Page:Dramas 2.pdf/101

COUNTESS.

I thank you all! Have they been careful of you?

MENDICANTS.

Ay, bless you! they have served us bountifully.

COUNTESS.

But wherefore stand ye here? Retire within,

Where ye may sit at ease and eat your morsel.
Good Pilgrim, thou art weary, and lack'st rest;
I fear the hardships of thy wand'ring life
Have blanch'd thy scanty locks more than thine years.

PILGRIM.

No, gentle Lady: Heaven provides for me.

When ev'ning closes, still some shelt'ring cave,
Or peasant's cot, or goatherd's shed is near;
And, should the night in desert parts o'ertake me,
It pleases me to think the beating blast
Has its commission, by rough discipline
To profit me withal.

COUNTESS.

The beating blasts have well fulfill'd on thee

Their high commission.
But, oh! exceed not! Wander forth no more.
If thou hast home, or wife, or child, or aught
Of human kind that loves thee, O return!
Return to them, and end thy days in peace.
Didst thou but know the misery of those