42
PIPPA PASSES.
intelligence with the Carbonari are correct, we arrest him at once, to-morrow comes Venice, and presently Spielberg. Bluphocks makes the signal, sure enough! That is he, entering the turret with his mother, no doubt.
III.—EVENING.
Scene.—Inside the Turret on the Hill above Asolo. Luigi and his Mother entering.
Mother. If there blew wind, you ’d hear a long sigh, easing
The utmost heaviness of music’s heart.
Luigi. Here in the archway?
Luigi. Here in the archway?Mother. Oh no, no—in farther,
Where the echo is made, on the ridge.
Where the echo is made, on the ridge.Luigi. Here surely, then
How plain the tap of my heel as I leaped up!
Hark—“Lucius Junius!” The very ghost of a voice
Whose body is caught and kept by … what are those?
Mere withered wallflowers, waving overhead?
They seem an elvish group with thin bleached hair
That lean out of their topmost fortress—look
And listen, mountain men, to what we say,
Hand under chin of each grave earthy face.
Up and show faces all of you!—“All of you!”
That’s the king dwarf with the scarlet comb; old Franz,
Come down and meet your fate? Hark—“Meet your fate!”
Mother. Let him not meet it, my Luigi—do not
The utmost heaviness of music’s heart.
Luigi. Here in the archway?
Luigi. Here in the archway?Mother. Oh no, no—in farther,
Where the echo is made, on the ridge.
Where the echo is made, on the ridge.Luigi. Here surely, then
How plain the tap of my heel as I leaped up!
Hark—“Lucius Junius!” The very ghost of a voice
Whose body is caught and kept by … what are those?
Mere withered wallflowers, waving overhead?
They seem an elvish group with thin bleached hair
That lean out of their topmost fortress—look
And listen, mountain men, to what we say,
Hand under chin of each grave earthy face.
Up and show faces all of you!—“All of you!”
That’s the king dwarf with the scarlet comb; old Franz,
Come down and meet your fate? Hark—“Meet your fate!”
Mother. Let him not meet it, my Luigi—do not
