Act the Fourth. The Trial.
SCENE ONE. IN AN ALLEYWAY.
Adolph
Is this the place, as I have ordered to be sought?
Guardian
It is. This is the market-place for what you seek.
Adolph
Go away then. I shall speak alone to him.
[Exit Guardian.]
Meet me thus, man, you know my business here.
Assassin
I know well.
Adolph
You deal in death, as I am assured?
Assassin
Ay, silently and swiftly. I offer myself as instrument
of destiny. Admit me to thine conspiracy, I am your man.
Adolph
Conspiracy? Speakest not the word, I know not of any.
Assassin
Give it another name, it is the same deed and sin.
Adolph
That you should speak of sin that doth sell it.
Assassin
In equal measure doth share the commissioner.
Adolph
Will thy undertake it?
Assassin
Speak, I am henceforth silent.
Adolph
There is a man who must be finished: I shall point you
to his house. He has taken up an old habit, of taking
soothing drug by means of pierc’d vein. Be opportune,
and replace the vial with a poison swift and painless,
that in his death he may not be known to his household,
but seem to have by vexation of the heart been dispatched.
Herein is thine liquid dagger.
[Hands him to vile.]
Are you satisfied?
Assassin
And should the household be stirr’d?
Adolph
I give thee free rein and trust in your course of judgment.
Assassin
Be wary to give myself so free a rein.
Adolph
Have it done, without discovery, thus is my charge.
Fifty thousand now, and fifty when I see the man in ground.
You shall strike tomorrow, led there by my journey
to inform him of an affair already decided. When I leave,
then you do thine work, and quickly, before the hour is out.
Assassin
What is his name?
Adolph
His name is Nobody. You musn’t know it.
Assassin
My next word shall be the act. Adieu.
[Exit Assassin.]
Adolph
Guardian! Take me hence from this place.
SCENE TWO. THE COURT-HOUSE.
Francis
Denied! All assistance denied! How dare they!
Gray
From what I heard, Chadwick was tardy to the council,
and now all falls through. We are truly doomed, now
that no one wished to execute the Secretary’s pleas.
Only Nestor and Benedict sought to give us coin.
Francis
Nestor for he is wise, Benedict for he is greedy.
See him there, in the tribune? He has his lawyers
ready to do their gory work. Damn them all!
They shall still see their stupidity be their fall.
Grey
Boy, are you servant of Chadwick?
Servant
Ay, as I live.
Grey
Shall he witness to these gross proceedings?
Servant
He is unwell, good Sir.
Grey
Unwell truly, in his mind.
Bailiff
All rise! The Justice approaches the bench of law.
[All stand.]
Konrad
I am an unhappy man, that I have been chosen
to preside over such at trial, as there have been none,
and as shall never be again. The motions, counselors?
Counselor
Your honor, we have none on behalf of the money-house.
Konrad
How can you not?
Counselor
No one has obliged to assist our client, thus these
proceeding must be turned into a true bankruptcy.
Konrad
Hath the Court the power to judge an Empire?
Is there anyone to purchase thus the ruins thereof?
Counselor
Your honor, it is within the scope and jurisdiction
that the case be tried, and by your ruling dispos’d.
As for the remains, none but Benedict’s bank arises.
Konrad
Prithee, is this true?
Francis
The counselor doth not lie, being as he is under oath.
Konrad
I sense you did not need my judgment, where thou
has resolv’d the controversy. What is the proposal?
Benedict
Two thousand millions beforehand, to be placed
in the trust of the Court, to purchase what good parts
remain of the money-house: its citadel in the city,
responsible daughter-banks, and in exchange for this,
that the present burden of obligation and remaining
privileges be subsumed within my bank-house,
with all the rights of operation in their former office.
Konrad
Is there no response to such a bargain as this?
Counselor
There is none, Your Honor, that the law permits.
The whole is insolvent, and thus must be by whatever
water there is, poisoned even, be made to flow again.
We object not, as the corpse cannot object to its desecration.
Benedict
Shall then the contract be sealed, and the affair ended?
Konrad
This is not justice! This in no way can be precedent.
How can it be, that once the envy of the world is now
divvied up, into choice and uncouth parts alike,
the work of so many, a legacy once judged too great
to challenge, laid low at the feet of blinded Themis?
She doth not see the former majesty of her victim,
once so nobly enrobed, yet having mortgaged ermine
in its greed for greater than its lion-share of wealth.
