PAUL and LUCY. -- LUIS.
LUCY [within]. Who's there?
LUIS. A traveller,
Benighted, his way lost, confused, distressed,
Good worthy husbandman, disturbs thy rest.
LUCY [within]. Ho, Juan! how you snore!
Awake! there's some one knocking at the door.
PAUL [within]. Why, I am well enough here in my bed.
He knocks for you, so answer him instead.
LUCY [within]. Who's there?
LUIS. A traveller, I say.
PAUL [within]. A traveller?
LUIS. Yes.
PAUL [within]. Then travel on, I pray.
This cabin is no inn, sir, not a bit.
LUIS. I'm getting weary of this fellow's wit.
I'll try what kicking in the door will do.
[Drives in the door.
Ay, there it goes.
LUCY [within]. Why, Juan Paul, halloo!
Awake, I say, for if I don't mistake,
The door's knocked in.
PAUL [within]. Well, one eye is awake,
But underneath its lid the other's laid.--
Come with me, Lucy, for I'm sore afraid.
[Enter PAUL and LUCY.
Who's there?
LUIS. Be silent, peasants, and attend
If you would not that now your lives should end.
Lost in this woodland waste
I sought your door; and so, my friend, make haste
To tell me the best way
From this to the port, where I by break of day
May from the coast get clear.
PAUL. Go right ahead: first take the pathway here,
They left, then right again,
Rise where there's hill, descend where there's a plain,
And going thus, in short,
The port you'll reach when you have reached the port.
LUIS. 'Tis better that you come
Along with me, or by the heavens o'erhead,
Your blood shall stain the ground on which you tread.
LUCY. Were it not better, cavalier,
To pass the night here till the dawn appear?
PAUL. How very kind you are when least expected!
Are you already to this knight infected?
LUIS. Choose now, at once, I say,
To die or guide me.
PAUL. Don't be vexed, I pray;
If I without more haggling or vain clack
Select to go, and carry you on my back,
If so you chose, 'tis not that death I fear,
But just to disappoint my Lucy here.
LUIS [aside]. That he may not betray
Whither I go, to those who track my way,
Him from some cliff I'll throw
Headlong amid the icy waves below.--
[To LUCY.
You with this consolation here remain
Your husband will be with you soon again.
[Exeunt the two at one side, and she at the other.
* * * * *