Part 9

Oh! voice of promising, voice of deceit, Utterly tear away from within me All of the beauty that seemed to reign there, Beauty so dear unto me! Stifle Within my soul the memory of her! Will that I have heard her voice never, Rejoiced in it never! Smooth out within me All of those furrows of loving That opened in me, when my bosom Was unto her words of deceiving As unto the mountain that's channelled With the streams of melting snow! Close up within me The furrow of all that hope and aspiring Wherein coursed the freshness and gladness Of all of those days of deceiving! Cancel within me all traces of her! Will it that I have heard and believed never! But if this is not to be given me, and I am the one Who heard and believed and hoped greatly, And if I adored an angel of evil, Oh! then I pray that ye both my hands sever, And hide me away in the sack of leather (Oh! do not remove it, Leonardo), And cast me into the whirling torrent, To slumber there for years seven hundred, To sleep in the depths there under the water; In the pit of the river-bed, years seven hundred, And never remember the day When God lighted the light in my eyes!

ORNELLA

Mila, Mila, 'tis the delirium, The craze of the cup of forgetfulness To console him he took from the mother.

THE CROWD

--Untie him, Iona, he is delirious. --He has taken the wine potion. --Let his mother lay him down on the settle. --Let sleep come! Let him slumber! --Let the good God give him slumber.

[IONA_ gives the standard to another and comes to _ALIGI_ to untie him._]

ALIGI

Yes, for a little while free me, Iona, So that I may lift my hand against her (No, no, burn her not, for fire is beautiful!) So that I call all the dead of my birthplace, Those of years far away and forgotten, Far, far away, far, far away, Lying under the sod, fourscore fathom, To curse her forever, to curse her!

MILA [_with a heart-rending cry_]

Aligi, Aligi, not you! Oh! you cannot, you must not.

[_Freed from the manacles, the veil withdrawn, _ALIGI_ comes forward but falls back unconscious in the arms of his mother, the older sisters and the kindred gathering around him._]

CHORUS OF KINDRED

You need not be frightened. 'T is the wine only, 'T is the vertigo seizes him. --Now the stupor falls upon him. --Now slumber, deep slumber, o'erpowers him. --Let him sleep, and may God give him peace! --Let him lie down! Let him slumber! --Vienda, Vienda, he is yours again. --From the other world both will return now. _Laus Deo! Laus Deo! Gloria Patri!_

[IONA_ puts the manacles upon _MILA'S_ wrists, who offers both arms and covers her head with the black veil, then taking the standard of Wrong-Doing he pushes her toward the crowd._]

IONA

I give to you, just people, Into your hands, Mila di Codra, The daughter of Jorio, that one Who does harm to every one. Do you perform justice upon her, And let her ashes be scattered. O Lord, save thy people. _Kyrie eleison._

THE CROWD

_Christe eleison! Kyrie eleison!_ To the fire, to the flames with the daughter Of Jorio! The daughter of Jorio! And to the fire with the Apostate Angel! To the brushheap with them! To hell-fire with them!

ORNELLA [_with full voice in majesty_]

Mila, Mila! My sister in Jesus, I kiss your feet that hear you away! Heaven is for thee!

MILA [_from within the crowd_]

The flame is beautiful! The flame is beautiful!

THE END

The University Press, Cambridge, U.S.A.