Vittoria — Complete by George Meredith (e novels for free .TXT) 📕

'Thou standest the shadow in my happiness.'

'The bright sun will have its shadow.'

'I desire that all rejoice this day.'

'My hour of rejoicing approaches.'

'Wilt thou unveil?'

'Dost thou ask to look the storm in the face?'

'Wilt thou unveil?'

'Art thou hungry for the lightning?'

'I bid thee unveil, woman!'

Michiella's ringing shriek of command produces no response.

'It is she!' cries Michiella, from a contracted bosom; smiting it with clenched hands.

'Swift to the signatures. O rival! what bitterness hast thou come hither to taste.'

Camilla sings aside: 'If yet my husband loves me and is true.'

Count Orso exclaims: 'Let trumpets sound for the commencement of the festivities. The lord of his country may slumber while his people dance and drink!'

Trumpets flourish. Witnesses are called about the table. Camillo, pen in hand, prepares for the supreme act. Leonardo at one wing watches the eagerness of Michiella. The chorus chants to a muted measure of suspense, while Camillo dips pen in ink.

'She is away from me: she scorns me: she is lost to me. Life without honour is the life of swine. Union without love is the yoke of savage beasts. O me miserable! Can the heavens themselves plumb the depth of my degradation?'

Count Orso permits a half-tone of paternal severity to point his kindly hint that time is passing. When he was young, he says, in the broad and benevolently frisky manner, he would have signed ere the eye of the maiden twinkled her affirmative, or the goose had shed its quill.

Camillo still trifles. Then he dashes the pen to earth.

'Never! I have but one wife. Our marriage is irrevocable. The dishonoured man is the everlasting outcast. What are earthly possessions to me, if within myself shame faces me? Let all go. Though I have lost Camilla, I will be worthy of her. Not a pen no pen; it is the sword that I must write with. Strike, O count! I am here: I stand alone. By the edge of this sword, I swear that never deed of mine shall rob Camilla of her heritage; though I die the death, she shall not weep for a craven!'

The multitude break away from Camilla—veiled no more, but radiant; fresh as a star that issues through corrupting vapours, and with her voice at a starry pitch in its clear ascendency:

'Tear up the insufferable scroll!— O thou, my lover and my soul! It is the Sword that reunites; The Pen that our perdition writes.'

She is folded in her husband's arms.

Michiella fronts them, horrid of aspect:—

'Accurst divorced one! dost thou dare To lie in shameless fondness there? Abandoned! on thy lying brow Thy name shall be imprinted now.'

Camilla parts from her husband's embrace:

'My name is one I do not fear; 'Tis one that thou wouldst shrink to hear. Go, cool thy penitential fires, Thou creature, foul with base desires!' CAMILLO (facing Count Orso). 'The choice is thine!' COUNT ORSO (draws). 'The choice is made!' CHORUS (narrowing its circle). 'Familiar is that naked blade. Of others, of himself, the fate How swift 'tis Provocation's mate!' MICHIELLA (torn with jealous rage). 'Yea; I could smite her on the face. Father, first read the thing's disgrace. I grudge them, honourable death. Put poison in their latest breath!' ORSO (his left arm extended). 'You twain are sundered: hear with awe The judgement of the Source of Law.' CAMILLA (smiling confidently). 'Not such, when I was at the Source, It said to me;—but take thy course.' ORSO (astounded). 'Thither thy steps were bent?' MICHIELLA (spurning verbal controversy). 'She feigns! A thousand swords are in my veins. Friends! soldiers I strike them down, the pair!' CAMILLO (on guard, clasping his wife). ''Tis well! I cry, to all we share. Yea, life or death, 'tis well! 'tis well!' MICHIELLA (stamps her foot). 'My heart 's a vessel tossed on hell!' LEONARDO (aside). 'Not in glad nuptials ends the day.' ORSO (to Camilla). 'What is thy purpose with us?—say!' CAMILLA (lowly). 'Unto my Father I have crossed For tidings of my Mother lost.' ORSO. 'Thy mother dead!' CAMILLA. 'She lives!' MICHIELLA. 'Thou liest! The tablets of the tomb defiest! The Fates denounce, the Furies chase The wretch who lies in Reason's face.' CAMILLA. 'Fly, then; for we are match'd to try Which is the idiot, thou or I' MICHIELLA. Graceless Camilla!' ORSO 'Senseless girl! I cherished thee a precious pearl, And almost owned thee child of mine.' CAMILLA. 'Thou kept'st me like a gem, to shine, Careless that I of blood am made; No longer be the end delay'd. 'Tis time to prove I have a heart— Forth from these walls of mine depart! The ghosts within them are disturb'd Go forth, and let thy wrath be curb'd, For I am strong: Camillo's truth Has arm'd the visions of our youth. Our union by the Head Supreme Is blest: our severance was the dream. We who have drunk of blood and tears, Knew nothing of a mortal's fears. Life is as Death until the strife In our just cause makes Death as Life.' ORSO ''Tis madness?' LEONARDO. 'Is it madness?' CAMILLA. 'Men! 'Tis Reason, but