*[The acting edition reads,—"Banditti! we are quits. Thisbleeding corpse cancels my bond to you forever. From your own Iset you free." ROBBERS. "We are again your slaves till death!"CHARLES. "No, no, no! We have done with each other. My geniuswhispers me, 'Go no further, Moor. Here is the goal of humanity—and thine!' Take back this bloody plume (throws it at their feet).Let him who seeks to be your captain take it up."]
With shame and horror I here lay down the bloody staff, under which you thought yourselves licensed to perpetrate your crimes and to defile the fair light of heaven with deeds of darkness. Depart to the right and to the left. We shall never more have aught in common.
THE ROBBERS. Ha! coward! where are thy lofty schemes? were they but soap-bubbles, which disperse at the breath of a woman?*
*[In lieu of this soliloquy and what follows, to the end, theacting edition has:—R. MOOR. Dare not to scrutinize the acts of Moor. That is my lastcommand. Now, draw near—form a circle around me, and receive thelast words of your dying captain. (He surveys them attentively forsome time.) You have been devotedly faithful to me, faithfulbeyond example. Had virtue bound you together as firmly as vice,you would have been heroes, and your names recorded by mankind withadmiration. Go and offer your services to the state. Dedicateyour talents to the cause of a monarch who is waging war invindication of the rights of man. With this blessing I disbandyou. Schweitzer and Kosinsky, do you stay. (The others disperseslowly, with signs of emotion.)]
R. MOOR, SCRWETTZER, and KOSINSKY.R. MOOR. Give me thy right hand, Kosinsky—Schweitzer thy left.(He takes their hands, and stands between, them; to KOSINSKY,)Young man, thou art still pure-amongst the guilty thou alone artguiltless! (To SCHWEITZER.) Deeply have I imbrued thy hand inblood. 'Tis I who have done this. With this cordial grasp I takeback mine own. Schweitzer! thou art purified! (He raises theirhands fervently to heaven.) Father in heaven! here I restore themto thee. They will be more devoted to thy service than those whonever fell. Of that I feel assured. (SCHWEITZER and KOSINSKY fallon his neck with fervor.) Not now—not now, dear comrades. Sparemy feelings in this trying hour. An earldom has this day fallen tomy lot—a rich domain on which no malediction rests. Share itbetween you, my children; become good citizens; and if for tenhuman beings that I have destroyed you make but one happy, my soulmay yet be saved. Go—no farewell! In another world we may meetagain—or perhaps no more. Away! away! ere my fortitude desert me.[Exeunt both, with downcast countenances.]
And I, too, am a good citizen. Do I not fulfil the extremity ofthe law? Do I not honor the law? Do I not uphold and defend it?I remember speaking to a poor officer on my way hither, who wastoiling as a day-laborer, and has eleven living children. Athousand ducats have been offered to whoever shall deliver up thegreat robber alive. That man shall be served. [Exit.]
CHARLES. Oh! fool that I was, to fancy that I could amend the world by misdeeds and maintain law by lawlessness! I called it vengeance and equity. I presumed, O Providence! upon whetting out the notches of thy sword and repairing thy partialities. But, oh, vain trifling! here I stand on the brink of a fearful life, and learn, with wailing and gnashing of teeth, that two men like myself could ruin the whole edifice of the moral world. Pardon—pardon the boy who thought to forestall Thee; to Thee alone belongeth vengeance; Thou needest not the hand of man! But it is not in my power to recall the past; that which is ruined remains ruined; what I have thrown down will never more rise up again. Yet one thing is left me whereby I may atone to the offended majesty of the law and restore the order which I have violated. A victim is required—a victim to declare before all mankind how inviolable that majesty is—that victim shall be myself. I will be the death-offering!
ROBBERS. Take his sword from him—he will kill himself.
CHARLES. Fools that ye are! doomed to eternal blindness! Think ye that one mortal sin will expiate other mortal sins? Do you suppose that the harmony of the world would be promoted by such an impious discord? (Throwing his arms at their feet.) He shall have me alive. I go to deliver myself into the hands of justice.
ROBBERS. Put him in chains! he has lost his senses!
CHARLES. Not that I have any doubt but that justice would find me speedily enough if the powers above so ordained it. But she might surprise me in sleep, or overtake me in flight, or seize me with violence and the sword, and then I should have lost the only merit left me, that of making my death a free-will atonement. Why should I, like a thief, any longer conceal a life, which in the counsels of the heavenly ministry has long been forfeited?
ROBBERS. Let him go. He is infected with the great-man-mania; he means to offer up his life for empty admiration.
CHARLES. I might, 'tis true, be admired for it. (After a moment's reflection.) I remember, on my way hither, talking to a poor creature, a day-laborer, with eleven living children. A reward has been offered of a thousand louis-d'ors to any one who shall deliver up the great robber alive. That man shall be served.[Exit.]