LUCIA.
This furious grief will but enhance its pain:
Oh bear yourself as more becomes your state!
VALERIA.
I am a thing of wretchedness and ruin.
That upon which my pride and being grew
Lies in the dust, and be the dust my bed.
(Throwing herself upon the ground, and pushing away Lucia and her other Attendants, who endeavour to raise her up again.)
Spread out my wretched hands. It pleases me
To think that in its breast there is a rest—
Yea, there lie they, unheeded and forgotten,
To whom all tongues give praise, all hearts give blessing.
Oh, ev'ry heart did bless him tho' he fell,
And ne'er a saving hand was found—Oh! oh!
(Bursting into an agony of grief, and laying her head upon the ground, covered with both her hands.)
ELLA (to Lucia and Attendants).
I will not speak, but sit and weep by her;
And she shall feel, ev'n thro' her heavy woe,
That sympathy and kindness are beside her.
