Let me tell thee all.
Thou, cloistered, holy and austere, know'st not
My glittering temptations. My betrayer
Was of an angel's aspect. His were all gifts,
All grace, all seeming virtue. I was plunged,
Deaf, dumb, and blind, and hand-bound in the deep.
If a poor drowning creature craved thine aid,
Thou wouldst not spurn it. Such a one am I,
And all the waves roll over me. Wrest me from my doom!
Say not that I am lost!

MONK.
I can but say
What the just Spirit prompts. Myself am naught
To pardon or condemn. The sin is sinned;
The fruit forbid is tasted, yea, and pressed
Of its last honeyed juices. Wilt thou now
Escape the after-bitterness with prayers,
Scourgings, and wringings of the hands? Shall these
Undo what has been done?--make whole the heart
Thy crime hath snapt in twain?--restore the wits
Thy sin hath scattered? No! Thy punishment
Is huge as thine offence. Death shall not help,
Neither shall pious life wash out the stain.
Living thou'rt doomed, and dead, thou shalt be lost,
Beyond salvation.

MARIA (springing to her feet).
Impious priest, thou liest!
God will have mercy--as my father would,
Could he but see me in mine agony!
[The MONK throws back his cowl and discovers himself as the
SPAGNOLETTO. MARIA utters a piercing cry and throws herself
speechless at his feet.]

RIBERA.
Thou know'st me not. I am not what I was.
My outward shape remains unchanged; these eyes,
Now gloating on thine anguish, are the same
That wept to see a shadow cross thy brow;
These ears, that drink the music of thy groans,
Shrank from thy lightest sigh of melancholy.
Thou think'st to find the father in me still?
Thy parricidal hands have murdered him--
Thou shalt not find a man. I am the spirit
Of blind revenge--a brute, unswerving force.
What deemest thou hath bound me unto life?
Ambition, pleasure, or the sense of fear?
What, but the sure hope of this fierce, glad hour,
That I might track thee down to this--might see
Thy tortured body writhe beneath my feet,
And blast thy stricken spirit with my curse?

MARIA (in a crushed voice).
Have mercy! mercy!

RIBERA.
Yes, I will have mercy--
The mercy of the tiger o