n the staff.]
"I am eyes to the blind, saith the Lord.
He that puts his trust in me shall not fail!"
Yes, be it so;--repent and be forgiven--
God and that staff are now thy only guides.
[He leaves HERBERT on the Moor.]

SCENE--An eminence, a Beacon on the summit

LACY, WALLACE, LENNOX, etc. etc.

SEVERAL OF THE BAND (confusedly) But patience!

ONE OF THE BAND Curses on that Traitor, Oswald!--
Our Captain made a prey to foul device!--

LENNOX (to WALLACE)
His tool, the wandering Beggar, made last night
A plain confession, such as leaves no doubt,
Knowing what otherwise we know too well,
That she revealed the truth. Stand by me now;
For rather would I have a nest of vipers
Between my breast-plate and my skin, than make
Oswald my special enemy, if you
Deny me your support.

LACY We have been fooled--
But for the motive?

WALLACE Natures such as his
Spin motives out of their own bowels, Lacy!
I learn'd this when I was a Confessor.
I know him well; there needs no other motive
Than that most strange incontinence in crime
Which haunts this Oswald. Power is life to him
And breath and being; where he cannot govern,
He will destroy.

LACY To have been trapped like moles!--
Yes, you are right, we need not hunt for motives:
There is no crime from which this man would shrink;
He recks not human law; and I have noticed
That often when the name of God is uttered,
A sudden blankness overspreads his face.

LENNOX Yet, reasoner as he is, his pride has built
Some uncouth superstition of its own.

WALLACE I have seen traces of it.

LENNOX Once he headed
A band of Pirates in the Norway seas;
And when the King of Denmark summoned him
To the oath of fealty, I well remember,
'Twas a strange answer that he made; he said,
"I hold of Spirits, and the Sun in heaven."

LACY
He is no madman.

WALLACE