I am afraid some
dreadful
news awaits me!
Longfellow
There is a light in Master Upsall's window.
The good man is already risen, for sleep
Deserts the couches of the old.
Knocks at UPSALL's door.
UPSALL (at the window).
Who's there?
JOHN ENDICOTT.
Am I so changed you do not know my voice?
UPSALL.
I know you. Have you heard what things have happened?
JOHN ENDICOTT.
I have heard nothing.
UPSALL.
Stay; I will come down.
JOHN ENDICOTT.
I am afraid some dreadful news awaits me!
I do not dare to ask, yet am impatient
To know the worst. Oh, I am very weary
With waiting and with watching and pursuing!
Enter UPSALL.
UPSALL.
Thank God, you have come back! I've much to tell you.
Where have you been?
JOHN ENDICOTT.
You know that I was seized,
Fined, and released again. You know that Edith,
After her scourging in three towns, was banished
Into the wilderness, into the land
That is not sown; and there I followed her,
But found her not. Where is she?
UPSALL.
She is here.
JOHN ENDICOTT.
Oh, do not speak that word, for it means death!
