ELEANOR O save us!

IDONEA What can this mean?

ELEANOR Alas, for my poor husband!—­
              We’ll have a counting of our flocks to-morrow;
              The wolf keeps festival these stormy nights: 
              Be calm, sweet Lady, they are wassailers
         [The voices die away in the distance.]
              Returning from their Feast—­my heart beats so—­
              A noise at midnight does so frighten me.

IDONEA Hush! [Listening.]

ELEANOR They are gone.  On such a night, my husband,
              Dragged from his bed, was cast into a dungeon,
              Where, hid from me, he counted many years,
              A criminal in no one’s eyes but theirs—­
              Not even in theirs—­whose brutal violence
              So dealt with him.

IDONEA I have a noble Friend
              First among youths of knightly breeding, One
              Who lives but to protect the weak or injured. 
              There again!
         [Listening.]

ELEANOR ’Tis my husband’s foot.  Good Eldred
              Has a kind heart; but his imprisonment
              Has made him fearful, and he’ll never be
              The man he was.

IDONEA I will retire;—­good night!
          [She goes within.]

[Enter ELDRED (hides a bundle)]

ELDRED Not yet in bed, Eleanor!—­there are stains in that frock
                  which must be washed out.

ELEANOR What has befallen you?

ELDRED I am belated, and you must know the cause—­
    (speaking low)
                  that is the blood of an unhappy Man.

ELEANOR Oh! we are undone for ever.

ELDRED Heaven forbid that I should lift my hand against any man. 
                  Eleanor, I have shed tears to-night, and it comforts
                  me to think of it.

ELEANOR Where, where is he?

ELDRED I have done him no harm, but——­it will be forgiven me; it
                  would not have been so once.

ELEANOR You have not buried anything?  You are no richer than
                  when you left me?

ELDRED Be at peace; I am innocent.

ELEANOR Then God be thanked—­

[A short pause; she falls upon his neck.]

ELDRED Tonight I met with an old Man lying stretched upon the
                  ground—­a sad spectacle:  I raised him up with a hope
                  that we might shelter and restore him.

ELEANOR (as if ready to run)
              Where is he?  You were not able to bring him all the way
                  with you; let us return, I can help you.