(To PRINCE HENRY.)

And you, O Prince! bear back my benison
Unto my father’s house, and all within it. 
This morning in the church I prayed for them,
After confession, after absolution,
When my whole soul was white, I prayed for them. 
God will take care of them, they need me not. 
And in your life let my remembrance linger,
As something not to trouble and disturb it,
But to complete it, adding life to life. 
And if at times beside the evening fire
You see my face among the other faces,
Let it not be regarded as a ghost
That haunts your house, but as a guest that loves you. 
Nay, even as one of your own family,
Without whose presence there were something wanting. 
I have no more to say.  Let us go in.

Prince Henry. Friar Angelo!  I charge you on your life, Believe not what she says, for she is mad, And comes here not to die, but to be healed.

  Elsie. Alas!  Prince Henry!

  Lucifer. Come with me; this way.

          (ELSIE goes in with LUCIFER, who thrusts PRINCE
               HENRY back and closes the door.)

Prince Henry. Gone! and the light of all my life gone with her!  A sudden darkness falls upon the world!

  Forester. News from the Prince!

  Ursula. Of death or life?

  Forester. You put your questions eagerly!

  Ursula. Answer me, then!  How is the Prince?

Forester. I left him only two hours since Homeward returning down the river, As strong and well as if God, the Giver, Had given him back in his youth again.

  Ursula (despairing). Then Elsie, my poor child, is dead!

Forester. That, my good woman, I have not said.  Don’t cross the bridge till you come to it, Is a proverb old, and of excellent wit.

  Ursula. Keep me no longer in this pain!

Forester. It is true your daughter is no more;—­ That is, the peasant she was before.

Ursula. Alas!  I am simple and lowly bred
I am poor, distracted, and forlorn. 
And it is not well that you of the court
Should mock me thus, and make a sport
Of a joyless mother whose child is dead,
For you, too, were of mother, born!

Forester. Your daughter lives, and the Prince is well! 
You will learn ere long how it all befell. 
Her heart for a moment never failed;
But when they reached Salerno’s gate,
The Prince’s nobler self prevailed,
And saved her for a nobler fate,
And he was healed, in his despair,
By the touch of St. Matthew’s sacred bones;
Though I think the long ride in the open air,
That pilgrimage over stocks and stones,
In the miracle must come in for a share!

Ursula. Virgin! who lovest the poor and lonely,
If the loud cry of a mother’s heart
Can ever ascend to where thou art,
Into thy blessed hands and holy
Receive my prayer of praise and thanksgiving! 
Let the hands that bore our Saviour bear it
Into the awful presence of God;
For thy feet with holiness are shod,
And if thou bearest it he will hear it. 
Our child who was dead again is living!