Scene
Another Wayside House, Near the Norman Frontier
HUGO and ORION in a chamber. Evening.
Orion:Your eyes are hollow, your step is slow,And your cheek is pallid as though from toil,Watching or fasting, by which I knowThat you have been burning the midnight oil.
Hugo:Aye, three nights running.
Orion: ‘Twill never doTo travel all day, and study all night;Will you join in a gallop through mist and dew,In a flight that may vie with the eagle’s flight?
Hugo:With all my heart. Shall we saddle “Rollo”?
Orion:Nay, leave him undisturb’d in his stall;I have steeds he would hardly care to follow.
Hugo:Follow, forsooth! he can lead them all.
Orion:Touching his merits we will not quarrel;But let me mount you for once; enoughOf work may await your favourite sorrel,And the paths we must traverse to-night are rough.But first let me mix you a beverage,To invigorate your enfeebled frame.[He mixes a draught and hands it to Hugo.]All human ills this draught can assuage.
Hugo:It hisses and glows like liquid flame;Say, what quack nostrum is this thou’st brewed?Speak out; I am learned in the chemist’s lore.
Orion:There is nothing but what will do you good;And the drugs are simples; ’tis hellebore,Nepenthe, upas, and dragon’s blood,Absinthe, and mandrake, and mandragore.
Hugo:I will drink it, although, by mass and rood,I am just as wise as I was before.