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Aymer enters. (They look on each other for a moment without speaking.)

Rai. (suppressing his emotion.) So brothers meet! You know
Wherefore I come?

Aym. It cannot be; 'tis vain.
Tell me not of it!

Rai. How! you have not heard?
(Turning from him.)
He hath so shut the world out with his dreams,
The tidings hare not reach'd him! or perchance
Have been forgotten! You have captives here?

Aym. (hurriedly.) Yes, mine! my own—won by the right of arms!
You dare not question it.

Rai. A prince, they say,
And his fair sister:—is the maid so fair!

Aym. (turning suddenly upon him.)
What, you would see her!

Rai. (scornfully) I!—oh, yes! to quell
My soul's deep yearnings! Let me look on swords.
Boy, boy! recall yourself!—I come to you
With the last blessing of our father!

Aym. Last!
His last!—how mean you? Is he——

Rai. Dead?—yes! dead.
He died upon my breast.

Aym, (with the deepest emotion.) And I was here!
Dead!—and upon your breast! You closed his eyes—
While I—he spoke of me?

Rai. With such deep love!
He ever loved you most! His spirit seem'd
To linger for your coming.

Aym. What! he thought
That I was on my way! He look'd for me?
And I—

Rai. You came not! I had sent to you,
And told you he was wounded.

Aym. Yes—but not—
Not mortally!

Rai. 'Twas not that outward wound—
That might have closed; and yet he surely thought
That you would come to him! He call'd on you
When his thoughts wander'd! Ay, the very night,
The very hour he died, some hasty step
Enter'd his chamber—and he raised his head,
With a faint lightning in his eyes, and ask'd
If it were yours! That hope's brief moment pass'd—
He sank then.

Aym. (throwing himself upon his brother's neck.)
Brother! take me to his grave,
That I may kneel there, till my burning tears,