But she must consider what she heareth, and thus raise
her sword when God decrees it, to thus cleave head
once crown’d by laurel leaf, from a beggar’s body
made sickly lean. Thus I too, must follow writ decree:
yes, even to you, Benedict, belongs the right by law,
and this master I must obey, and place my seal upon
so awful a bond. To judge the merits of these times
a more perfect Intelligence, and Omnipresent eye
is necessary to weigh who ought profit and who ought
fail. Till then, all is cut wholesale, and placed in your power.
Benedict
Shall thine Justice pronounce the sentence?
Konrad
It is ordered, decreed, and adjudged as it is writ.
Francis
Let me speak, high justice, even for the record’s sake.
Benedict
It cannot be permitted! You are bound by rule!
Counselor
There is a precedent...
Konrad
And it is my right to permit exception. Speak thus.
Francis
There is no remedy that remains in law, ‘tis true,
not in law, at least, which by human mind is writ,
moved, and tested in this hall of justice. But there are
other courts, both above and below, that doth restore
the sight to the blind nymph, by divine grace and touch.
Let me permit now to call forth from such a place,
a winged angel, Truth is its name, a bailiff commanding
not w
ith chain and dungeon, but holding sway upon
this theater of human affairs with mob and just revenge.
All knows well, yet none admits, the profit which by
questioned means we hath gained...
Counselor
My lord!
Francis
Toucheth me not.
Benedict
This is outrage! Let it be struck thus by the scribe.
Konrad
I shall let it stand. Finish thine oratory.
Francis
Yea, the world know it was robbed by perverse instruments,
where homes and poverty became as tools by which to make
from ether money, and from desperation greater evil than
did before infest the cities of the land, which did of late
so clearly swallow up next twenty years of honest family work,
the futures of children, the legacies of old, all around the globe.
Konrad
Did you comply in this?
Counselor
Benedict
Did by such a sly admission seek to thus attach attack to me?
Francis
Thy shall not separate the stink from rotting flesh, boy.
Benedict
I demand justice!
Konrad
For thy insolence thy shall enjoy none. In this he is protected
by freedom of speech, and all other fundamental laws.
Perhaps even this is how Heaven desires to begin its work
upon those who cannot be bound even by the law that
createth them. They are as the treasonous child, which
finding itself in the power of youth, abuse it thus and bind
their parent in shameful slavery to their whim. But their
dread tyranny is watcheth in silence by the Lord, Who thus
in equal measure leads the evil into old age, a slow decay.
They receive abuse in equal measure as they so freely gave,
and at last even death doth speed them to answer before
the ultimate Court, if they not plead honest mercy, for
every stubborn offense, every displeasing transaction
that ever took place, every curse with lick of flame repaid.
Go now, enjoy thy flower of newfound rule, Benedict,
in time I think you shall find yourself before another judge.
This Court is adjourned and dissolveth, Adieu.
SCENE THREE. THE CHAPEL.
Adam
The bells... as yet when I was young I would hear
the same blessed bells chiming the late hour,
gently joining the whole chorus of the nightingales
in their evening-son betwixt the twigs of oak and maple.
A night so pleasant, yet troubled by the strange chill
that about my soul swirls, the fear of an ill ending.
Let me pray then, beneath the gaze of Mother and Lord.
Father Andrew
Adam?
Adam
Who calls me in the night, a voice familiar?
Father Andrew
It is I.
Adam
Ghostly father! May the Lord Jesus be glorified!
Father Andrew
For ever and ever, my dear son. What brings thee
to thy Father’s house?
Adam
It is naught Father, but
a stirring of the sprit, which draws old and young
alike to where they were baptized, and oft-witnessed
bread and wine to Holy God transformed in Mass.
Father Andrew
Yet I read in thy face another longing, which here
you seek satisfied.
Adam
A worry, Father, for dear friend.
Father Andrew
Is he unwell? Bid me speed to him with holy oils,
to strengthen him with gifts of grace! Or should I
set up holy tribunal of mercy, even in thine friend’s
home, that he may be restored to blameless state?
Adam
He is tired, and perhaps his employ is in jeopardy.
Remedy, it seems, is to ask holy Joseph for intercession.
Chadwick is his name. But no, I feel another worry,
as if some great doom be approaching, with death.
Father Andrew
Be at peace. All must be prepared at appointed hour
to bear their cross, which serves as bridge to Heaven!
