Page:Superstition play.djvu/19

(Act 1.) :Mary. Yes.
 * Alice. What pass'd between you?
 * Mary. A plight of faith: A vow to live or die,

Each for the other.
 * Alice. Lost, lost girl.
 * Mary. Why, ay,

It may be so; if so, 'tis Heaven's will. You have my secret Alice.


 * Alice. Peace; our fathers.


 * Rav. No, Walford, no: I have no charity

For what you term the weakness of our nature. The soul should rise above it. It was this That made the fathers of this land prevail, When man and the elements opposed, and win Their heritage from the heathen.
 * Walf. True; the times

Impos'd a virtue, almost superhuman. But surely, the necessity is pass'd For trampling on our nature.
 * Rave. We have grown

Luke-warm in zeal, degenerate in spirit;— I would root out with an unsparing hand The weeds that choke the soil;—pride and rank luxury Spring up around us;—alien sectaries, Spite of the whip and axe, infest our limits; Bold infidelity, dark sorcery—
 * Walf. Nay,

Nay, Ravensworth—
 * Rave. I tell thee Walford, yea:

The powers of darkness are at work among us. Not distant we have seen the fagot blaze, And soon the stake may ask its victim here.
 * Walf. What victim point you at?