Or. It is within the walls. Did'st thou not hear it?
Rud. What? The loud voice that call'd me?
Or. No, it was mine.
Rud.It sounded in my ears
With more than human strength.
Or.Did it so sound?
There is around us, in this midnight air,
A power surpassing nature. List, I pray:
Altho' more distant now, dost thou not hear
The yell of hounds; the spectre-huntsman's horn?
Rud. I hear, indeed, a strangely mingled sound:
The wind is howling round the battlements.
But rest secure where safety is, sweet Orra!
Within these arms, nor man nor fiend shall harm thee.
(Approaching her with a softened winning voice, while she pushes him off with abhorrence.)
Or. Vile reptile! touch me not.
Rud. Ah! Orra! thou art warp'd by prejudice,
And taught to think me base; but in my veins
Lives noble blood, which I will justify.
Or. But in thy heart, false traitor! what lives there?
Rud. Alas! thy angel-faultlessness conceives not
The strong temptations of a soul impassion'd
Beyond controul of reason.—At thy feet—
(kneeling.)
O spurn me not.
