But you must go. Sarah demands, and justly,
That none should share my love and heritage
With Isaac. Yet I fondly love thee, child;
And for thy mother, Heaven can bear me witness
That I am grieved even with grief like hers,
To part. Oh, Hagar, think not hardly of me!—
Believe not that my heart is grown more cold
Or cruel than when first it beat for thee!
Think not I have forgotten all thy love,
And fond devotion, and long sufferance;
Alas! they are recorded in my soul
Too deeply and too well! That soul itself
Bleeds that we part thus!-But alas it must be,
Hagar, and thus staying lingeringly
Serves but to deepen the heart-wounds of both!
What boots it thus to mock me with the words
Of fondness, while your deeds are those of hate?
You send us forth to wander in the waste,
A feeble woman and a tender child,
And yet you talk of love! Ah! 'tis the love
Which man so often bears to woman, which
Springs at the first from selfish lust, and ends
In selfish recklessness. We both shall perish!
Will Sarah's life be longer for my death?-
Will Isaac thrive the more that Ishmael dies?-
Oh! weak and cruel man, who thus art driven
To deeds of death against your wish-to kill
Those whom you say you love, that you may please
The hate and rancour of a jealous woman!
We both shall perish,-and 'tis by your deed.
The Lord will have you in his keeping, and
His mercy will preserve your lives.-Farewell!-
You wrong me, Hagar, thus to think me cruel;
I have His license for the deed I do.
Still, does my heart smite me, and the salt tear
Springs gushingly to my eyes as they rest
On your beloved face for the last time!
Forgive me, Hagar-dear, dear, Hagar, say
That you forgive me, ere you go! Once more
Place your soft hand in mine!-Once only more
Let me enfold you on my heart!-
(She looks at him for a short time in mingled fondness and reproach, and at last falls upon his neck and weeps.)
Dear Hagar, fare thee well! May the great Gov
In his all-merciful goodness succour you!-
Bless you!-bless you!-bless you!—
(He rushes into the house.-After a long pause,
Hagar takes the scrip and bottle with water,
and sets forward with Ishmael towards the
desert.)
SCENE II.-The Desert of Beersheba.
HAGAR, ISHMAEL.
Mother, dear mother, I can go no farther,
Here must I sink and die! I faint with thirst
And weariness unbearable. My feet
Are burst and bleeding with the hard hot sand-
My stiffening knees ache at each step I tread-
And, oh! this terrible consuming drought!—
The camel's proverbed sufferance of thirst
Would fail him here! I burn-I burn-
My tongue is swollen and hardened; and my throat
Is burning as though 'twere itself a fire!
All, all, is burning in me!-my hot eyes
Ache with this glazy mist of sand and sun,
And feel as if their lids were heated iron!-
This dreadful sun strikes on my scorched-up brain
As if my head-top were already burst,
And all within were bared to its fierce rays.
Oh! for one bough of shade to screen my head-
One drop of moisture to relieve my tongue!
Is none, none, left?
(He takes the bottle, and strives to drain water
from it.)
As my own lips!-Mother, is no help near?
I'm perishing!
Bear up, my child; bear up
A little yet. We cannot fail to meet
One of those blessed spots where shrubs and springs
Refresh and save the fainting wayfarer.
Where shade gives coolness to his throbbing brows,
And in the bubbling wells he revels greedily!
I know that here are many such ;-bear up,
My own dear child !—we'll meet with them anon!
Oh, mother, 'tis too late! I faint-I sink
If Jordan rolled its ample wave within
An hundred paces from my panting lip
I could not reach it now- But see! oh see!
Yonder is water, mother! see it gleams
(His strength seems suddenly to return, and he springs forward.)
Oh! help me, mother, help me
To gain the blessed bank! my strength returns
To see the water glisten! oh how cool
It looks! how sweet! on mother-on-on-on
(They press forward-the scene changes to another part of the desert; after a pause, they reenter.)
Oh, God! it flies us !-It is that false glare
Which mocks the agony it makes-which strives
To add fresh anguish to our maddening pain
Then, as it were, derides us!-I am spent-
That last exertion called up all my strength,
And now it fails me quite!
(He falls exhausted.)
Oh mother, cast
My garment o'er my head to shield my eyes
From this accursed sun!—it burns! it burns !
But kiss me, mother, first-kiss my hot lips
For the last time on earth!-dear, dear, mother!
Oh! he will die in this wide wilderness,
Where there is none to help! No living thing
Can sojourn here;-the burning earth-the air
Of fiery sand-the boundless waste unwatered,
E'en by one merciful drop-are no abode
For any thing that lives ;-the very beasts
That fly from man to deepest solitudes
Never prowl here;-the desert-bird itself
Belies its name, and dwells not in a place
Which is all desert!-Can I marvel then
That man with fear and care should always shun
Regions so enemy to life?
(She looks anxiously to every quarter of the horizon.)
Alas!
No one is nigh-no troop of voyagers,
Or e'en a single wanderer, comes here
To save us at our need! My child! my child!
Must I then see thee die? thee, whose young life
Thrilled with such rapturous pleasure at my heart,
And brought that flood of exquisite joys which rise
With the new feelings of maternity!
Oh! how I've watched the dawn of infant sense
In those sweet eyes, which beamed and brightened on me!
And are they closed for ever? And that smile
Which spoke the 'waking consciousness within
Of life and love, ere yet the tongue could tell them,
Is it grown stiff in death? and have I seen it?
(She bends over him.)
There still is life!-and sudden help might yet
Preserve my child-Oh! let me shelter him
From these unmerciful rays, though my own brain
Is sick and giddy—
(She strips off some of her clothing, and spreads it
over him).
Oh! this thirst and heat
Devour and consume me too!-but my child
My own dear Ishmael requires my help,
And I will still endure !-were I to sink
We both should perish then beyond all hope.
(She looks around eagerly, and after a pause she suddenly starts up).
Oh God! what is't I see?—the moving sand
Speaks a large band of travellers on its way!
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