Mary Stuart | Page 5

is the nephew--In.
SCENE V.
The same. Enter MORTIMER, approaching cautiously.
MORTIMER (to KENNEDY).
Step to the door, and keep a careful
watch,
I have important business with the queen.
MARY (with dignity).
I charge thee, Hannah, go not hence--remain.
MORTIMER.
Fear not, my gracious lady--learn to know me.
[He gives her a card.
MARY (She examines it, and starts back astonished).
Heavens! What
is this?
MORTIMER (to KENNEDY).
Retire, good Kennedy;
See that my uncle comes not unawares.
MARY (to KENNEDY, who hesitates, and looks at the QUEEN
inquiringly). Go in; do as he bids you.
[KENNEDY retires with signs of wonder.
SCENE VI.
MARY, MORTIMER.

MARY.
From my uncle
In France--the worthy Cardinal of Lorrain?
[She reads.
"Confide in Mortimer, who brings you this;
You have no truer, firmer
friend in England."
[Looking at him with astonishment.
Can I believe it? Is there no delusion
To cheat my senses? Do I find a
friend
So near, when I conceived myself abandoned
By the whole
world? And find that friend in you,
The nephew of my gaoler, whom
I thought
My most inveterate enemy?
MORTIMER (kneeling).
Oh, pardon,
My gracious liege, for the detested mask,
Which it has
cost me pain enough to wear;
Yet through such means alone have I
the power
To see you, and to bring you help and rescue.
MARY.
Arise, sir; you astonish me; I cannot
So suddenly emerge
from the abyss
Of wretchedness to hope: let me conceive
This
happiness, that I may credit it.
MORTIMER.
Our time is brief: each moment I expect
My uncle,
whom a hated man attends;
Hear, then, before his terrible
commission
Surprises you, how heaven prepares your rescue.
MARY.
You come in token of its wondrous power.
MORTIMER.
Allow me of myself to speak.
MARY.
Say on.

MORTIMER.
I scarce, my liege, had numbered twenty years,

Trained in the path of strictest discipline
And nursed in deadliest hate
to papacy,
When led by irresistible desire
For foreign travel, I
resolved to leave
My country and its puritanic faith
Far, far behind
me: soon with rapid speed
I flew through France, and bent my eager
course
On to the plains of far-famed Italy.
'Twas then the time of
the great jubilee:
And crowds of palmers filled the public roads;

Each image was adorned with garlands; 'twas
As if all human-kind
were wandering forth
In pilgrimage towards the heavenly kingdom.

The tide of the believing multitude
Bore me too onward, with
resistless force,
Into the streets of Rome. What was my wonder,
As
the magnificence of stately columns
Rushed on my sight! the vast
triumphal arches,
The Colosseum's grandeur, with amazement

Struck my admiring senses; the sublime
Creative spirit held my soul a
prisoner
In the fair world of wonders it had framed.
I ne'er had felt
the power of art till now.
The church that reared me hates the charms
of sense;
It tolerates no image, it adores
But the unseen, the
incorporeal word.
What were my feelings, then, as I approached

The threshold of the churches, and within,
Heard heavenly music
floating in the air:
While from the walls and high-wrought roofs there
streamed
Crowds of celestial forms in endless train--
When the
Most High, Most Glorious pervaded
My captivated sense in real
presence!
And when I saw the great and godlike visions,
The
Salutation, the Nativity,
The Holy Mother, and the Trinity's
Descent,
the luminous transfiguration
And last the holy pontiff, clad in all

The glory of his office, bless the people!

Oh! what is all the pomp of
gold and jewels
With which the kings of earth adorn themselves!

He is alone surrounded by the Godhead;
His mansion is in truth an
heavenly kingdom,
For not of earthly moulding are these forms!
MARY.
O spare me, sir! No further. Spread no more
Life's verdant
carpet out before my eyes,
Remember I am wretched, and a prisoner.

MORTIMER.
I was a prisoner, too, my queen; but swift
My
prison-gates flew open, when at once
My spirit felt its liberty, and
hailed
The smiling dawn of life. I learned to burst
Each narrow
prejudice of education,
To crown my brow with never-fading wreaths,

And mix my joy with the rejoicing crowd.
Full many noble Scots,
who saw my zeal,
Encouraged me, and with the gallant French

They kindly led me to your princely uncle,
The Cardinal of Guise. Oh,
what a man!
How firm, how clear, how manly, and how great!
Born
to control the human mind at will!
The very model of a royal priest;

A ruler of the church without an equal!
MARY.
You've seen him then,--the much loved, honored man,

Who was the guardian of my tender years!
Oh, speak of him! Does he
remember me?
Does fortune favor him? And prospers still
His life?
And does he still majestic stand,
A very rock and pillar of the church?
MORTIMER.
The holy man descended from his height,
And
deigned to teach me the important creed
Of the true church, and
dissipate my doubts.
He showed me how the glimmering light of
reason
Serves but to lead us to eternal error:
That what the heart is
called on to believe
The eye must see: that he who rules the church

Must needs be visible; and that the spirit
Of truth inspired the
councils of the fathers.
How vanished then the fond imaginings

And weak conceptions of my childish soul
Before his conquering
judgment, and the soft
Persuasion