JOHN ENDICOTT (within). 
                 Edith!  Edith!  Edith!

He enters.

It is in vain!  I call, she answers not;
I follow, but I find no trace of her! 
Blood! blood!  The leaves above me and around me
Are red with blood!  The pathways of the forest,
The clouds that canopy the setting sun
And even the little river in the meadows
Are stained with it!  Where’er I look, I see it! 
Away, thou horrible vision!  Leave me! leave me! 
Alas! you winding stream, that gropes its way
Through mist and shadow, doubling on itself,
At length will find, by the unerring law
Of nature, what it seeks.  O soul of man,
Groping through mist and shadow, and recoiling
Back on thyself, are, too, thy devious ways
Subject to law? and when thou seemest to wander
The farthest from thy goal, art thou still drawing
Nearer and nearer to it, till at length
Thou findest, like the river, what thou seekest?
                                   [Exit.

ACT V.

SCENE I. —­ Daybreak.  Street in front of UPSALL’s house.  A light in the window.  Enter JOHN ENDICOTT.

JOHN ENDICOTT. 
O silent, sombre, and deserted streets,
To me ye ’re peopled with a sad procession,
And echo only to the voice of sorrow! 
O houses full of peacefulness and sleep,
Far better were it to awake no more
Than wake to look upon such scenes again! 
There is a light in Master Upsall’s window. 
The good man is already risen, for sleep
Deserts the couches of the old.

Knocks at UPSALL’s door.

UPSALL (at the window). 
                        Who’s there?

JOHN ENDICOTT. 
Am I so changed you do not know my voice?

UPSALL. 
I know you.  Have you heard what things have happened?

JOHN ENDICOTT. 
I have heard nothing.

UPSALL. 
               Stay; I will come down.

JOHN ENDICOTT. 
I am afraid some dreadful news awaits me! 
I do not dare to ask, yet am impatient
To know the worst.  Oh, I am very weary
With waiting and with watching and pursuing!

Enter UPSALL.

UPSALL. 
Thank God, you have come back!  I’ve much to tell you. 
Where have you been?

JOHN ENDICOTT. 
          You know that I was seized,
Fined, and released again.  You know that Edith,
After her scourging in three towns, was banished
Into the wilderness, into the land
That is not sown; and there I followed her,
But found her not.  Where is she?

UPSALL. 
                          She is here.

JOHN ENDICOTT. 
Oh, do not speak that word, for it means death!

UPSALL. 
No, it means life.  She sleeps in yonder chamber. 
Listen to me.  When news of Leddra’s death
Reached England, Edward Burroughs, having boldly
Got access to the presence of the King,
Told him there was a vein of innocent blood
Opened in his dominions here, which threatened
To overrun them all.  The King replied. 
“But I will stop that vein!” and he forthwith
Sent his Mandamus to our Magistrates,
That they proceed no further in this business. 
So all are pardoned, and all set at large.