It is said that the bless’d souls, ascending from this world
in such fashion fulfill the divine judgment of their life,
that all their sorrows, pains, and holy works into cross
heavy and wide are fashioned, and bit by bit pieces
are cut, according to the false comforts and unholy
liberties they were want to keep in life, unrepented.
Thus, the come at last to chasm, across which lies
the homeland of Paradise, but within the hot hole
lies portal to the prison of the damned. They who are
holy and worthy of speedy progression, lay their burden
across the chasm, and make their easy way to God’s
eternal presence. Those still wanting in perfection
see their cross not make it and fall, but get instead lodged
upon the narrowing walls, in some crag. Then they must
climb down, in full torturous heat of the environ, until
they at last touch the wood, then cross and climb again,
by such efforts made to cleanse the spirit. Yet the damned
arrive at the edge of this cauldron, and seeing nothing
in their hands, having cast aside their bridges long ago,
madly laugh and jump, enjoying for moment the fall,
till they taste eternal despair, being made slave forever.
Adam
Should not, good Father, after so long a progression
of holy souls, be there so great a mass of sacred wood
as to completely clog the mouth of hell, and make it easy
for the blessed dead to make their way across to Heaven?
Father Andrew
Didst thou consider the burn and heat which would
set fire to wood so long hanging above hell’s doorstep.
Adam
Ay, Father, my reason is satisfied with the allegory.
Father Andrew
But, where was I? Ah, yes, my spiritual son.
The ready Christian ever bears his cross, even
as God desires us to prepare for tribulation with
forethought. Come then, wash yourself clean of sin.
Adam
Thus, Father, let me confess. Are we alone.
Father Andrew
None but us and the Lord God.
Adam
It has thus been two weeks since confession.
I have been lax in prayer, disagreeable to others,
angry and wanting in compassion, disobedient.
Father Andrew
What else, my son?
Adam
And, I have despaired of late, on unknown account.
Father Andrew
For safety of Chadwick?
Adam
Nay, that I have failed to save him from himself.
Father Andrew
Has evil been accomplished on his part by your fault?
Adam
I know not. He has been at his house all day, undisturbed.
Father Andrew
It is there I find the source of your torment.
Go then, as penance pray for Chadwick, pray
for your family. Are you repentant for thine sins?
Adam
All I give to God, with begging for healing,
and a contrite heart waiting to be mended by Christ.
Fat
her Andrew
Through my sacred office, I give thee pardon
and holy absolution in the Name of the Father
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Adam
Amen.
Father Andrew
I shall leave thee at peace to begin thy prayer.
Adam
Be blessed always, Father.
Father Andrew
Adieu, and Godspeeed.
[Adam approaches the altar.]
Christ! O Christ! That I should see you there, hanging
upon the rude, unhewn wood of the Cross! Such love,
even in the face of such brutality! You knoweth, Creator,
the sufferings of Thine children, and thus never delay
to speed to the aid of the repentant thieves, the despis’d
collectors, if they by contrite heart and hand join to
Thine saving Passion! Even to Dismas, the knave,
when compelled by the insults of the evil criminal,
by the tears Your Mother shed, by Thy own meekness
as the Paschal Lamb, at his justice You did grant
admission at Thine side to the fields of Paradise!
Be thus willing, to receive my worship, and even
as I kneel in another’s place, receive the offering
of my brother’s spirit. I place him and his destiny
in Thine Hands, You Who have power to change
everything, save the wills of Man Whom you willed
be free to render Thee honest love and obedience.
I trust Thy Wounds, as I do nothing else in the world,
more than the words of my mother, the good example
of my father, for Thine Word and Act is in all perfect.
Even as the mind is lately haunted by strange premonition
of death fast approaching on its silent wing, it is the better
that in such dread a matter I walk in Thine footsteps,
You, Deathless Lord, who allowed thus for Adam’s sin
final expulsion, to be limited and humiliated even onto
hell’s dark domain, and thus to liberate the just of old.
But in splendid flesh transform’d You wrought a new
Creation, and a new end for Man, that he may enjoy
as domain and homeland far above Eden’s pleasures
Heaven’s unbroken gaze upon Thine lovely Face.
God, keep me safe. Even in the night protect me,
but in all I submit to your Will, ever right and holy. Amen.
Act the Fifth. The Death.
SCENE ONE. CHADWICK’S TOWN-HOUSE.
Kate
You are awake, Chadwick. Bless you, for I thought
some awful pestilence or aching of the brain hath
seized you, and stolen your mind away from us.
Chadwick
Ay, some disease now dispatch’d by sound sleep.
