First Citizen.
Adam

And our wives the rights of the conqueror.
Hold! hold! why scatter in such haste?
Do ye not see the holy sign aloft
That makes us brothers in humanity
And companions to one goal?-

We bore the light of our faith, the law
Of love, into Asia's wilds,

That the savage millions there

Where our Savior's cradle stood

Might share sweet salvation's boon.

Know ye not this brotherly love?

First Citizen- Full many a time through honeyed words
Swift harm befell our homes.

Adam [to the knights] –

[They disperse.]

Behold, this is the accursed result

When scheming vagabonds

The sacred symbol flaunt,

And flattering the passions of the mob,

Presume unasked to lead.

Fellow knights! Until our swords

To honor fair, to praise of God,

To women's guard, to bravery,

Be sanctified,

are we in duty bound

This demon foul in constant check to hold,

That in spite of godless inclination,

He great and noble deeds may do.

That sounds well. But, Tancred, what if the people
Do but spurn thy leadership?

Where spirit is, is also victory.

Lucifer

Adam

I'll crush them to the earth!

Lucifer

And should spirit with them alike abide,
Wilt thou descend to them?

Adam

Lucifer

Why descend?
Is it not nobler to lift them up to me?
To yield for lack of fighters

The foremost place in battle, were

As unworthy as to reject a comrade

In envy of his share of victory.

Alack! how the grand idea has come to naught
For which the martyrs of the circus fought!
Is this the freedom of equality?

A wondrous brotherhood were that!

Adam- Oh, cease thy scorn! Think not that I misprize
Christianity's exalted precepts.

My being yearns for them alone!
Whoever hath the spark divine may strive;
And him who upward toils to us

With joy we surely will receive.

A sword-cut lifts him to our ranks.

But guard we must our ranks with jealous eye
Against the still fermenting chaos here.
Would that our time were already near!
For only then can we be quite redeemed
When every barrier falls—when all is pure.
And were he who set this universe in motion
Not himself the great and mighty God,

I must needs doubt the dawn of such a day.

Ye have seen, O friends, how we have been received:
Orphaned amidst the tumult of the town,

Naught now remains save in yonder grove

A tent to pitch, as we were wont among the infidels,
Till better times shall come. Go; I follow soon.
Every knight stands sponsor for his men.

[The Crusaders pitch their tent.]

Lucifer - What a pity that thy spirit's lofty flight
Even now begets such sorry fruit;
Red without, within already rotten!

Adam

Lucifer

Adam

Stop!
Hast thou no longer faith in lofty thought?
What boots it thee if I believe,
When thine own race doth doubt?
This knighthood which thou hast placed
As lighthouse amid ocean's waves,

Will yet die out, or half collapse,

And make the sailor's course even more fearful
Than before, when no light shone before his way.
What lives to-day and blessing works,
Dies with time; the spirit takes wing
And the carcass but remains, to breathe
Murderous miasmas into the fresher life
Which round him buds. Behold, thus
Survive from bygone times our old ideals.
Until our ranks dissolve, its sacred teachings
Will have had effect upon the public mind.
I fear no danger then.

Lucifer The holy teachings! They are your curse indeed,
When ye approach them unawares,

Adam

For ye turn, sharpen, split, and smooth
Them o'er so long, till they your phantoms

Or your chains become.

And though reason cannot grasp exact ideas,

Yet ye presumptuous men do always seek

To forge them to your harm.

Look thou upon this sword! It may by a hair's-breadth
Longer be or shorter, and yet remains the same

In substance. The door is opened thus to endless specula

tion;

For where is there limit pre-imposed?

'Tis true your feelings soon perceive the right
When change in greater things sets in.—

But why speak and myself exert? Speech

Is wearisome. Turn thou, survey the field thyself.
Friends, my troops are tired and shelter crave.
In the Capital of Christendom they will
Perchance not crave in vain.

