Tecumseh: A Drama | Page 5

has the word? since yours
Is full of joy,
but mine, alas, of pain.
The pale-face and the Shawanoe must part.
LEFROY. Must part? Yes part--we parted yesterday--
And shall
to-day--some dream disturbs my love.
IENA. Oh, that realities were dreams! 'Tis not
A dream that parts us,
but a stern command.
Tecumseh has proclaimed it as his law--
Red
shall not marry white; so must you leave;
And therefore I have come
to say farewell.
LEFROY. That word is barbed, and like an arrow aimed.
The maid
who saved my life would mar it too!
IENA. Speak not of that! Your life's in danger now.
Tecumseh has
returned, and--knowing all--
Has built a barrier betwixt our loves,

More rigid than a palisade of oak.
LEFROY. What means he? And what barrier is this?
IENA. The barrier is the welfare of our race--
Wherefore his

law--"Red shall not marry white."
His noble nature halts at cruelty,

So fear him not! But in the Prophet's hand,
Dark, dangerous and
bloody, there is death,
And, sheltered by Tecumseh's own decree,

He who misprizes you, and hates, will strike--
Then go at once! Alas
for Iena,
Who loves her race too well to break its law.
LEFROY. I love you better than I love my race;
And could I mass my
fondness for my friends,
Augment it with my love of noble brutes,

Tap every spring of reverence and respect,
And all affections bright
and beautiful--
Still would my love for you outweigh them all.
IENA. Speak not of love! Speak of the Long-Knife's
hate!
Oh, it is
pitiful to creep in fear
O'er lands where once our fathers stept in pride!

The Long-Knife strengthens, whilst our race decays,
And falls
before him as our forests fall.
First comes his pioneer, the bee, and
soon
The mast which plumped the wild deer fats his swine.
His
cattle pasture where the bison fed;
His flowers, his very weeds,
displace our own--
Aggressive as himself. All, all thrust back!

Destruction follows us, and swift decay.
Oh, I have lain for hours
upon the grass,
And gazed into the tenderest blue of heaven--

Cleansed as with dew, so limpid, pure and sweet--
All flecked with
silver packs of standing cloud
Most beautiful! But watch them
narrowly!
Those clouds will sheer small fleeces from their sides,

Which, melting in our sight as in a dream,
Will vanish all like
phantoms in the sky.
So melts our heedless race! Some weaned away,

And wedded to rough-handed pioneers,
Who, fierce as wolves in
hatred of our kind,
Yet from their shrill and acid women turn,

Prizing our maidens for their gentleness.
Some by outlandish fevers
die, and some--
Caught in the white man's toils and vices mean--

Court death, and find it in the trader's cup.
And all are driven from
their heritage,

Far from our fathers' seats and sepulchres,
And
girdled with the growing glooms of war;
Resting a moment here, a
moment there,
Whilst ever through our plains and forest realms


Bursts the pale spoiler, armed, with eager quest,
And ruinous lust of
land. I think of all--
And own Tecumseh right. 'Tis he alone
Can
stem this tide of sorrows dark and deep;
So must I bend my feeble
will to his,
And, for my people's welfare, banish love.
LEFROY. Nay, for your people's welfare keep your love!
My heart is
true: I know that braggart nation,
Whose sordid instincts, cold and
pitiless,
Would cut you off, and drown your Council-Fires.
I would
defend you, therefore keep me here!
My love is yours alone, my hand
I give,
With this good weapon in it, to your race.
IENA. Oh, heaven help a weak untutored maid,
Whose head is
warring 'gainst a heart that tells,
With every throb, I love you. Leave
me! Fly!
LEFROY. I kneel to you--it is my leave-taking,
So, bid me fly again,
and break my heart!
(IENA sings.)
Fly far from me,
Even as the daylight flies,
And leave me in the darkness of my pain!

Some earlier love will come to thee again,
And sweet new moons will rise,
And smile on it and thee.
Fly far from me,
Even whilst the daylight wastes--
Ere thy lips burn me in a last caress;

Ere fancy quickens, and my longings press,
And my weak spirit hastes
For shelter unto thee!
Fly far from me,

Even whilst the daylight pales--
So shall we never, never meet again!

Fly! for my senses swim--Oh, Love! Oh, Pain!--
Help! for my
spirit fails--
I cannot fly from thee!
[IENA sinks into_ LEFROY'S _arms.]
LEFROY. No Iena! You cannot fly from me--
My heart is in your
breast, and yours in mine;
Therefore our love--
Enter_ TECUMSEH, _followed by MAMATEE.
TECUMSEH. False girl! Is this your promise?
Would that I had a
pale-face for a niece--
Not one so faithless to her pledge! You owe

All duty and affection to your race,
Whose interest--the sum of our
desires--
Traversed by alien love, drops to the ground.
IENA. Tecumseh ne'er was cruel until now.
Call not love alien which
includes our race--
Love for our people, pity for their wrongs!
He
loves our race because his heart is here--
And mine is in his breast.
Oh, ask him there,
And he will tell you--
LEFROY. Iena, let me speak!
Tecumseh, we as strangers have