What is the hour? Is it the morn?
Kate
It is the night. You were bound all day by fever.
Chadwick
Did anyone call upon my service?
Kate
Many a time...
Chadwick
Speakest then not, I have not power to return to the hour.
Kate
Rise, and bless Julian with good night. Tomorrow
is that holy day for which he hath prepared both mind
with tenets of Holy Faith and spirit with first confession.
Chadwick
It is thus tomorrow? So sorrowful, that in all the bloody
troubles of the days I should forget such a day of joy.
Kate
Then make amend by speaking to him with father’s love.
Chadwick
I shall.
[Enter Julian’s bedchamber.]
Son? Has sleep alighted upon thine weary eye already?
I seek not to rouse it by my speech, and disquiet you.
Julian
I am here, Father, and I am awake.
Chadwick
Thou has done thine duty?
Julian
To God and to mother’s command alike.
Chadwick
Let me smell thine breath. You lie not on the second.
Julian
And on the first I am truthful!
Chadwick
Ah, bless thee, I simply jest with thee. I know you
are honest, gentle, and kind, a son far unworthy
for myself to have sired. But God is so pleased
to place you in my care, and I must not disappoint.
Julian
Why do you so discount your fatherly affections?
I love thee, and you love me more. I merely wish
that my first Communion with the Lord should have
in Easter’s glow have occurred, with all the others.
Chadwick
There was good reason and dispensation for the same.
But you will not be alone. Were there not too other boys
and three girls, who by reason of illness or other misfortune
were not admitted to kneel at the rail in May-time Saturday?
Julian
‘Tis true.
Chadwick
Thou shalt enjoy the blessing and merriment of tomorrow.
Julian
Father, why has thou not tasted the Body of our Savior
all these years in holy Church?
Chadwick
Oh, my child. Unworthy
am I, and to by unworthy heart blaspheme Sacred Heart
of Christ, I should find myself in even greater sin.
Julian
Today I hath confessed what wrongs I have done in
eight years since baptism-day. And holy Father Andrew
hath taught God’s mercy dissolves all darkness of the soul,
be it blackest sin. Father! Would tomorrow you share in
the feast of the soul, having made yourself ready in grace?
Chadwick
If there shall be time opportune, perhaps. But, if you
so press, let me fulfill a portion of my vow now, to
give thee sound advice on how to live a Christian life.
Julian
Teach me, Father.
Chadwick
All the beggars in the streets – you know who they hide?
Julian
Who they hide?
Chadwick
They hide Christ. In tattered rags he sleeps upon the roads,
waits in cold till some just person, moved by pity and love,
doth embrace him in warmness, grants him morsel to eat.
Thus He remembers, and by thine actions he shall judge thee.
Take care to always be generous to the poor, even if fortune
should decree some great calamity cause thee loss of everything.
Julian
The poor thus shall always be within my heart.
Chadwick
Be kind to thine Mother, for she is higher than angel, a happy
and holy guardian sent to watch over me. Never admit thine
hand to accomplish theft or murder, for it hath been spoken
thus a man causes his spirit to bleed grace, and die in fire
of his own making. And then, to thine own destiny be true,
or God shall so steer the course of life to make you bear
willingly or unwillingly that which must be borne for thy good.
Julian
Never would I think be in such state as to steal or hurt.
Chadwick
Ay, my son! Even Peter hath raised the rude sword against
Malchus, and caused him injury where before he was unstained
by blood drawn in violence. Only by Jesus’ command did he
withdraw the weapon, and thus preserved his innocence in this.
The Lord, as you remember, did reverse the injury that was suffer’d.
Julian
Thus let my heavenly Mother’s gaze ever stay such passion
within me.
Chadwick
Oh Julian, should you know how much thine simplicity
and blamelessness doth have power to convert even the hardest
of hearts!
Julian
Speak, Father, for I see thine countenance washed with tears.
Chadwick
Mark it not. It is merely sign of inspiration at thine sight,
and thought of tomorrow’s day, wondrous as it shall be.
Julian
I bid thee goodnight, my Father. Bless me.
Chadwick
God almighty, bless this my boy, unworthy as I am.
I seal my blessing with kiss upon his golden brow.
Goodnight, my son.
[Exits the room.]
I feel again, the fever gripping me.
Kate
Let me tend to you, my dear husband.
Chadwick
Holy creature! That I have thee for a wife!
No, go on, let me rest a while. ‘Tis all well.
Let us share not bed tonight, lest I make thee ill.
