Athulf.

Being so, my friend,

The lateness should be called a reason more.
Forester. True, sir; but it should lead you near the

spot

Where Father Dunstan for these three weeks past
Nightly encounters Satan.

Athulf.

For myself

I heed not that. Howbeit, that way wending,
Methinks that my attendance would wax thin.
Please you to show me by what devious path
I may eschew the Devil and Father Dunstan.
Forester. At your command, sir. I will go before

you.

SCENE II.-A Corridor in the Palace at Kingston.

ODO, HARCATHER, RUOLD.

Odo. Earl Athulf come! I'll with you to the King. Harcather. You'll find your monasteries emptied

out

Under your nose, my Lord, at Sheen and Sion
Ere it be long; and why you arm not now

It passes me to guess.

Odo.

The Abbot, Sir,

The Abbot listens to no mortal voice
Except his mother's; and old Cynethryth
Is fearful of divisions; for in her youth
The splitting of the realm within itself
Was wont to sound a summons to the Dane,
And fetch him o'er the seas.

Harcather.

An old wife's tale.

Odo. I'll bring you to the King, and testify That what you charge on Athulf and his House Is worthy of all credit.

Harcather.

Ruold, mark,

I will thee not to loiter thus at Court.

Get thee again to Chester, son. Farewell.

[Exeunt ODO and HARCATHER.

Ruold. Father, farewell! and then farewell the
Court!

To stay should but divide me from my friends
By worse than distance; for my father's hand
Is raised against them. Wherefore, fare you well,
Good Athulf and Elgiva. Peace be with you;
And not the war my father fain would wage.

Enter LEOLF and ATHULF.

[Exit.

Leolf. Fair shines the hour and friendly to my spirit, That brings thee back. Welcome once more

Kingston !

I would have said to Court; but, by my faith!
Far leifer would I to a cottage bid thee,

Than such a Court as this.

Athulf.

Court, cot, or camp,

What ails the Court?

Hut, hovel, let it be, or blasted heath,

In shine or storm, well met !

Leolf. Its old disorder; complex and compounded

Of many ills in even shares partaken,-
Ambition's fever, envy's jaundiced eye,
Detraction that exulcerates, aguish fear,
Suspicion's wasting pale insomnolence,
With hatred's canker.

Say you so?

Come cowl and crosier! With a cap of steel

And battle-axe in hand, we will not fly.

But softly for a season! In what current

Runs the blood-royal? Are we where we were?

to

Leolf. O'er the Queen-Mother's mean and meagre

soul

Hath monkery triumphed; taking for allies

Her past misdeeds and ever-present fears.

Upon the Princess too I see it steal,
And stain her pleasant purity of spirit.
Athulf. But still the King is staunch?
Leolf.

Young, young and warm ; Prompt in defiance, too precipitate;

For we must have him crowned, or it be safe
To cross them. But the passion which in youth
Drives fast downhill, means that the impulse gained
Should speed us up the hill that's opposite.

How found you the mid-counties?

Oh! Monk-ridden;

'Tis a raving time:

Mad monks, mad peasants; Dunstan is not sane,
And madness that doth least declare itself
Endangers most and ever most infects

The unsound many. See where stands that man,
And where this people: then compute the peril
To one and all. When force and cunning meet
Upon the confine of one cloudy mind,

When ignorance and knowledge halve the mass,
When night and day stand at an equinox,

Then storms are rife. Yet, once the King were crowned,
We could face Dunstan; which he knows too well,
And still by one thin pretext or another

Defers the coronation, and his will

The Primate follows.

Athulf.

Upon Edwin's head

Before the crown must come the stout steel cap;
Is it not so ?

And therefore, Athulf, in a happy hour

Com'st thou to Kingston. Ere the day be spent
We must take counsel with old Clarenbald.
You 're strong in Wessex, and can thither send
To hold your strength in readiness. Meanwhile
Breathe not a word of menace; for at Court
The Monks have eyes and ears in every chamber,
And Kingston is beset by bands of theirs.

Athulf. Gramercy, Monks! I'll thunder in a whisper,

And say, God save the King! inaudibly,
That only heaven shall hear.-A truce to Kings,
To monks, to madmen! Leolf, at my heart
There is a matter that sits closer far

Than state affairs. How thrive you with my sister?
Leolf. Indifferently. In sooth I hardly know.
We'll talk of that-but by your leave, hereafter.
Seek we the Chancellor now, and let your mind
Put off its soldierly habiliments,

And on its garb of policy, to meet

The wise old man.

Athulf.

Off, idle hauberk, off!

Off, clattering sword! off, greave and gauntlet !There!

Behold me politic! Old Clarenbald,

A serious politician comes to council.

SCENE III.-Warlewood Chase. Evening.

Dunstan. (Alone) Spirit of speculation, rest, ol

rest!

And push not from her place the spirit of prayer!
God, thou 'st given unto me a troubled being-
So move upon the face thereof, that light
May be, and be divided from the darkness !
Arm thou my soul that I may smite and chase
The spirit of that darkness, whom not I
But Thou thro' me compellest.-Mighty power,
Legions of piercing thoughts illuminate,
Hast Thou committed to my large command,
Weapons of light and radiant shafts of day,
And steeds that trample on the tumbling clouds.
But with them it hath pleased Thee to let mingle
Evil imaginations, corporal stings,

A host of Imps and Ethiops, dark doubts,
Suggestions of revolt.-Who is 't that dares-

Enter GURMO.

Oh! is it thou? What saith my Lord Archbishop?

Gurmo. He will be there.

Dunstan.

Gurmo.

At Sheen to-morrow!

Yes.

Dunstan. And what my Lady the Queen mother?

Gurmo.

To-night.

Here

Dunstan. I wished not she should come so soon. No matter-let her choose-To-night then be it. Go, get thee to the hollow of yon tree,

And bellow there as is thy wont.

Gurmo.

Dunstan. Till thy lungs crack.

How long?

Get hence.

[Exit GURMO.

And if thou bellowest otherwise than Satan,
It is not for the lack of Satan's sway
'Stablished within thee.

[Strange howls are heard from the tree.
Well said, Satan! Ay !

Thou feel'st the red-hot pincers at thy nose.

And call'st thou this a fraud, thou secular lack-brain? Thou loose lay-priest, I tell thee it is none.

Do I not battle wage in very deed

With Satan! Yea, and conquer! And who's he

Saith falsehood is delivered in these howls,

Which do but to the vulgar ear translate
Truths else to them ineffable?

Where's Satan?

His presence, life and kingdom? Not the air
Nor bowels of the earth nor central fires
His habitat exhibits; it is here,
Here in the heart of Man.

And if from hence

I cast him with discomfiture, that truth
Is verily of the vulgar sense conceived,
By utterance symbolic, when they deem
That met in bodily oppugnancy

I tweak him by the snout. A fair belief
Wherein the fleshly and the palpable type
Doth of pure truth substantiate the essence.