William Wilfred Campbell - Daulac: Act V, Scene 1 lyrics

PLACE—The Long Sault, a sheltered spot near the fort. TIME—Night. Enter HELÈNE and FANCHON. FAN. O madam, stay not in this terrible place. d**h creeps about us, looks us in the face. Oh, stay not, this is d**h. HEL. Yea, all life, too; back, back, the way you came, Or this same d**h you prate of in his net Will mesh another victim! FAN. O noble lady, what is this poor longing, This love of life and heat and moving sound, That makes us cowards to the crowding dark? I sorrow to leave you, yet I dread to die. HEL. Quick! Haste, or 'tis too late. Fear not for me! Quick! Kiss me, Fanchon; now good-bye, good-bye! FAN. Forgive me, madam, that I love to live. HEL. Go! Go! May you be happy, happy as I. FAN. O madam! HEL. Farewell! [HELÈNE pushes her out; she goes out sobbing. Oh, now I've reached my zenith as a plotter; Could I but make a noise I'd like to sing, Or lilt and dance around, like any child. 'Tis strange, with d**h about me like a wall, there creeps across me this fantastic mood; but I could laugh and sing and cry by turns, For I am his, he cannot send me back. Yea, I will die first. O you foolish world [Page 193]! Little you know what woman will do for man; 'Tis said by shallow-pate philosophers That there be nothing equals woman's wit, That renders woman so unconquerable. 'Tis something 'twixt her two breasts panted deep, Pulsating her whole being, called the heart, And be she guided thus, what menaces The dreams of subtlest intellect crumbles down To airy nothings at her constant will. O stars! That rise and know me true to him, Ere you do set, will see us die together! [Footsteps heard. She gazes swiftly about her and glides into a shadowy corner. An Indian war-cry is heard in the distance. Enter DAULAC with cloak and sword. DAUL. Another dawn will usher our souls to Heaven. Enter DESJARDINS disguised as a Huron Chief. DES. Ha, ha, ha! DAUL. Avaunt, Fiend! DES. (advancing into the light and opening his blanket) Know you me not? DAUL. 'Tis you Desjardins? Methought you were the Huron In paint and feathers hidden from my ken, But now you laughed as harshly as the fiend When he mocks mortals ushered into hell. DES. 'Tis well said, ha, ha, ha! DAUL. What mean you? Why this coming in a mask, When you, by joining in our open act, Had shared our glory? I had not dreamed you martial, But rather subtle, wise and full of cares, A friend to moor to in the deeps of life; But now I greet you sudden built about With unsuspected virtues. Welcome, friend, A soldier hand I give you in this breach [Page 194], Where ere another sunrise we will sleep To save our loved New France. DES. Nay, nay, not yet until you know the truth! DAUL. The truth? DES. I am no soldier full of oaths and follies,— Glory I crave not, knowing its poor lease; Country I own not save where I may thrive. I'm not so drunk with patriotic dreams To snuff my candle in such breach as this. Nay, Daulac, you are wrong; on other matters, 'Twixt me and thee, I come to thee to-night. DAUL. What mean you, Desjardins? why this sinister mask? DES. Are you a dauntless spirit? DAUL. Whatever Daulac's faults, and he hath many, No mortal ever turned him where he faced! DES. Then know the truth: this is the true Desjardins; The other was the mask. DAUL. The mask? DES. Yea, the mask. Thou need'st all thy bravery, Whereof in pride thou boastest thyself possessed. 'Tis easy dreaming; full many hearts are brave When glory and achievement lie ahead, Like splendid hills, topped by more splendid sunset, Making a crown of memory o'er their deeds, Where immortality lights them to their rest. But when in starless midnight, all unwitnessed, The sharp encounter runs, with shaking shame, And hideous Obloquy and dead men's bones, Then who is brave, who glory-hearted then, When cruel d**h camps round the ebbing hours, Bidding to silence? Ha, ha, with thee it is another matter, Yea, 'tis a sterner road to travel then. DAUL. I know not if thou art mine olden friend, Who counseled me oft upon my youthful follies, Or whether thou art some fiend, in my last hours [Page 195] Sent hither in shape of him to shake my spirit; But man or devil, I do say to thee, Thou canst not daunt me. DES. Wait, wait, speak not so fast, my noble soldier; Desjardins' vengeance hath not burned in vain. Wait, wait, thou gilded idol, blinded fook, Till thou hast met the master of thy fate, Then thou wilt tremble! DAUL. Desjardins, chance before the dawn I die, But tell me that dread sin I sinned against you, That makes you such a devil in this hour? DES. Ha, ha! 'twill take some time, but could I spread This hour of agony over many years, For bitter ages, I would die anew, To see you suffer as you will to-night. You think you are a hero, you who are A poor tricked creature, taken in my cunning. You ask how you have sinned. In your whole being! You crossed my nature since your earliest years. All that you had I lacked, I speak it plain, And hated you with an instinctive hate. You little knew the hell that walked your side, The enemy that crept into your life, That probed your very weakness, searched your follies, Studied the deep recesses of your nature, To take you in this final trap at last. Had I not reason? What you had I envied, The form, the spirit, the charm that dazzles men And leadeth women as the magnetic needle Is drawn to either pole. Had I not reason? You had what my soul lacked! DAUL. Great God! Great God! Can such a nature be? DES. Great God? What hat a God to do with thee? You cheat your spirit with a vain conceit That Deity hath guided all these years Your being to this one great act of glory, This splendid deed of high heroic