The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Saxons, by Edwin Davies Schoonmaker.

SCENE THREE—The mountain side, as in Scene one of the third Act. There is heard a steady roar as of wind over vast forests, and all about are signs of an approaching storm. At intervals an unnatural, ghastly light as from rifted clouds swiftly driving overhead passes across the scene. In a moment the gloom has returned and the trees are racing back into the shadow.

Back upon the ledge, his long yellow hair tossing in the wind, stands Rudolph watching the gathering of the storm.

(A moment later Canzler appears coming down the sheep-path.)

Canzler—What was that shouting down the mountain for?

Rudolph— (Turning quickly.)
The whirling of the wheel!

Canzler— The wheel?

Rudolph— (Hurrying forward.)
Look there
Where the vast felly flies! Far out it swings
And sways the forests. Look at it, Canzler!
For miles around below the mountain heads
The storm goes racing in a wheel whose hub
Turns on the village spire.

(Canzler follows him back along the ledge.)

Awhile ago,
Divinely guided through the mountain ways,
A common cloud, afloat upon the dark,
Blotted the stars that glimmered in the tarn
And whirled into a wheel. Around the rim
Flows the white cloud-wool, and a thread is drawn
Under the hills. The distaffs of the Norns
Grow big with fate, and, sitting there in silence,
Their withered fingers from this flying skein
Loop off the lives of men. Val-father takes
In his almighty hand the reins of things
And drives them either way through earth and air.

(Shouting far down the mountain.)

Canzler—I heard that far up on the mountain tops.

Rudolph—In some procession honoring their god.

Canzler—But louder now.

Rudolph— And nearer.

Canzler— Where is Fritz?

Rudolph—Rounding the sheep up. (Shouting again.)
They have crossed the bridge.

Canzler— (Turning and looking at Rudolph.)
Honoring their god upon the mountain side?

Rudolph—'Tis the great dragon crawling through the hills.

Canzler—No wonder darkness fills the valley.

(After a pause.)

And in a storm like this!

Rudolph— Hunger.

Canzler— No doubt.
And there is hunger in the heavens, too.

Rudolph—And the two face. (They listen.)
The Asas all night long
Were loud above the mountains as though some
Vast purpose long pent up were finding way.

Canzler—And Selma heard it like a river flow
Washing the peaks and down the wooded slopes
Into the valley where the dragon lies.

(Shouts still afar but growing nearer.)

(He goes back along the ledge and starts down the mountain.)

(They listen. The shouts draw nearer.)

Up here! Coming up here!

Canzler—(Shouting.) Fritz!

Rudolph— The dark bloom,
Whose scattered roots the years have fed, at last
Unfolds its petals to the sun. The North
In all her graves is waiting for the dawn.
To-day Val-father lays his shadow by.

Canzler—Go up the rocks and blow the battle horn.

(Rudolph goes leaping up the rocks.)

(He disappears up the rocks.)

(The form of Canzler, who stands back upon the ledge, disappears in the gathering gloom.)

(There is heard, at first scarcely audible but rising more and more, low music as of spirit voices. Above, just where the sheep-path enters the bushes, Selma appears coming hurriedly down. Hearing the music, she stops and, listening, becomes as one entranced.)

(Canzler comes forward into view. The girl, still transported and more like a being of the air, has come further down the path.)

(The girl lays her hand on his arm. They listen.)

Only Val-father's voice along the storm.

Voice of Fritz—Chief!

Canzler— It is Fritz.

Selma—- The trees—the trees are singing.
The wild vines and the mountain flowers—Oh!
O Father, see!

Canzler— What ails you, child?

Selma—The elves—the storm elves gather in the air,
And up the mountain there—
Hear them, Father! Hear the fairies calling!
Oh, the white flakes! The dog-wood blooms are falling!

(She runs wildly up the path.)

(She disappears among the bushes. In the rear Fritz is seen climbing up the mountain.)

(Fritz leaps back down to the ledge and comes hurrying forward.)

