136
THE GOD-EATER
Whose sweet reversion hangs above me now :
To order luck !
Criospa. Skill orders luck !
MAURYA. ._ The draught !
CRIOsSDA. Elither, O Maurya!
MAURYA. IT will come to thee.
[Criospa, taking hashish, throws it
upon the glowing censer. MAURYA
comes down stage and bends over tt,
CRIOSDA “ifts tt up and offers it
reverently,
Maurya. Methinks anticipation o’ the
event
Shoots in my veins, darting delight.
Why, this is strange !
I am losing myself. Criosda !
The walls of the world fall back with a crash.
Where isall this? Iam out of myself: I expand
O Maurya, where art thou, little phantom
of myriads of ages ago? What a
memory! Ah! Ah! She is falling.
[MauRYA staggers. CRIOSDA, who
has been watching her narrowly,
catches her and lays her tenderly on
the altar.
Oh, what happiness, what happiness!
osda, dear brother, how I love you!
I wish to sleep for ever—I wish to die !
[Criospa, who has been bending over
her, leaps up, shrteks.
Criospa. The luck of Maurya !
[fe draws quickly his dirk ; 2t flashes
on high, he leaps on to the body of
Maurya, and plunges tt into her
heart.
Cri-
CURTAIN.
ACT II.
FORTY YEARS AFTERWARDS.
The scene ts an open and stormy sea, RUPHA,
with her staff, wave-riding in a cockle-
shell.
RUPHA, Ha! Ha!
In the storm
I ride.
The winds bear me.
The waves fear me.
I appal ; I inform
Their pride.
Let him hither,
Drifting ever
Wrecked and lost !
His life shall wither.
The dirk shall sever
His rune ill-crossed.
I hear him come
Across the foam
With a bang and a boom.
The winds, hum, hum.
The billows comb.
Ho! Ho! the doom!
Ho! Ho! I have won.
I shall win.
Death to the sun !
Life to sin !
They reap who sow.
Ho! Ho!
[4 boat driftsin, L. In it the aged
CRIOSDA, Azs white hatr afloat in
the storm, 7s standing with folded
arms. His eyes are dull, as seeing
wnward.
RupHA. Ela! Ha!
Tis the priest.
Dost think
O’ the feast ?
Criosda. shrink !
The rune is woe.
Ho! Ho!
Criospa. Mother of Sin!
RUPHA. Ho! Ho!
Criospa. Thus then at last the Luck of
Maurya throws
A double-six to lost Criosda.
RupuHa. Ho!
The Luck of Maurya!
The power of the deed.
CriIosDA. I find thee, mother, at last.
Life’s final flash
Gleams through the storm.
RUPHA. I am found!
Ho! Ho!