have done all that man could do for his honor, and more. Now let's away.

CHARLES. What say you? Is not the life of a saint for the life of a felon more than an equal exchange? Oh! I say unto you if every one of you were to mount the scaffold, and to have his flesh torn from his bones piecemeal with red-hot pincers, through eleven long summer days of torture, yet would it not counterbalance these tears! (With a bitter laugh.) The scars! the Bohemian forests! Yes, yes! they must be repaid, of course!

SCHWARZ. Compose yourself, captain! Come along with us! this is no sight for you. Lead us elsewhere!

CHARLES. Stay! one word more before we proceed elsewhere. Mark me, ye malicious executioners of my barbarous nod! from this moment I cease to be your captain. With shame and horror I here lay down the bloody staff under which you thought yourselves licensed to perpetrate your crimes and to defile the fair light of heaven with deeds of darkness. Depart to the right and to the left. We shall never more have aught in

common.

THE ROBBERS. Ha! coward! where are thy lofty schemes? were they but soap-bubbles, which disperse at the breath of a woman?

CHARLES.† Oh! fool that I was, to fancy that I could *The acting edition reads,-"Banditti! we are quits. This bleeding corpse cancels my bond to you forever. From your own I set you free." ROBBERS. "We are again your slaves till death!" CHARLES. "No, no, no! We have done with each other. My genius whispers me, Go no further, Moor. Here is the goal of humanity and thine." Take back this bloody plume (throws it at their feet). Let him who seeks to be your captain take it up."

f In lieu of this soliloquy and what follows, to the end, the acting edition has:

R. MOOR. Dare not to scrutinize the acts of Moor. That is my last command. Now, draw near-form a circle around me, and receive the last words of your dying captain. (He surveys them attentively for some time.) You have been devotedly faithful to me, faithful beyond example. Had virtue bound you together as firmly as vice, you would have been heroes, and your names recorded by mankind with admiration. Go and offer your services to the state. Dedicate your talents to the cause of a monarch who is waging war in vindication of the rights of man. With this blessing I disband you. Schweitzer and Kosinsky, do you stay. (The others dis

perse slowly, with signs of emotion.)

R. MOOR.

SCENE VIII.

R. MOOR, SCHWEITZER, and KOSINSKY.

Give me thy right hand, Kosinsky-Schweitzer, thy left. (He takes their hands, and stands between them; to KOSINSKY,) Young man,

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amend the world by misdeeds and maintain law by lawlessness! I called it vengeance and equity. I presumed, O Providence! upon whetting out the notches of thy sword and repairing thy partialities. But, oh, vain trifling! here I stand on the brink of a fearful life, and learn, with wailing and gnashing of teeth, that two men like myself could ruin the whole edifice of the moral world. Pardon-pardon the boy who thought to forestall Thee; to Thee alone belongeth vengeance; Thou needest not the hand of man! But it is not in my power to recall the past; that which is ruined remains ruined; what I have thrown down will never more rise up again. Yet one thing is left me whereby I may atone to the offended majesty of the law and restore the order which I have violated. A victim is required. declare before all mankind how inviolable that majesty a victim to is that victim shall be myself. offering! I will be the death

ROBBERS. Take his sword from him himself.

he will kill

CHARLES. Fools that ye are! doomed to eternal blindness! Think ye that one mortal sin will expiate other mortal sins? Do you suppose that the harmony of the world would be promoted by such an impious discord? (Throwing his arms at their feet.) He shall have me alive. I go to deliver myself into the hands of justice.

thou art still pure SCHWEITZER.) Deeply have I imbrued thy hand in blood. amongst the guilty thou alone art guiltless! (To done this. With this cordial grasp I take back mine own. "Tis I who have thou art purified! (He raises their hands fervently to heaven.) Father in Schweitzer ! heaven! here I restore them to thee. They will be more devoted to thy service than those who never fell. Of that I feel assured. (SCHWEITZER and KOSINSKY fall on his neck with fervor.) Not now - not now, dear comrades. Spare my feelings in this trying hour. An earldom has this day fallen to my lot-a rich domain on which no malediction rests. Share it between you, my children; become good citizens; and if for ten human beings that I have destroyed you make but one happy, my soul may yet be saved. Go-no farewell! In another world we may meet again—or perhaps no more. Away! away! ere my fortitude desert me.

[Exeunt both, with downcast countenances. SCENE IX.

And I, too, am a good citizen. Do I not fulfil the extremity of the law? Do I not honor the law? Do I not uphold and defend it? I remember speaking to a poor officer on my way hither, who was toiling as a daylaborer, and has eleven living children. A thousand ducats have been

offered to whoever shall deliver up the great robber alive. That man shall be served.

[Exit.

ROBBERS. Put him in chains! he has lost his senses ! CHARLES. Not that I have ahy doubt but that justice would find me speedily enough if the powers above so ordained it. But she might surprise me in sleep, or overtake me in flight, or seize me with violence and the sword, and then I should have lost the only merit left me, that of making my death a free-will atonement. Why should I, like a thief, any longer conceal a life, which in the counsels of the heavenly ministry has long been forfeited?

ROBBERS. Let him go. He is infected with the greatman-mania; he means to offer up his life for empty admiration.

CHARLES. I might, 'tis true, be admired for it. (After a moment's reflection.) I remember, on my way hither, talking to a poor creature, a day-laborer, with eleven living children. A reward has been offered of a thousand louis-d'ors to any one who shall deliver up the great robber alive. That man shall be served.

[Exit.