(Wild shouting below.)

(Up the mountain sounds the battle horn.)

(He hurries up the path and disappears.)

(He goes up the path. The music is now distinctly heard above the noise of the storm. A flash of lightning reveals, in the rear, the dwarf climbing up the mountain, leading Oswald by the hand. Instantly loud and prolonged shouting bursts up from about a hundred feet below. The two come hurrying forward along the ledge. Oswald's face is streaked with blood and from the end of its black cord, his silver crucifix, likewise stained, dangles almost to his knees. Gradually it slips lower and lower till it finally falls and lies upon the grass. Having reached the path, they make their way up and are soon lost to view. That peculiar light which one sometimes sees when clouds are rifted during a storm illumines the scene and makes the green grass and trees show almost like flame. Below, voices are heard, and soon, climbing up the mountain, Father Benedict appears, his face pale, his eyes set before him. Upon the skirt of his snow-white chasuble there is seen, slanting down, a red streak as though he had pressed against a bloody sword-blade. Behind him, scattered, come, first, Hugh Capet with the great flag blown straight out in the wind, then Jules Bacqueur and Jacques Sar, their swords dripping, and, after them, the other villagers.)

(Instead of coming forward to the path, which the bushes and bowlders hide from their view, they go pushing straight on up the rocks.)

(Up the mountain sounds the battle-horn.)

(All look to the priest.)

(Above, sounds the battle-horn, this time nearer.)

(Slowly the priest lifts the crucifix.)

(They go springing up the mountain. A flash of lightning strikes the uplifted crucifix and clings for a moment like a wreath of blue fire round the brow of the priest whose face shows white as chalk. The crucifix slips from his fingers and he reels and falls backwards.)

(As the men turn and see the priest, whom Jules has caught in his arms, borne backward down the slope, some of them throw down their arms and flee terror-stricken down the mountain. There is a loud crash of thunder followed, above, by the shouts of the Saxons who come charging down upon them. Attempting to rescue the priest's body, before which Bacqueur has thrown his great shield, the villagers receive the shock and are driven back fighting down the mountain, Fritz hacking at Hugh Capet's head-with his battle ax, Rudolph charging old Jacques, while Canzler with one slash of his magic sword slices in two Bacqueur's great shield which falls like paper from his hands. Even after they have disappeared, from down the mountain can still be heard the voice of old Jacques calling to his men in God's name to stand. Up the slope, caught in the bushes where it fell, hangs the crucifix, the figure of which is tarnished and melted by the lightning. On the ledge just below, outstretched upon the grass, his fingers bent as though still clutching the crucifix, lies the body of the priest. The scene gradually becomes darker and the thunder is still heard reverberating through the mountains.)

SCENE FOUR—A forest on the mountain tops. Untouched by the storm, which has swept the lower slopes, the trees here stand calm and motionless. Flowers are everywhere. Far off, between the innumerable trunks, is seen a space of dark sky rifted near the horizon and bright with the red and gold of the new dawn. From the left, into this forest stillness, silent as the scene itself, comes the dwarf leading Oswald by the hand. There is now no blood upon the latter's face which, slightly upturned, is lighted as with a soul conscious of a great crisis and hearing its approach in the least noise. Suddenly, from far to the right, the voice of Selma is heard. Instantly the dwarf vanishes. Oswald starts and stands as one in a dream.

(At first afar, then drawing nearer and nearer until at last she rushes in gleefully. She is dressed, as in the first Act, in green, and upon her head she wears a coronet of wild-flowers.)

(She starts, and throws herself at his feet, covering her face with her hands. The disc of the sun, emerging above the line of clouds, shoots its myriad golden needles through the wood. Revealed in the light, like things seen in a mirage, a number of fairies are discerned watching the two. From far down the mountain comes the sound of a bell tolling.)

Transcriber's Notes:

Table of Contents added by Transcriber.

Simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors were silently corrected.

Punctuation normalized.

Anachronistic and non-standard spellings retained as printed.