A day with Cromwell: a drama of history, in five acts, by Auctor.

  • Benjamin Ward Richardson
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A day with Cromwell: a drama of history, in five acts, by Auctor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    25/92 (page 19)
    If so, I must not question mortal form : Th* invisible and visible no oneness hold. The spirit prompting- me works all alone, Or silent rests. Yet would I know their knowing. [Calls Nora ! An echo repeats the word “ Nora.”] Nora [earnestly.]—Yes, mother, speak, I’ll tell thee all the truth. Rachel.—Hist, hist, my child, there’s some one else calls Nora. Nora.—It was the echo from the palace wall: There’s always echo here. Rachel. [Calls Nora! Echo—“Nora!”] Rachel.—Stand back, my child, and call out loudly, Rachel. Nora.—Rachel ! Rachel.—It echoes naught but Nora. “ When echo calls to one, and not to all, Some fate hangs low on those it doth not call: Strive then to know no more, ’tis heaven’s decree: But haste thy ways, and let the mystery be.” Mrs. Buckthorn [Aside.']—The woman bringeth over me the cold Presbyterians! [To Rachel.] Shall we go hence, my Lady ? shall we go ? Rachel [To both.]— Go first, go first, on tiptoe glide away, The spirit seeketh here its house of clay : Fain would it speak, but cannot—hist! away. [Exeunt omnes. Scene TV.—Whitehall Place, opposite to the windows op the House from which Charles the First stepped for EXECUTION. Enter the Duke de Tours and M. de Leonine. They bare their heads Leonine.—This was the spot, your Grace. De Tours.—So, so ! Leonine. Where now we stand, there stood the howling mob Some loyal still and weeping, but the mass Dead to all sense of love. The scaffold rose From yonder centre window, and the guards, Chiefly of Ironsides, were filed around, Armed to the teeth; each one a regicide. C 2 Si* JH&i