Rosamund | Page 8

me Like the ardent sting of keen-edged ice,

which makes The naked flesh feel fire upon it.
Enter ALMACHILDES.
ALMACHILDES.
Queen, I come to crave a word of thee.
ROSAMUND.
I hear.
ALMACHILDES.
Thou knowest I love thy noble Hildegard: And rather would I give my
soul to burn Than wrong in thought her flawless maidenhood. And now
she hath told me what I dare not think Truth. And I dare not think her
lips may lie.
ROSAMUND.
I have heard. And what is this to me? She hath not Said--hath not told
thee, nor wouldst thou believe - That I have breathed a lie upon her lips
Or taught them shamelessness by lesson?
ALMACHILDES.
No. But she came forth from thee to me--from thee - And spake with
quivering mouth and quailing eyes And face whose fire turned ashen,
and again Rekindling from that ashen agony Flamed, what no heart
could think to hear her speak, Mine least of all, who love her.
ROSAMUND.
Ay?
ALMACHILDES.
Not she, I know it as sure as night is known from day And surelier than
I know mine own soul's truth, Spake what she spake in broken bursts of
breath Out of her own heart and its love for me.
ROSAMUND.
Didst thou so answer her?
ALMACHILDES.
I might not well Answer at all.
ROSAMUND.
Poor maid, she hath loved amiss. Belike she thought to find in thee a
man's Love.
ALMACHILDES.
That she hath found; nought meaner than a man's; No wolfish lust of
ravenous insolence To soil and spoil her of her noblest name.
ROSAMUND.

I do not ask thee what she said. I know.
ALMACHILDES.
I knew thou didst.
ROSAMUND.
To make your bridal sure She bade thee make thy bride of her to-night.
ALMACHILDES.
She bade me as a slave might bid the scourge Fall.
ROSAMUND.
Such a scourge no slave might shrink from; nay, No free-born woman,
Almachildes.
ALMACHILDES.
Queen, I crave thy queenly mercy though I say My maid, my bride that
will be, shrank, and showed In all the rosebright anguish of her face A
shuddering shame that wrung my heart. And thou Hast surely set
thereon that seal of shame. I know it as thou dost.
ROSAMUND.
Ay, and more she said, Surely: she said I would not yield her up To the
arms of one my husband loves and holds Honoured at heart--I hate my
husband so, She told thee--were the need avoidable Save by her
sacrifice to shame.
ALMACHILDES.
Thou knowest All, as I knew, and lacked not from thy lips Confession.
ROSAMUND.
Warrior though thou be, and boy Though my lord call thee, brainless
art thou not - No sword with man's face carven on the heft For mockery
more than truth or help in fight. I do not and I durst not play with thee.
Thy bride spake truth: I knew not she might need So much of truth to
tempt thee toward her. Now Thou knowest, and I know. If this
imminent night Make not thy darkling bride of her, by day Thy bride
she may be never. She hath sworn.
ALMACHILDES.
Why wouldst thou shame her?
ROSAMUND.
Shamed she cannot be If thou be found not shameless. Plead no more
Against thine own love's surety. Doubt thou not I wish thee well, and
love her. Make not thou Out of her shamefast maidenhood and fear A
sword to cleave your happiness in twain. What if some oath constrain

me, sworn in haste, Infrangible for shame's sake, sealed in heaven
Inevitable? Ask now no more of me. Nightfall is here upon us. Nought
on earth May set the season of your bridal back If thou be true as she
must. Wait awhile Here till a sign be sent thee--till a bell Strike softly
from this chamber here at hand. I have sworn to her she shall not see
thy face, So sore she prayed she might not: and for thee I swore that ere
the darkling air grew grey Thou shouldst arise and leave her, and
behold Thy midnight bride but when thou art bidden again To meet her
here to-morrow. Strange it were, More strange than aught of all, that
thou shouldst prove Dishonourable: and except thou be, these things
Must all be wrought in this wise, lest her oath And mine, at peril of her
soul and life, By passionate forgetfulness of thine Disloyally be broken.
Swear to us now Thou wilt not break our oath and thine, or think To
look to-night upon thy bride.
ALMACHILDES.
I swear.
ROSAMUND.
I take thine oath. I bid not thee take heed That I or thou or each of us at
once, Couldst thou play false, may die: I bid thee think Thy bride will
die, shamed. Swear me not again She