ambitious views, besought Manfredi to remove the bar 'twixt him and
sovereignty. Manfredi yielded to _protect_ his charge, and artfully
dismissed the princess's train to bear her to a friendly foreign court;
when galling, dire reverse! in a dark covert on the Danube's banks,
outlaws affected what her foes desired--Theresa fell--(_speaking
rapidly_)--A prey to grief and disappointed hope, Manfredi fled--Yon
fell usurper gained the wish'd-for seat!

_Bern._ Usurper!

_Ab._ Fiend! coward! traitor! Who, to destroy Manfredi's evidence,
sought his destruction;--who, by false statement and concurring
circumstance, secur'd his triumph--who still comes forth to immolate
more innocence! and Corbey's abbot is to share in the new sacrifice! No,
though our order teaches resignation--yet teaching fortitude and love of
virtue, my founder's spirit shall inspire my soul, and once more
Charlemagne shall vanquish here!

_Bern._ Audacious, impious slanderer! Compare ennobled and established
worth with such confirm'd disgrace--(_flourish of drums and trumpets,
and noise of walls falling_)--They force the outworks! Instant aid their
entrance! and hail the downfall of such perjured arrogance!

_St. Clair._ Come!

_Ab._ (_getting between them and the gates._) St. Clair! Bernardo! who
once call'd me friend! and who, on sudden impulse, have drawn forth what
I so long and anxiously kept secret, will you desert me at this awful
moment? or, to the last contending for our abbey's rights, implore these
warriors from the holy land, not to take arms against a sacred cause!
She's wrong'd, she's innocent.

_Bern._ 'Tis false--most false!

_Enter_ Ravensburg.

_Rav._ My lord, all's lost! The savage and inveterate foe have storm'd
the walls, and rush to glut their vengeance.

_Ab._ (_to Ravensburg apart._) And from your father! None--no hope?

_Rav._ None! He merely states, that dreading he might lose her, who'd
supply a daughter's loss; and fearing to increase an orphan's grief, he
cautiously concealed, how, one autumnal night some fourteen years ago,
he saw upon the Danube's banks, an infant seemingly expiring. He
snatch'd it--sav'd it! and what the mystery might solve, if now such
mystery were worth solving--this scarf (_producing it_) encircled
her.--(_Abbot takes the scarf with great eagerness._)--But all is past!
and Agnes, dear lov'd Agnes, by the father saved, the son must instantly
behold destroyed.

_Ab._ (_after having gazed on t