The wise doves cooed of love! Oh, a dear word That all may always know He is the Lord, And Death is dead, and new times come for men; The word He spake-My Lord! my King, my Christ! "MARY!" No language had I then, No language have I now! only I turned Edwin Arnold. RICHELIEU. In this scene, four characters are introduced: Richelieu, the Minister of France and Cardinal of the church of Rome; Louis, the king; Baradas, the chief conspirator; Julie, Richelieu's ward. The king and Baradas have planned the assassination of Richelieu. The king has also designed to marry Julie; but in order to prevent this, Richelieu has given her in marriage to Adrien de Mauprat, whom Baradas has induced to become the tool in the assassination of Richelieu. As De Mauprat enters Richelieu's room to commit the murder, Richelieu, having anticipated him, thwarts him in his purpose, and then explains to him the treachery of Baradas; whereupon De Mauprat becomes concerned for Richelieu's safety, and meeting the conspirators after leaving the house, announces to them that Richelieu is dead. On the following day, the conspirators, together with De Mauprat, convene at the king's palace. While here, Baradas, who has already imprisoned Huguet, a spy, conspires against De Mauprat, and finally, by gaining the consent of the king, succeeds in having him also imprisoned in the Bastile. And now as the king and the conspirators are rejoicing over the supposed death of Richelieu, and are discussing plans as to the best disposition of public offices, Richelieu enters and says: RICH. [fiercely.] Room, my lords, room. The minister of France can need no intercession with the King. LOUIS. What means this false report of death, Lord Cardinal? RICH. Are you, then, angered, Sire, that I live still? LOUIS. No; but such artifice RICH. Not mine; look elsewhere, Louis! My castle swarmed with the assassins. BAR. [advancing.] We have punished them already. Huguet now In the Bastile. Oh! my lord, we were prompt To avenge you-we were. RICH. We? Ha, ha! you hear My liege! What page, man, in the last court grammar, Made you a plural? Count, you have seized the hireling; Sire, shall I name the master? LOUIS. Tush, my lord, The old contrivance; ever does your wit Slay rivals RICH. Rivals, Sire, in what? Service to France? I have none. Whom Europe deems rival to Armand Richelieu? LOUIS. What, so haughty! Lives the man Remember, he who made, can unmake. Never! Never! Your anger can recall your trust, Lo! I appeal to time! LOUIS [motions to Baradas and turns haughtily to the Cardinal]. Enough! Your Eminence must excuse a longer audience. To your own palace: for our conference, this RICH. Good, my liege, for Justice All place a temple, and all season summer! Though loathed by Charity, might ask for justice! Of some I see around you-Counts and Princes As men who ask man's rights!-My liege, my Louis, In the pale presence of the baffled Murder? Louis. Lord Cardinal, one by one you have severed from me The bonds of human love; all near and dear Marked out for vengeance-exile or the scaffold. You would tear them from me; They murder you, forsooth, since me they love. RICH. Sire' I-patience, Heaven! Sweet Heaven! Sire, from the foot Of that high throne, spurn you the gray-haired man RICH. [Exit King and train.] Goddess of bright dreams, My country-shalt thou lose me now, when most [Enter JULIE.] JULIE. Heaven! I thank thee! It cannot be, or this all-powerful man Would not stand idly thus. RICH. Julie de Mauprat, what dost thou here? Home! JULIE. Home!-is Adrien there? You're dumb, yet strive For words; I see them trembling on your lips, RICH. Be soothed, child. JULIE. Child no more! I love, and I am woman! Hope and suffer: Love, suffering, hope-what else doth make the strength And majesty of woman? I ask thee for my home, my fate, my all! Where is my husband? RICH. You are Richelieu's ward, A soldier's bride; they who insist on truth Must out-face fear: you ask me for your husband? JULIE. O, mercy, mercy! Save him, restore him, father! Art thou not RICH. Yesterday I was; To-day a very weak old man; to-morrow, I know not what. [Enter CLERMONT.] CLER. Madame de Mauprat!— Pardon, your Eminence; even now I seek RICH. To those who sent you! And say you found the virtue they would slay [Enter BARADAS.] BAR. My lord, the King cannot believe your Eminence So far forgets your duty, and his greatness, As to resist his mandate.-Pray you, madame, Obey the King; no cause for fear. JULIE. My father! RICH. She shall not stir! BAR. You are not of her kindred; An orphan--— RICH. And her country is her mother. RICH. Ay, is it so? Then wakes the power which in the age of iron Mark, where she stands: around her form I draw Set but a foot within that holy ground, And on thy head-yea, though it wore a crown-- BAR. I dare not brave you; I do but speak the orders of my King: The Church, your rank, power, very word, my lord, If it should cost your power. Dark gamester! what is thine? That's my stake. Look to it well Lose not a trick. By this same hour to-morrow BAR. Ah! In sooth, my lord, You do need rest; the burdens of the state And life are breaking fast. His mind RICH. [overhearing him.] Irreverent ribald! If so, beware the falling ruins! Hark! I tell thee, scorner of these whitening hairs, When this snow melteth there shall come a flood! Edward Bulwer-Lytton. HOW THE GOSPEL CAME TO JIM OAKS. One Christmas Eve a strange tragedy was enacted in the far Northwest. Away up in Montana a mining camp was established in days when women were as scarce in that country as they were in the early days of the settlement of California; there was, in fact, but one woman in the camp. She was young, of fine appearance, great physical strength and endurance, and indomitable nerve. Two years before, she had left an unhappy home in Wisconsin to become the wife of a reckless dare-devil named Jim Oaks, with whom she had shared the vicissitudes of a long, slow journey across the intervening plains. This man just missed being a ruffian through his wife's influence. |