls me.-He too is released
From his cold bondage.-We are free at last,

And all is well-Away!

And I have but to die.

Comes thy great task.

(She is led out by ANSELMO.)

RAIMOND.

The pang is o'er,

MONTALBA.

Now, Procida,

Wake! summon to thine aid

All thy deep soul's commanding energies;
For thou-a chief among us-must pronounce
The sentence of thy son. It rests with thee.

PROCIDA.

Ha! ha!-Men's hearts should be of softer mould
Than in the elder time.-Fathers could doom

Their children then with an unfaltering voice,

And we must tremble thus !-Is it not said,
That nature grows degenerate, earth being now
So full of days?

MONTALBA.

Rouse up thy mighty heart.

PROCIDA.

Aye, thou say'st right. There yet are souls which tower As landmarks to mankind.-Well, what's the task? -There is a man to be condemn'd, you say?

Is he then guilty?

ALL.

Thus we deem of him

With one accord.

PROCIDA.

And hath he nought to plead ?

RAIMOND.

Nought but a soul unstain'd.

PROCIDA.

Why, that is little.

Stains on the soul are but as conscience deems them,

And conscience may be sear'd.-But, for this sentence ! -Was 't not the penalty imposed on man,

E'en from creation's dawn, that he must die?

-It was: thus making guilt a sacrifice

Unto eternal justice; and we but

Obey Heaven's mandate, when we cast dark souls

To th' elements from amongst us.-Be it so!

Such be his doom!-I have said. Aye, now my heart
Is girt with adamant, whose cold weight doth press
Its gaspings down.-Off! let me breathe in freedom!
-Mountains are on my breast!

(GUIDO leaving the Tribunal, throws himself on the neck of RAIMOND.)

GUIDO.

Oh! Raimond, Raimond!

If it should be that I have wrong'd thee, say

Thou dost forgive me.

RAIMOND.

Friend of my young days,

So may all-pitying heaven!

(RAIMOND is led out.)

PROCIDA.

Whose voice was that?

Where is he?-gone?-now I may breathe once more In the free air of heaven. Let us away.

END OF ACT THE FOURTH.

[Exeunt omnes.