By the bye, I have lost sight of her, and I am interrupting you. (Aside to SQUIRE, as he goes out.) I came to tell you that she is ripe for an elopement, if you urge her strongly. Edmunds has been reproaching her to my knowledge. She’ll consent while her passion lasts.
[Exit
SQUIRE. Lucy, I wait your answer. One word from you, and a few hours will place you far beyond the reach of those who would fetter your choice and control your inclinations. You hesitate. Come, decide. The Squire’s lady, or the wife of Edmunds!
Duet.—LUCY and SQUIRE NORTON.
SQUIRE.
In rich and lofty station shine,
Before his jealous eyes:
In golden splendour, lady mine,
This peasant youth despise.
LUCY (apart: the SQUIRE regarding her attentively).
Oh! It would be revenge indeed
With scorn his glance to meet.
I, I, his humble pleading heed!
I’d spurn him from my feet.
SQUIRE.
With love and rage her bosom’s torn,
And rash the choice will be;
LUCY.
With love and rage my bosom’s torn,
And rash the choice will be.
SQUIRE.
From hence she quickly must be borne,
Her home, her home, she’ll flee.
LUCY.
Oh! long shall I have cause to mourn
My home, my home, for thee!
Enter OLD BENSON.
BENSON. What do I see! The Squire and Lucy.
SQUIRE. Listen. A chaise and four fleet horses, under the direction of a trusty friend of mine, will be in waiting on the high road, at the corner of the Elm-Tree avenue, to-night, at ten o’clock. They shall bear you whither we can be safe, and in secret, by the first light of morning.
LUCY. His cruel harshness;—it would be revenge, indeed. But my father—my poor old father!
SQUIRE. Your father is prejudiced in Edmund’s favour; and so long as he thinks there is any chance of your being his, he will oppose your holding communication with me. Situated as you are now, you only stand in the way of his wealth and advancement. Once fly with me, and in four and twenty hours you will be his pride, his boast, his support.
OLD BENSON coming forward.
BENSON. It is a lie, a base lie!—(LUCY shrieks and throws herself at his feet.) My pride! my boast! She would be my disgrace, my shame: an outcast from her father’s roof, and from the world. Support!—Support me with the gold coined in her infamy and guilt! Heaven help me! Have I cherished her for this!
LUCY (clinging to him). Father!—dear, dear, father!
SQUIRE. Hear me speak, Benson. Be calm.
BENSON. Calm!—Do you know that from infancy I have almost worshipped her, fancying that I saw in her young mind the virtues of a mother, to whom the anguish of this one hour would have been worse than death! Calm!—Do you know that I have a heart and soul within me; or do you believe that because I am of lower station, I am a being of a different order from yourself, and that Nature has denied me thought and feeling! Calm! Man, do you know that I am this girl’s father?
SQUIRE. Benson, if you will not hear me, at least do not, by hastily exposing this matter, deprive me of the inclination of making you some reparation.
BENSON. Reparation! You need be thankful, sir, for the grasp she has upon my arm. Money! If she were dying for want, and the smallest coin from you could restore her to life and health, sooner than she should take it from your hand, I would cast her from a sick bed to perish on the road-side.
SQUIRE. Benson, a word.
BENSON. Do not, I caution you; do not talk to me, sir. I am an old man, but I do not know what passion may make me do.
SQUIRE. These are high words, Benson. A farmer!
BENSON. Yes, sir; a farmer, one of the men on whom you, and such as you, depend for the money they squander in profligacy and idleness. A farmer, sir! I care not for your long pedigree of ancestors,—my forefathers made them all. Here, neighbours, friends! (ROSE, MADDOX, STOKES, Villagers, etc., crowd on the stage.) Hear this, hear this! your landlord, a high-born gentleman, entering the houses of your humble farmers, and tempting their daughters to destruction!
Enter YOUNG BENSON and GEORGE EDMUNDS.
YOUNG BENSON. What’s that I hear? (rushing towards the SQUIRE, STOKES interposes).
MARTIN. Hallo, hallo! Take hold of the other one, John. (MADDOX and he remove them to opposite sides of the stage.) Hold him tight, John, hold him tight. Stand still, there’s a good fellow.