Kate
Goodnight, my dear Chadwick.
Chadwick
Goodnight.
[Exit Kate.]
SCENE TWO. CHADWICK’S TOWN-HOUSE.
Good night, is it truly? Even as world may collapse,
if but this house be preserv’d, I shall live and rejoice.
Here is a rich granary of love, stored up and true,
which no insolent maggot can touch, or some pest
burrow within and feast away, leaving none.
Yet I feel, as if by some ray of sacred prophesy
that even tonight my life shall be demanded.
Life! Death! Scarlet mark of Cain writ upon
my right hand, the face of poor Maurice is thrust
upon the darkness of closed eyelid, that lifeless victim
for which high Heaven’s justice shall not rest,
nor shall the devil cease its awful clamor, seeing
already within the compass of its claw my immortal part.
These visions! I feel them as if the cold hand upon
my back of some frightful adversary, ready to mark
and make ready the final blow of dagger in the chest.
Where is the milk of Morepheus? Perhaps the elixir
will give these pains relief as I know not waking.
[Bell rings.]
Whoso enters the house at such an hour?
Adolph
Admit me, good Chadwick. Precious Kate,
let not the man that seeketh be left unsatisfied.
Kate
So late an hour you doth make your visitation?
Do you bring timely news, good or bad, which
cannot bear to wait till it seeth the ray of day?
Adolph
Ay, Madam, this is my reason and excuse.
Shall I disturb Chadwick?
Kate
He hath been enraptured by a fever, and still yet
he has withdrawn to the couch of rest, his mind
weakened by miasma, and his limbs unwilling to move.
Chadwick
Good eve, Adolph. Speaketh quickly that I may
to my healing slumber return, unburdening you
of the duties you must render onto me.
Adolph
Today was trial and judgment, and we were purchased.
Chadwick
Quicken not my heart with strange vexations.
Adolph
I wish it were a lie, some sort of fantasy, but ‘tis true,
as the stars doth hang in sky and this house stands.
Chadwick
Then, is it all lost?
Adolph
Surely, you cannot think you shall be made useless?
By such fine intellect and measured action that is yours,
surely the new master shall not be offended, but find
its proper place and use.
Chadwick
Whom shall I call, the man
so raised as to lord over me, a past and future servant?
Adolph
Benedict.
Chadwick
Say no more. I am ill and must rest. Goodnight.
[Chadwick returns to bedchamber.]
Adolph
Goodnight, Chadwick. Kate, I beg thine pardon.
bedridden as he is. But I was impressed by higher
command, to bid him stay and come no more.
Benedict desired that he should stay himself
from bank-house, and seek acceptance in another.
I have not the heart to tell him thus, but so harsh
and so vile a decree I could not stop, exerting
every favor and every power I could, to save Chadwick.
Kate
It was to be done. Such taxing news. Goodnight, Adolph.
Assassin
The fatal vile has been taken up by the man. He was
the same who bid me hide and dissolve the boy’s remains.
Within minute’s breath my task is done. I must be but a shadow.
Julian
A man, Mother! An apparition enfleshed!
Assassin
Silence, boy, and taste the blade.
[The Assassin strikes.]
Julian
Ay, Mother, Father!
[Julian dies.]
Kate
My child! Is there a nightmare that disturbs thee?
Silence? It was such a ghastly tremor that did shake
my heart with my little boy’s cry. Is Chadwick already
so fast made to sleep, or so weaken’d that he not hear?
I shall see the two together as they draw their rest.
Assassin
She doth climb the stairs, and I shall again be compelled
to exchange death for an glance upon my face. Where to fly?
Kate
Chadwick? Doth sleepest? My word stirs not.
What of my boy?
Ah! Almighty God, he lieth dead!
Julian! What ruthless demon ope’d wide thy neck
and spilled thy youthful blood upon the floor?
Chadwick! Chadwick! Witness, Jesus Christ!
Chadwick!
Awake thee, Chadwick! What is this?
Why is thine body cold, thine eye revealed yet dull,
and thy limbs, just an hour hence myself embracing,
are stiff, possessed to be as stone by death’s touch!
And, beside? A needle still glistening with blood!
Do these crimes have two authors in their doing,
or one hateful hand behind both lies? Murder!
To the world I scream: blood and murder!
[Opens the window.]
Blood and murder! Call the guards, blood and murder!
Adolph
We are discovered! Kill her where she stands!
[Assassin shoots Kate dead.]
Assassin
Hell hath worked its horror in the night.
