Don Carlos | Page 7

me live or die.
What
would you more? Is there beneath the sun
One thing I would not
haste to sacrifice
To meet your lightest wish?
QUEEN.
Then fly!
CARLOS.
God!
QUEEN.
With tears I do conjure you, Carlos, fly!
I ask no more. O
fly! before my court,
My guards, detecting us alone together,
Bear
the dread tidings to your father's ear.
CARLOS.
I bide my doom, or be it life or death.
Have I staked
every hope on this one moment,
Which gives thee to me thus at
length alone,
That idle fears should balk me of my purpose?
No,

queen! The world may round its axis roll
A hundred thousand times,
ere chance again
Yield to my prayers a moment such as this.
QUEEN.
It never shall to all eternity.
Unhappy man! What would
you ask of me?
CARLOS.
Heaven is my witness, queen, how I have struggled,

Struggled as mortal never did before,
But all in vain! My manhood
fails--I yield.
QUEEN.
No more of this--for my sake--for my peace.
CARLOS.
You were mine own,--in face of all the world,--

Affianced to me by two mighty crowns,
By heaven and nature
plighted as my bride,
But Philip, cruel Philip, stole you from me!
QUEEN.
He is your father?
CARLOS.
And he is your husband!
QUEEN.
And gives to you for an inheritance,
The mightiest
monarchy in all the world.
CARLOS.
And you, as mother!
QUEEN.
Mighty heavens! You rave!
CARLOS.
And is he even conscious of his treasure?
Hath he a
heart to feel and value yours?
I'll not complain--no, no, I will forget,

How happy, past all utterance, I might
Have been with you,--if he
were only so.
But he is not--there, there, the anguish lies!
He is not,
and he never--never can be.
Oh, you have robbed me of my paradise,


Only to blast it in King Philip's arms!
QUEEN.
Horrible thought!
CARLOS.
Oh, yes, right well I know
Who 'twas that knit this ill-starred
marriage up.
I know how Philip loves, and how he wooed.
What are
you in this kingdom--tell me, what?
Regent, belike! Oh, no! If such
you were,
How could fell Alvas act their murderous deeds,
Or
Flanders bleed a martyr for her faith?
Are you even Philip's wife?
Impossible,--
Beyond belief. A wife doth still possess
Her
husband's heart. To whom doth his belong?
If ever, perchance, in
some hot feverish mood,
He yields to gentler impulse, begs he not

Forgiveness of his sceptre and gray hairs?
QUEEN.
Who told you that my lot, at Philip's side
Was one for
men to pity?
CARLOS.
My own heart!
Which feels, with burning pangs, how at my side
It
had been to be envied.
QUEEN.
Thou vain man!
What if my heart should tell me the reverse?
How,
sir, if Philip's watchful tenderness,
The looks that silently proclaim
his love,
Touched me more deeply than his haughty son's

Presumptuous eloquence? What, if an old man's
Matured esteem----
CARLOS.
That makes a difference! Then,
Why then, forgiveness!--I'd no
thought of this;
I had no thought that you could love the king.

QUEEN.
To honor him's my pleasure and my wish.
CARLOS.
Then you have never loved?
QUEEN.
Singular question!
CARLOS.
Then you have never loved?
QUEEN.
I love no longer!
CARLOS.
Because your heart forbids it, or your oath?
QUEEN.
Leave me; nor never touch this theme again.
CARLOS.
Because your oath forbids it, or your heart?
QUEEN.
Because my duty--but, alas, alas!
To what avails this
scrutiny of fate,
Which we must both obey?
CARLOS.
Must--must obey?
QUEEN.
What means this solemn tone?
CARLOS.
Thus much it means
That Carlos is not one to yield to must
Where
he hath power to will! It means, besides,
'That Carlos is not minded to
live on,
The most unhappy man in all his realm,
When it would
only cost the overthrow
Of Spanish laws to be the happiest.
QUEEN.
Do I interpret rightly? Still you hope?
Dare you hope on,

when all is lost forever?
CARLOS.
I look on naught as lost--except the dead.
QUEEN.
For me--your mother, do you dare to hope?
[She fixes a penetrating look on him, then continues
with dignity and
earnestness.
And yet why not? A new elected monarch
Can do far more--make
bonfires of the laws
His father left--o'erthrow his monuments--
Nay,
more than this--for what shall hinder him?--
Drag from his tomb, in
the Escurial,
The sacred corpse of his departed sire,
Make it a
public spectacle, and scatter
Forth to the winds his desecrated dust.

And then, at last, to fill the measure up----
CARLOS.
Merciful heavens, finish not the picture!
QUEEN.
End all by wedding with his mother.
CARLOS.
Oh!
Accursed son!
[He remains for some time paralyzed and speechless.
Yes, now 'tis out, 'tis out!
I see it clear as day. Oh, would it had

Been veiled from me in everlasting darkness!
Yes, thou art gone from
me--gone--gone forever.
The die is cast; and thou art lost to me.
Oh,
in that thought lies hell; and a hell, too,
Lies in the other thought, to
call thee mine.
Oh, misery! I can bear my fate no longer,
My very
heart-strings strain as they would burst.
QUEEN.
Alas, alas! dear Charles, I feel it all,
The nameless pang
that rages in your breast;
Your pangs are infinite, as is your love,

And infinite as both will be the glory
Of overmastering both. Up, be