LUCIFER. Lower! lower! Hover downward! Seize the loud, vociferous bells, and All thy thunders Here are harmless! VOICES. For these bells have been anointed, THE BELLS. Defunctos ploro! Festa decoro! LUCIFER. Shake the casements! Break the painted Panes, that flame with gold and crimson; Scatter them like leaves of Autumn, Swept away before the blast! O, we cannot! The Archangel VOICES. Michael flames from every window, Headlong, out of heaven, aghast! THE BELLS. Funera plango! LUCIFER. Aim your lightnings At the oaken, Massive, iron-studded portals! Sack the house of God, and scatter Wide the ashes of the dead! O, we cannot! The Apostles VOICES. And the Martyrs, wrapped in mantles, THE BELLS. Excito lentos! Paco cruentos! LUCIFER. Baffled! baffled! Inefficient, Craven spirits! leave this labor Onward! onward! VOICES. With the night-wind, Over field and farm and forest, Lonely homestead, darksome hamlet, Blighting all we breathe upon! They sweep away. Organ and Gregorian Chant. CHOIR. Nocte surgentes I. THE CASTLE OF VAUTSBERG ON THE RHINE. A chamber in a tower. PRINCE HENRY, sitting alone, ill and restless. Midnight. PRINCE HENRY. I CANNOT sleep! my fervid brain Come back! ye friends, whose lives are ended, Which seemed to darken and decay When ye arose and went away! They come, the shapes of joy and woe, They change the cloisters of the night They make the dark and dreary hours Rest! rest! O, give me rest and peace! A flash of lightning, out of which LUCIFER appears, in the garb of a travelling Physician. When came you in? PRINCE HENRY. LUCIFER. A moment since. I found your study door unlocked, And thought you answered when I knocked. I did not hear you. PRINCE HENRY. LUCIFER. You heard the thunder; It was loud enough to waken the dead. And it is not a matter of special wonder That, when God is walking overhead, You should not hear my feeble tread. PRINCE HENRY. What may your wish or purpose be? LUCIFER. Nothing or every thing, as it pleases One of the few who have a mission Or those that are called so. The dead to life? PRINCE HENRY. Can you bring LUCIFER. Yes; very nearly. And, what is a wiser and better thing, |