The Wonder-Working Magician by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (thriller books to read .TXT) 📖

Let them be released. No fear Need you have about their fate; Go, and Lelius liberate, Go, and Florus bring me here.

FABIUS. Myriad times I kiss thy feet For a favour so immense. [Exit.


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SCENE XVIII.

The Governor and Soldiers.

GOVERNOR. And since now this fair pretence, This hypocritical deceit, In my power at last doth lie, Wherefore my revenge postpone For the sorrows I have known Through her fault? Yes, she shall die By the bloody headsman's hand. [To a Soldier. Bring her hither in my name. Let her punishment and shame Be a terror to the land. Let the palace she thought sweet But her scaffold scene present. [Exit the Soldier with others.


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SCENE XIX.

FABIUS, LELIUS, and FLORUS. - THE SAME.

FABIUS. Sir, the two for whom you sent Here are kneeling at your feet.

LELIUS. I, whose wish it is to be Welcomed as thy son this time, With no consciousness of crime Do not see a judge in thee, I an angry sire may see With a son's respectful fear And obedience.

FLORUS. Being here, I infer that it must be (Though no guilt can I discern) Thy chastising hand to feel. See. Submissive here I kneel.

GOVERNOR. Lelius, Florus, I was stern, Justly stern against ye two, For as judge or father I Could not unchastised pass by Your offence. But then I knew That in noble hearts the feeling Of resentment does not last, And as now the cause is past, I resolved, to both appealing, Friends to make of you once more. So to consecrate the tie Now embrace in amity.

LELIUS. I am glad that, as of yore, Florus is my friend to-day.

FLORUS. That thou'rt mine this act may show. Here's my hand.

GOVERNOR. This being so, You are free to go or stay:- When I tell you of the sad Fall of her you once admired, Northing further is required.


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SCENE XX.

The Demon, a crowd of People. - THE SAME.

DEMON [within]. Ware! beware! He's mad! he's mad!

GOVERNOR. What is this?

LELIUS. I'll go and see. [He goes to the door, and after a pause returns.

GOVERNOR. In this palace hall these cries, From what cause can they arise?

FLORUS. Something serious it must be.

LELIUS. This confusion is occasioned (Hear a singular adventure), Sir, by Cyprian, who being absent Many days again has entered* Antioch completely mad.


[footnote] *Asonante in e-e which continues to the end.


FLORUS. It was doubtless the fine essence Of his mind that thus has brought him To this lamentable ending.

PEOPLE [within]. Ware the madman! ware the madman!


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SCENE XXI.

CYPRIAN, half naked; People. - THE SAME.

CYPRIAN. Never was I more collected; It is you yourselves are mad.

GOVERNOR. Cyprian, what is all this ferment?

CYPRIAN. Governor of Antioch, Viceroy of great Caesar Decius, Florus, Lelius, my young friends, Whom I valued and respected, Proud nobility, great people, To my words be all attentive: I am Cyprian, I am he Once so studious, and so learned, I the wonder of the schools, Of the sciences the centre. What I gained from all my studies Was one doubt, a doubt that never Left my wildered mind a moment, Ever troubling and perplexing. I Justina saw, and seeing, To her charms my soul surrendered, And for soft voluptuous Venus Left the wise and learn'd Minerva. Baffled by Justina's virtue, I, pursuing though rejected, And from one extreme to another Passing on as passion led me, To my guest, who from the sea Found my feet a port of shelter, For Justina pledged my soul, Since at once he charmed my senses And my intellect, by giving Love its hopes, and thought its treasures. From that hour, as his disciple Lived I in these lonely deserts, And to his laborious teaching I am for a power indebted, By which I can move even mountains And in different places set them: Yet although these mighty wonders I can do to-day, I'm helpless By the voice of my desire To draw towards me one fair vestal. And the cause why I am powerless To subdue that beauteous virgin Is that by a God she's guarded, Whom, now knowing by His blessed Grace bestowed, I come to acknowledge As the Infinite, the Eternal. Yes, the great God of the Christians I now openly confess here. And though true it is I am Still of hell the slave and servant, Having with my very blood Signed a certain secret cedule, Yet my blood that blood may blot out In the martyrdom I'm expecting. If you are a judge, if Christians You pursue with bloody vengeance, I am one: for in these mountains A grave venerable elder The first sacrament conferring With its sacred sign impressed me. This being so, why wait? Your orders Give unto the bloody headsman, Tell him here to strike this neck And from it my head dissever. Try my firmness as you will, For I, resolute and determined, Will endure a thousand deaths Since this truth at last I've learned, That without the great God, whom Now I seek, adore, and reverence, Human glories are but ashes, Dust, smoke, wind, delusive, empty. [He falls as if in a swoon, with his face to the ground.

