Act V: Scene III. — Governor Endicott's Private Room. An Open Window

ENDICOTT.O lost, O loved! wilt thou return no more?O loved and lost, and loved the more when lost!How many men are dragged into their gravesBy their rebellious children! I now feelThe agony of a father's breaking heartIn David's cry, "O Absalom, my son!"

BELLINGHAM.Can you not turn your thoughts a little whileTo public matters? There are papers hereThat need attention.

ENDICOTT.Trouble me no more!My business now is with another world,Ah, Richard Bellingham! I greatly fearThat in my righteous zeal I have been ledTo doing many things which, left undone,My mind would now be easier. Did I dream it,Or has some person told me, that John NortonIs dead?

BELLINGHAM.You have not dreamed it. He is dead,And gone to his reward. It was no dream.

ENDICOTT.Then it was very sudden; for I saw himStanding where you now stand, not long ago.

BELLINGHAM.By his own fireside, in the afternoon,A faintness and a giddiness came o'er him;And, leaning on the chimney-piece, he cried,"The hand of God is on me!" and fell dead.

ENDICOTT.And did not some one say, or have I dreamed it,That Humphrey Atherton is dead?

BELLINGHAM.Alas!He too is gone, and by a death as sudden.Returning home one evening, at the placeWhere usually the Quakers have been scourged,His horse took fright, and threw him to the ground,So that his brains were dashed about the street.

ENDICOTT.I am not superstitions, Bellingham,And yet I tremble lest it may have beenA judgment on him.

BELLINGHAM.So the people think.They say his horse saw standing in the wayThe ghost of William Leddra, and was frightened.And furthermore, brave Richard Davenport,The captain of the Castle, in the stormHas been struck dead by lightning.

ENDICOTT.Speak no more.For as I listen to your voice it seemsAs if the Seven Thunders uttered their voices,And the dead bodies lay about the streetsOf the disconsolate city! Bellingham,I did not put those wretched men to death.I did but guard the passage with the swordPointed towards them, and they rushed upon it!Yet now I would that I had taken no partIn all that bloody work.

BELLINGHAM.The guilt of itBe on their heads, not ours.

ENDICOTT.Are all set free?

BELLINGHAM.All are at large.

ENDICOTT.And none have been sent backTo England to malign us with the King?

BELLINGHAM.The ship that brought them sails this very hour,But carries no one back.

ENDICOTT.What is that gun?

BELLINGHAM.Her parting signal. Through the window there,Look, you can see her sails, above the roofs,Dropping below the Castle, outward bound.

ENDICOTT.O white, white, white! Would that my soul had wingsAs spotless as those shining sails to fly with!Now lay this cushion straight. I thank you. Hark!I thought I heard the hall door open and shut!I thought I beard the footsteps of my boy!

BELLINGHAM.It was the wind. There's no one in the passage.

ENDICOTT.O Absalom, my son! I feel the worldSinking beneath me, sinking, sinking, sinking!Death knocks! I go to meet him! Welcome, Death!

BELLINGHAM.O ghastly sight! Like one who has been hanged!Endicott! Endicott! He makes no answer!

He breathes no more! How bright this signet-ringGlitters upon his hand, where he has worn itThrough such long years of trouble, as if DeathHad given him this memento of affection,And whispered in his ear, "Remember me!"How placid and how quiet is his face,Now that the struggle and the strife are endedOnly the acrid spirit of the timesCorroded this true steel. Oh, rest in peace,Courageous heart! Forever rest in peace!