th Jehovah? or some wild
Brute of the forest?

_Eve_. Ah! a livid light 390
Breaks through, as from a thunder-cloud! yon brand
Massy and bloody! snatched from off the altar,
And black with smoke, and red with----

_Adam_. Speak, my son!
Speak, and assure us, wretched as we are,
That we are not more miserable still.

_Adah_. Speak, Cain! and say it was not _thou_!

_Eve_. It was!
I see it now--he hangs his guilty head,
And covers his ferocious eye with hands
Incarnadine!

_Adah_. Mother, thou dost him wrong--
Cain! clear thee from this horrible accusal, 400
Which grief wrings from our parent.

_Eve_. Hear, Jehovah!
May the eternal Serpent's curse be on him!
For he was fitter for his seed than ours.
May all his days be desolate! May----

_Adah_. Hold!
Curse him not, mother, for he is thy son--
Curse him not, mother, for he is my brother,
And my betrothed.

_Eve_. He hath left thee no brother--
Zillah no husband--me _no son!_ for thus
I curse him from my sight for evermore!
All bonds I break between us, as he broke 410
That of his nature, _in yon_----Oh Death! Death!
Why didst thou not take _me_, who first incurred thee?
Why dost thou not so now?

_Adam_. Eve! let not this,
Thy natural grief, lead to impiety!
A heavy doom was long forespoken to us;
And now that it begins, let it be borne
In such sort as may show our God, that we
Are faithful servants to his holy will.

_Eve_ (_pointing to Cain_).
_His will!_ the will of yon Incarnate Spirit
Of Death, whom I have brought upon the earth 420
To strew it with the dead. May all the curses
Of life be on him! and his agonies
Drive him forth o'er the wilderness, like us
From Eden, till his children do by him
As he did by his brother! May the swords
And wings of fiery Cherubim pursue him
By day and night--snakes spring up in his path--
Earth's fruits be ashes in his mouth--the leaves
On which he lays his head to sleep be strewed
With scorpions! May his dreams be of his victim!