Abb. Ha! who may this be? hush!
(Knocking heard again.)
2d Monk. It is the knock of one in furious haste.
Hush, hush! What footsteps come? Ha! brother Bernard.
Enter Bernard bearing a lantern.
1st Monk. See, what a look he wears of stiffen'd fear!
Where hast thou been, good brother?
Bern. I've seen a horrid sight!
(All gathering round him and speaking at once.)
What hast thou seen?
Bern. As on I hasten'd, bearing thus my light,
Across the path, not fifty paces off,
I saw a murther'd corse stretch'd on its back,
Smear'd with new blood, as tho' but freshly slain.
Abb. A man or woman?
Bern.A man, a man!
Abb. Did'st thou examine if within its breast
There yet is lodg'd some small remains of life?
Was it quite dead?
Bern. Nought in the grave is deader.
I look'd but once, yet life did never lodge
In any form so laid.—
A chilly horrour seiz'd me, and I fled.
1st Monk. And does the face seem all unknown to thee?
Bern. The face! I would not on the face have look'd
For e'en a kingdom's wealth, for all the world.