A holocaust as this I have not yet seen.
Truly, man, thee are curs’d or Satan incarnate.
[Exit Assassin.]
Adolph
I must fly hence.
SCENE THREE. THE STREET.
Adam
A chill has come upon the night, replacing the
sweet warmth of Indian summer’s dusk.
But at last I see the familiar signs and trees
that lead the way to Chadwick’s house.
Ah! A shadow in the night – is it but one
of the servants leaving for the night. Hail, good man!
Adolph
Hail, sir. But I am rushed to go to house my own.
Adam
I recognize the voice.
Adolph
&n
bsp; Surely, you must be mistaken.
Adam
Nay, you sound as if Adolph.
Adolph
Adam? Is that you?
Adam
Ay, in truth! What brings thee here,
to Chadwick’s neighborhood?
Adolph
Outcome of great trial I was sent to deliver.
Adam
Was it to his profit?
Adolph
Nay, it was to add to his illness.
Adam
Well then, I must speed to give him comfort,
and render well my brotherly duty as friend.
Adolph
I would go not, he is at the hour sleeping
with all his house.
Adam
Surely, not quarter hour ago were you there,
making hence within that time your journey.
I dare say he will not turn me away. Even if
I to Kate make my entreaty, she will understand.
Adolph
Do not go there.
Adam
Wherefore not, Adolph?
Adolph
He is unwell, and you shall be as well.
Adam
I shall take the risk and forge ahead.
Adolph
I cannot let you do that, Adam.
Adam
What is this?
[Adolph strikes him with dagger.]
Are thee mad and rabid?
Adolph
Not mad, but merely moderate in my actions.
Oh! If you have left him untouched, you would
have more faithfully served thy friend than when
you did oppose me, and cause that I be denied
well-earned promotion. Now my appetite was
whetted, and I has sought since to destroy you
and any opposition to my conspiracy.
[Adam strikes back.]
Striketh back?
Adam
Fiend, I knew thee always as a sly serpent,
lurking in the dark and bidding your time,
until having caught Chadwick in some trap,
you would have steered him towards destruction.
Add another lie to thy appearance, and say ‘tis false.
Adolph
False or true, it has been brought to completion.
Adam
What thou speekest?
[Adolph deals mortal wound.]
Adolph
Hah! Fool! By attention’s mishap thy has forfeit
at last the pittance of thy life. From thy gut let me see
pour forth thine life-blood, mixing as it does with dust.
Adam
Indeed, look upon thine work.
[Throws dirt into Adolph’s face.]
And see it thus repeated!
[Stabs Adolph in the chest.]
Adolph
Ha! Betwixt rib and heart you placed your blade!
But worry not: with thy mortal offense and mortal gash,
soon we shall be in same eternal place. Death of spirit
with death of body I have accomplished in thee, Adam!
Adam
Let God judge if these be His work or gross offense.
Adolph
Add blasphemy to your last words! Be merry –
I shall be the first to greet you, already granted horn
and mortal weapon by which to begin your torment.
[Adolph dies.]
Adam
God in Heaven! Receive my guilt and confession
for this sour blood! He surely cometh from Chadwick’s
home – what horror has he committed there, unscathed?
Limb has no more power to rise, seek help or witness
to what has come about ahead. A ghastly silence!
O Lord, a ghastly silence greets my prayer! Where is
my Mother? Where is my Father? Shall thy sentence
be as harsh as that of Adolph? Be merciful! Kind Lord,
I feel breath slip my being, the darkness consume
all vision. Remember us O Lord, already in thy Kingdom!
[Adam dies.]
Chorus
Thus the rampage of the evil one is checked, for now,
and men who once thought themselves coequal with
God, are brought into an even lower state than is just.
But justice of Almighty is surer than the blind and
bumbling Themis that men appeal to for vengeance,
and they who thought themselves immune to every
torturous punishment for their theft and murder
by their own hand, or mouth, by friend or enemy
are brought to ruin with their precious. Even as we
marvel with despairing eye what massacre hath
come to pass, even upon the first-born innocents,
let us question no what he hath not the power to judge.
It is here we end our tragic tale with but a prayer,
that speeds the holy just to the eternal homeland,
that the souls, encumbered in the cleansing flames,
doth relief with indulgences of many holy labors’
centuries on Earth, and which doth not reach the
damned, shut as they are from every comforting
gaze of God, and from every compassionate word
of man. Consider thus, and judge nothing else for while.
Finis.