sided from
The Serpent, and my sire still mourned for Eden.
That which I am, I am; I did not seek
For life, nor did I make myself; but could I 510
With my own death redeem him from the dust--
And why not so? let him return to day,
And I lie ghastly! so shall be restored
By God the life to him he loved; and taken
From me a being I ne'er loved to bear.

_Angel_. Who shall heal murder? what is done, is done;
Go forth! fulfil thy days! and be thy deeds
Unlike the last! [_The_ ANGEL _disappears_.

_Adah_. He's gone, let us go forth;
I hear our little Enoch cry within
Our bower.

_Cain_. Ah! little knows he what he weeps for! 520
And I who have shed blood cannot shed tears!
But the four rivers[137] would not cleanse my soul.
Think'st thou my boy will bear to look on me?

_Adah_. If I thought that he would not, I would----

_Cain_ (_interrupting her_). No,
No more of threats: we have had too many of them:
Go to our children--I will follow thee.

_Adah_. I will not leave thee lonely with the dead--
Let us depart together.

_Cain_. Oh! thou dead
And everlasting witness! whose unsinking
Blood darkens earth and heaven! what thou _now_ art 530
I know not! but if _thou_ seest what _I_ am,
I think thou wilt forgive him, whom his God
Can ne'er forgive, nor his own soul.--Farewell!
I must not, dare not touch what I have made thee.
I, who sprung from the same womb with thee, drained
The same breast, clasped thee often to my own,
In fondness brotherly and boyish, I
Can never meet thee more, nor even dare
To do that for thee, which thou shouldst have done
For me--compose thy limbs into their grave-- 540
The first grave yet dug for mortality.
But who hath dug that grave? Oh, earth! Oh, earth!
For all the fruits thou hast rendered to me, I
Give thee back this.--Now for the wilderness!
[ADAH _stoops down and kisses the body of_ ABEL.

_Adah_. A dreary, and an early doom, my brother,
Has been thy lot! Of all who mourn for thee,
I alone must not weep. My office is
Henceforth to dry up tears, and not to shed them;
But yet of all who mourn, none mourn like me,
Not on