each other! Spirits twain
Struggle desperately within me,
Spirits twain of good and ill,--
One with gentle impulse wins me
To believe, but, oh! the other
With opposing force resistless
Drives me back to doubt: Oh! who
Will dispel these doubts that fill me?

POLEMIUS (within).
Yes, Carpophorus must pay
For the trouble that this gives me.--

CHRYSANTHUS.
Though these words by chance were spoken
As an omen I 'll admit them:
Since Carpophorus (who in Rome
Was the most renowned, most gifted
Master in all science), now
Flying from the emperor's lictors,
Through suspect of being a Christian,
In lone deserts wild and dismal
Lives a saintly savage life,
He will give to all my wishes
The solution of these doubts:--
And till then, O restless thinking
Torture me and tease no more!
Let me live for that! [His voice gradually rises.

ESCARPIN (within).
Within there
My young master calls.

CLAUDIUS (within).
All enter.
(Enter Polemius, Claudius, Aurelius, and Escarpin).

POLEMIUS.
My Chrysanthus, what afflicts thee?

CHRYSANTHUS.
Canst thou have been here, my father?

POLEMIUS.
No, my son, 't was but this instant
That I entered here, alarmed
By the strange and sudden shrillness
Of thy voice; and though I had
On my hands important business,
Grave and weighty, since to me
Hath the Emperor transmitted
This decree, which bids me search
Through the mountains for the Christians
Hidden there, and specially
For Carpophorus, their admitted
Chief and teacher, for which cause
I my voice too thus uplifted--
"Yes, Carpophorus must pay
For the trouble that this gives me"--
I left all at hearing thee.--
Why so absent? so bewildered?
What 's the reason?

CHRYSANTHUS.
Sir, 't is naught.

POLEMIUS.
Whom didst thou address?

CHRYSANTHUS.
Here sitting
I was reading to myself,
And perchance conceived some image
I may have addressed in words
Which have from my memory flitted.

POLEMIUS.
The grave sadness that o'erwhelms thee
Will, unless it be resisted,
Undermine thy understanding,
If thou hast it still within thee.

CLAUDIUS.
'T is a loud soliloquy,
'T is a rather audible whisper
That compels one's friends to hasten
Full of fear to his assistance!

CHRYSANTHUS.
Well, excitement may . . .

POLEMIUS.
Oh! cease;
That excuse will scarce acquit thee,
Since when one 's alone, exciteme