valor, Wherein through d**h you hand your memory down [Page 196], Immortal and resplendent to all days. But know the truth: 'twas I, not He, who guided Your poor fool-nature, blinded, to this pa**, Where men will laugh to scorn the self-built hero, Taken at odds in his won childish dreams, Aping in play the demi-gods of Greece, Uselessly ending, in fountain spout of glory, A self-marred life he did not dare to live. DAUL. There is a something in your very voice That freezes my being. Now thousand thirsting tongues Of angry, eager steel poised at my heart To drink its fountains had power to wake the dread My spirit feels to know that all these years Your soul has been so near me. Of a truth, We live next door to beings all our days, Quaff social beakers at the self-same inn, Tread the same streets with similar joys and cares, Share the same roof, yea, even board and bed, From eager youth to pining, palsied age, To part as strangers at the very end. Yea, sooth, it is indeed a wondrous world. But to be shown long after many years, The path you treaded nightly cunningly hid A precipice to gulf you at the end, Is not a thousandth part so dire and dread As this unmasking of a hidden hate. God knows I am a poor slow-minded man, Following one impulse all my days: If I have had the folly to dream of fame Beyond my merit, Heaven hath rebuked me daily. I know not of your subtle sophistries That seek below the surface to confound The simple-minded, who have only duty To light them on to what is best in living; I may not ken your wisdom, mayhap I am O'er-blinded by my pa**ions to achieve, Treading the path of those who went before; But I know this—that in my poorer insight The simple following of those noble voices [Page 197] Who point in lofty dreams to aid our fellows, Is greater far than all the deep intrigue Builded of all the sophistries of hell. I am a simple soldier without wisdom, Save that which serves for valor; without knowledge, Save what a man should know; but I am certain What I have done is right in eye of God, And my best instincts: —though I die to-night, This sleeping world, this mighty-brooding mystery, That dreams in awe of its own majesty; Those wondrous rolling orbs that light each other Along the endless ways of outer space; All tell me I am right and whisper comfort. DES. Ha, ha! this demi-god, he is above me, Out of my reach, my envy cannot touch him. Wait, wait, till I do tumble his soul to earth! (to DAULAC) Wait, wait, my Daulac, how about my Helène? DAUL. She is an angel, far beyond your hate, Or my poor love. DES. Beyond your love, perchance, but not my hate. Have you never in your innocence dreamed The one supremest reason why I hate you Is that I love Helène? DAUL. You—love—Helène? DES. And why not? May the moth not love the star? The bat bathe in the moonlight with the eagle? Yea, I have loved her, secret, all these years. 'Twas I who separated you in France, Drove you out here, trapped you into this corner; And now I tell you, petted fool of Heaven, I am your master, I will wed her yet. DAUL. O God in heaven, tell me is it true That yonder devil is not flesh and blood, But some grim phantom? DES. Yea, more; to teach you what a patch your honor, When 'tis too late to mend it; would you know it, She's not all yours [Page 198]! DAUL. Devil, your life shall answer, pollute not That angel memory by such hellish slander. Though I be sworn to Heaven a million times, I am yet a man! [Draws sword. DES. Ha, ha, ha, ha! I fear you not! You are too great a soul to trample a gnat That stings like me; know you your marriage ring? [Holds the ring up. DAUL. Great God! It is! It is her wedding ring! What mist is this that creeps before my spirit? Nay! Nay! I am forsworn! By earth and Heaven, She is as pure as that same Heaven itself, — And you a liar! DES. (starting back) I am a liar, aye. Ha, ha; ha, ha! What proof have you that I am what you say? Yea, die in doubt. Here is your wedding ring. You trusted Heaven! Where is your wife to say I am a liar? [HELÈNE comes out and confronts him. HEL. That Heaven you slander takes you at your word, And I am here. DES. Great God! Curses! Curses! I am beaten, Yea, beaten, beaten, at the very last, and by the woman! DAUL. Helène! HEL. (rushing into his arms) Yea, Daulac, Helène, come to die with you. DAUL. My love! My angel love! [A gun is fired. HELÈNE screams. HEL. Daulac, I die! I die! DAUL. (supporting her to a heap of fir) O God! she is shot! HEL. Kiss me, my love, I could not live without you. DAUL. O Helène! Tell me that you do not suffer. HEL. Nay, Daulac, I die happy in your arms. [Dies. [Page 199] DAUL. (laying her gently down) Dead! Oh, dead! O universe of love so soon extinguished! (turning to DESJARDINS and drawing his sword) Now, Devil, to settle with you. DES. Yea, yea; this is the work I'd fain be at. (draws) Now, vengeance, vengeance, match with Daulac's fate! DAUL. Desjardins, though it be my latest hour on earth, I could not die till I had finished you! [They fight long and hard. DESJARDINS wounds DAULAC. DES. Ha, ha! mine, mine! DAUL. No, by the stars of heaven, no! Take that—aye, that! [Runs DESJARDINS through. DESJARDINS falls and lies on ground, gasping. He tries to get up, then crawls toward HELÈNE'S body. DES. Yea, mine! Yea, mine! in d**h! in d**h! DAUL. Back, back! [Prevents him. DES. Curse you! curse you! [Dies. [A loud war-whoop rises, and Indians with raised hatchets rush in from all sides. DAULAC lifts HELÈNE'S body and, placing his foot against DESJARDINS' body, turns, takes sword in hand and confronts them. They all start back in tableau. DAUL. O loved New France, my own beloved New France, I die, I die for thee! CURTAIN.