Britain ... - Blue-Lite

Scene III.] THE VARANGIAN. 349
BEN-ZADOC.
It matters not
To thee. Keep guard beyond the outer tents.
HEXULPH.
A brother ? Much more like a son, if age
Might be a voucher for their kinsmanship.
Nought then of profit will by
him be won :
Fool for my toil was I to bring him here !
[Exeunt Hexulph and Rovers.
HEREWARD.
Thy deeds are dark, and red thy hands with blood.
Thou hast disgraced thine Order ! Still I see,
Such is the power of our mysterious craft,
It even thy tiger-heart can tame to mercy,
And its mild influence on thy rugged nature
Shows like the summer-flower that sweetly blooms
In loneliness upon the desert rock ;
While o'er that stormy brow its radiance darts
Like a rich sunbeam flung in all its strength
Athwart th' outdashing cataract's foamy wrath,
Lighting Hope's rainbow, which faint promise gives
Of better deeds to come. Who then shall dare,
Save superstitious Ignorance, to gainsay
Our blessed Order ! Brightest gift of Heaven !
Whose glory hath, even from the earliest years,
Along the dark and blood-stained course of time
Shone like those beauteous streams of golden light
Which, o'er the sun forsaken wilds that stretch
Far round the Pole, in gorgeous lustre flash,
Gazed at with awe and wonder, but whose source
Lies hidden where no mortal 3