A ceo UNT of the GERMAN THE A TR E. 1 85 



" M. My innocence — give me back my innocence. Look 

 how every thing in nature is cheered by the fmlle of fpring. 

 Why in this air, fo pure to them, fhould I breathe the 

 blading fmoke of hell ? "When all around us are happy — 

 when gentle peace has united them — the world one blefled 

 family, and its Father there above — who is not my Father ! 

 I alone fhut out — the prodigal fon — excluded from the por- 

 tion of his children — (JImnking back •with horror) furrounded 

 with crimes — with murder — bound to them with chains of 

 iron. 



" G. {to the rejl of the band) I never faw him thus before. 

 " M. {with a voice of tendernefs) Ah ! if it were poflible for 

 me to be born again — to be born a beggar, the meaneft 

 thing that were not a guilty one ! With the labour of thefe 

 hands I would purchafe the wearinefs of peace. Oh ! that 

 with the fweat of my brow, though that fweat were blood, 

 I could buy one guiltlefs hour — the luxury of one tear ! 

 " G. Patience, friends ', his fit is almoft over. 

 *' M. There was a time when my tears flowed freely. Oh 

 peaceful days ! — that faw me in my father's houfe, in my 

 native fields ! — Ye fmiling fields ! — ye valleys made for en- 

 thufiafm to wander in ! Scenes of my happy infancy — will 

 ye never return ? Will ye never breathe on this burning bo- 

 fom your gales of peace and joy ? — Nature, why art thou 

 dark around me ? — ^They will never, never return ; never on 

 this bofom will they breathe — they are gone — gone for 



ever 



Subdued by the tendernefs of the recoUedion which this 

 fcene expreffes, Charles vifits his native caftle in difguife ; 

 he finds his father dead, his brother Francis in poflefhon of his 

 inheritance, and his miftrefs ready to take the veil. After 

 yielding for a while to thofe fofter feelings which the fcenes of 

 his infancy recal, he recoUeds the outcaft abandonment of his 

 ' Vol. II. A a owa 



