Scene
A Room in the Castle
HUGO and ERIC. Early morning.
Hugo:The morn is fair, the weary milesWill shorten ’neath the summer’s wiles;Pomona in the orchard smiles,And in the meadow, Flora!And I have roused a chosen bandFor escort through the troubled land;And shaken Elspeth by the hand,And said farewell to Thora.Comrade and kinsman—for thou artComrade and kin to me—we partEre nightfall, if at once we start,We gain the dead Count’s castle.The roads are fair, the days are fine,Ere long I hope to reach the Rhine.Forsooth, no friend to me or mineIs that same Abbot Basil;I thought he wronged us by his greed.My father sign’d a foolish deedFor lack of gold in time of need,And thus our lands went by us;Yet wrong on our side may have been:As far as my will goes, I ween,’Tis past, the grudge that lay betweenUs twain. Men call him pious—And I have prosper’d much since then,And gain’d for one lost acre ten;And even the ancient house and glenRebought with purchase-money.He, too, is wealthy; he has gotBy churchly rights a fertile spot,A land of corn and wine, I wot,A land of milk and honey.Now, Eric, change thy plans and rideWith us; thou hast no ties, no bride.
Eric:Nay, ties I have, and time and tide,Thou knowest, wait for no man;And I go north; God’s blessing shunsThe dwellings of forgetful sons,That proverb he may read who runs,In Christian lore or Roman.My good old mother she hath heard,For twelve long months, from me no word;At thought of her my heart is stirr’d,And even mine eyes grow moister.Greet Ursula from me; her fameIs known to all. A nobler dame,Since days of Clovis, ne’er becameThe inmate of a cloister.Our paths diverge, yet we may goTogether for a league or so;I, too, will join thy band belowWhen thou thy bugle windest.[Eric goes out.]
Hugo:From weaknesses we stand afar,On us unpleasantly they jar;And yet the stoutest-hearted areThe gentlest and the kindest.My mother loved me tenderly;Alas! her only son was I.I shudder’d, but my lids were dry,By death made orphan newly.A braver man than me, I swear,Who never comprehended fear,Scarce names his mother, and the tear,Unbidden, springs unruly.