The Piccolomini: A Play

SCENE IX.

   THEKLA (who during the last speech had been standing evidently
       lost in her reflections).
   I thank thee for the hint. It turns
   My sad presentiment to certainty.
   And it is so! Not one friend have we here,
   Not one true heart! we've nothing but ourselves!
   Oh, she said rightly—no auspicious signs
   Beam on this covenant of our affections.
   This is no theatre where hope abides
   The dull thick noise of war alone stirs here,
   And love himself, as he were armed in steel,
   Steps forth, and girds him for the strife of death.
        [Music from the banquet-room is heard.
   There's a dark spirit walking in our house.
   And swiftly will the destiny close on us.
   It drove me hither from my calm asylum,
   It mocks my soul with charming witchery,
   It lures me forward in a seraph's shape,
   I see it near, I see it nearer floating,
   It draws, it pulls me with a godlike power—
   And lo! the abyss—and thither am I moving—
   I have no power within me not to move!
      [The music from the banquet-room becomes louder.
   Oh, when a house is, doomed in fire to perish,
   Many and dark Heaven drives his clouds together,
   Yea, shoots his lightnings down from sunny heights,
   Flames burst from out the subterraneous chasms,
   And fiends and angels, mingling in their fury,
   Sling firebrands at the burning edifice. 

                        [Exit THEKLA.