Third Citizen —

Adam

Lucifer-
Adam-

Lucifer-
Adam-
Lucifer-

Adam-
Lucifer-

Adam

The question is, whether as heretics
Ye're not worse than infidels! . .

I stand aghast! But see what prince
Approaches from afar, so haughtily defiant?
The Patriarch- successor to the Apostles.
And this barefoot, dirty mob

Which follows with malicious joy
In the captive's wake,

Feigning humility?

They are monks, Christian cynics.

I saw not such among my native hills.
You'll see them yet. Slowly, slowly

Spreads the curse of leprosy;

But beware how you dare insult

This people, so absolute in virtue and
Hence so hard to reconcile.

What virtue could adorn such folk as this?
Their worth is abnegation, poverty,

As practiced first by the Master on the Cross.
He saved a world by such humility;
While these cowards, like rebels,
Do but blaspheme the name of God,
In that they despise his gift.

Lucifer

Who 'gainst gnats the weapons same would draw
That in the bear hunt he is wont to use
Is a fool.

But if they in pious zeal, perchance,
Mistake the gnats for monstrous bears,
Have they then not the right to drive
To the very gates of hell
Those who life enjoy?

Adam facing the Patriarch]—

Patriarch

Adam

Father, we're battling for the Holy Grave,
And wearied from the way which we have come,
To rest within these walls we are denied.
Thou hast power here: help thou our cause.

My son, I have just now no time for petty things.
God's glory and my people's weal

Call higher aims now forth. I must away

To judge the heretics; who, like poisonous weeds,
Do grow and multiply, and whom hell

With force renewed upon us throws,

Even though we constant try with fire and sword
To root them out.

But if indeed ye be true Christian knights,

Why seek the Moor so far remote?

Here lurks a yet more dangerous foe.

Scale ye their walls, level them to the ground,

And spare ye neither woman, child, nor hoary head.
The innocent! O father, this cannot be thy wish!

Patriarch

Innocent is the serpent, too, while yet of tender growth
Or after its fangs are shed.

Yet sparest thou the snake?
Adam It must, in faith, have been a grievous sin

Which could such wrath from Christian love evoke.

Patriarch

Monks

O my son! not he shows love who feeds the flesh,
But he who leadeth back the erring soul,
At point of sword,- or e'en through leaping flames
If needs must be,-to Him who said:

XVI-596

Not peace but war do I proclaim!

That wicked sect interprets false

The mystic Trinity.

Death upon them all!

There burns the funeral pile.

9522

Adam

An Old Heretic

My friend, give up the iota, pray:
Your inspired valor in fighting
For the Savior's grave will be
More fitting sacrifice than this.

Satan, tempt us not! We'll bleed
For our true faith where God ordains.

One of the Monks —

Patriarch

Ha, renegade! thou boastest of true faith?

Too long have we tarried here: away with them
To the funeral pyre, in honor of God!

The Old Heretic

In honor of God? Thou spakest well, O knave!
In honor of God are we indeed your prey.

Ye are strong, and can enforce your will

As ye may please. But whether ye have acted rightly
Heaven alone will judge. Even now is weighed,

At every hour, your vile career of crime.

New champions shall from our blood arise;

The idea lives triumphant on; and coming centuries
Shall the light reflect of flames that blaze to-day.
Friends, go we to our glorious martyrdom!

The Heretics [chanting in chorus]

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why art thou so far from helping me
And from the words of my roaring?

O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou
Hearest not; and in the night season,
And am not silent. But thou art holy!

Monks [breaking in]

(Psalm xxii.)

Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me;

Fight against them that fight against me;

Take hold of shield and buckler and stand up for mine help;

Draw out also the spear, and stop the way
Against them that persecute me.

[In the interim the Patriarch and the procession go by. tracts mingle among the Crusaders.]

(Psalm xxxv.)

The monks with

Lucifer

Why silent thus and horrified?

Dost hold this to be a tragedy?

Consider it a comedy, and 'twill make thee laugh.