GOVERNOR. So absorbed, so lost in wonder, Cyprian, has thy daring left me, That considering modes of torture I have yet not one selected. Rise. Bestir thee. [Spurns him with his foot.

FLORUS. As a statue Formed of ice he lies extended


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SCENE XXII.

Soldiers, JUSTINA. - THE SAME.

A SOLDIER. Here, your Highness, is Justina.

GOVERNOR [aside]. I must go, her face unnerves me.- With this living corse here lying [Aside to his retinue. Let us leave her for the present. For the two being here confined, It may alter their intentions, Seeing that they are condemned Both to die: if not, 'tis certain, That unless they adore our gods Frightful torments soon shall end them.

LELIUS [aside]. I remain 'twixt love and fear Quite bewildered and suspended.

FLORUS [aside]. So affected have I been, I scarce know what most affects me.

[Exeunt all, except JUSTINA.


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SCENE XXIII.

JUSTINA; CYPRIAN, insensible on the ground.

JUSTINA. What! without a word you leave me? When I come here, calm, contented, Even to die. Ah! wishing death, Am I then of death prevented?- [She perceives CYPRIAN. But my punishment is, doubtless, Thus locked up to face the terrors Of a slow and lingering death, With the body of this wretch here Left alone, my sole companion Being a corse. O thou, re-entered Into thy original earth, Happy wert thou, if thy sentence Was passed on thee for the faith I adore!

CYPRIAN [recovering consciousness]. O proud avenger Of your gods, why wait, the thread Of my life to cut? . . . [He perceives JUSTINA, and rises.
Heaven bless me!- [Aside. Can I trust my eyes? Justina!

JUSTINA [aside]. Cyprian, do I see? O Heaven!

CYPRIAN [aside]. No, it is not she, my thought Fills the void air with her presence.

JUSTINA [aside]. No, it is not he, the wind Forms this phantom to divert me.

CYPRIAN. Shadow of my fantasy . . .

JUSTINA. Of my wish, delusive spectre . . .

CYPRIAN. Terror of my startled senses . . .

JUSTINA. Horror of my heart's dejection . . .

CYPRIAN. What, then, wouldst thou?

JUSTINA. What, then, wouldst thou?

CYPRIAN. I invoked thee not. What errand Has thou come on?

JUSTINA. Why thus seek me? I to thee no thought directed.

CYPRIAN. Ah! I sought thee not, Justina.

JUSTINA. Nor here at thy call I entered.

CYPRIAN. Then why here?

JUSTINA. I am a prisoner.- Thou?

CYPRIAN. I, too, have been arrested. But, Justina, say what crime Could thy virtue have effected?

JUSTINA. It is not for any crime, It is from their deep resentment, Their abhorrence of Christ's faith, Whom I as my God confess here.

CYPRIAN. Thou dost owe Him that, Justina, For thy God was thy defender, He watched o'er thee in His goodness. Get my prayers to Him accepted.

JUSTINA. Pray with faith, and He will listen.

CYPRIAN. Then with that I will address Him. Though a fear, that's not despair, Makes me for my great sins tremble.

JUSTINA. Oh! have confidence.

CYPRIAN. My crimes are So immense.

JUSTINA. But more immense are His great mercies.

CYPRIAN. Then, will He Pardon have on me?

JUSTINA. 'Tis certain.

CYPRIAN. How, if my soul surrendered To the Demon's self, as purchase Of thy beauty?

JUSTINA. Oh, there are not Stars as many in the heavens, Sands as many on the shore, Sparks within the fire as many, Motes as many in the beam, On the winds so many feathers, As the sins He can forgive.

CYPRIAN. I believe it, and am ready Now a thousand lives to give Him.- But I hear some people enter.


* * * * *


SCENE XXIV.

FABIUS, leading in MOSCON, CLARIN, and LIVIA, as prisoners; CYPRIAN and JUSTINA.

FABIUS. With your master and your mistress Here remain confined together. [Exit.

LIVIA. If THEY fancy to be Christians, What have WE done to offend them?

MOSCON. Much: 'tis crime enough for us That we happen to be servants.

CLARIN. Flying peril in the mountain, I find here a greater peril.


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