Chapter V: Act V

Scene I.--_Negroes' Quarters in_ 1. _Enter_ Zoe, L. 1. E.

_Zoe._ It wants an hour yet to daylight--here is Pete's hut--[_Knocks._] He sleeps--no; I see a light.

_Dido._ [_Enters from hut,_ R. F.] Who dat?

_Zoe._ Hush, aunty! 'Tis I--Zoe.

_Dido._ Missey Zoe! Why you out in de swamp dis time ob night--you catch de fever sure--you is all wet.

_Zoe._ Where's Pete?

_Dido._ He gone down to de landing last night wid Mas'r Scudder; not come back since--kint make it out.

_Zoe._ Aunty, there is sickness up at the house; I have been up all night beside one who suffers, and I remembered that when I had the fever you gave me a drink, a bitter drink, that made me sleep--do you remember it?

_Dido._ Didn't I? Dem doctors ain't no 'count; dey don't know nuffin.

_Zoe._ No; but you, aunty, you are wise--you know every plant, don't you, and what it is good for?

_Dido._ Dat you drink is fust rate for red fever. Is de folks head bad?

_Zoe._ Very bad, aunty; and the heart aches worse, so they can get no rest.

_Dido._ Hold on a bit, I get you de bottle. [_Exit,_ L. R.

_Zoe._ In a few hours that man, my master, will come for me; he has paid my price, and he only consented to let me remain here this one night, because Mrs. Peyton promised to give me up to him to-day.

_Dido._ [_Re-enters with phial._] Here 'tis--now you give one timble-full--dat's nuff.

_Zoe._ All there is there would kill one, wouldn't it?

_Dido._ Guess it kill a dozen--nebber try.

_Zoe._ It's not a painful death, aunty, is it? You told me it produced a long, long sleep.

_Dido._ Why you tremble so? Why you speak so wild? What you's gwine to do, missey?

_Zoe._ Give me the drink.

_Dido._ No. Who dat sick at de house?

_Zoe._ Give it to me.

_Dido._ No. You want to hurt yourself. O, Miss Zoe, why you ask ole Dido for dis pizen?

_Zoe._ Listen to me. I love one who is here, and he loves me--George. I sat outside his door all night--I heard his sighs--his agony--torn from him by my coming fate; and he said, "I'd rather see her dead than his!"

_Dido._ Dead!

_Zoe._ He said so--then I rose up, and stole from the house, and ran down to the bayou; but its cold, black, silent stream terrified me--drowning must be so horrible a death. I could not do it. Then, as I knelt there, weeping for courage, a snake rattled beside me. I shrunk from it and fled. Death was there beside me, and I dared not take it. O! I'm afraid to die; yet I am more afraid to live.

_Dido._ Die!

_Zoe._ So I came here to you; to you, my own dear nurse; to you, who so often hushed me to sleep when I was a child; who dried my eyes and put your little Zoe to rest. Ah! give me the rest that no master but One can disturb--the sleep from which I shall awake free! You can protect me from that man--do let me die without pain. [_Music._]

_Dido._ No, no--life is good for young ting like you.

_Zoe._ O! good, good nurse; you will, you will.

_Dido._ No--g'way.

_Zoe._ Then I shall never leave Terrebonne--the drink, nurse; the drink; that I may never leave my home--my dear, dear home. You will not give me to that man? Your own Zoe, that loves you, aunty, so much, so much.--[_Gets phial._] Ah! I have it.

_Dido._ No, missey. O! no--don't.

_Zoe._ Hush! [_Runs off,_ L. 1. E.

_Dido._ Here, Solon, Minnie, Grace.

_They enter._

_All._ Was de matter?

_Dido._ Miss Zoe got de pizen. [_Exit,_ L.

_All._ O! O!

_Exeunt,_ L.

Scene II.--_Cane-brake Bayou.--Bank,_ C.--_Triangle Fire,_ R. C.--_Canoe,_ C.--M'Closky _discovered asleep._

_M'Closky._ Burn, burn! blaze away! How the flames crack. I'm not guilty; would ye murder me? Cut, cut the rope--I choke--choke!--Ah! [_Wakes._] Hello! where am I? Why, I was dreaming--curse it! I can never sleep now without dreaming. Hush! I thought I heard the sound of a paddle in the water. All night, as I fled through the cane-brake, I heard footsteps behind me. I lost them in the cedar swamp--again they haunted my path down the bayou, moving as I moved, resting when I rested--hush! there again!--no; it was only the wind over the canes. The sun is rising. I must launch my dug-out, and put for the bay, and in a few hours I shall be safe from pursuit on board of one of the coasting schooners that run from Galveston to Matagorda. In a little time this darned business will blow over, and I can show again. Hark! there's that noise again! If it was the ghost of that murdered boy haunting me! Well--I didn't mean to kill him, did I? Well, then, what has my all-cowardly heart got to skeer me so for? [_Music._]

[_Gets in canoe and rows off,_ L.--Wahnotee _paddles canoe on,_ R.--_gets out and finds trail--paddles off after him,_ L.]

Scene III.--_Cedar Swamp._

_Enter_ Scudder _and_ Pete, L. 1. E.

_Scud._ Come on, Pete, we shan't reach the house before midday.

_Pete._ Nebber mind, sar, we bring good news--it won't spile for de keeping.

_Scud._ Ten miles we've had to walk, because some blamed varmin onhitched our dug-out. I left it last night all safe.

_Pete._ P'r'aps it floated away itself.

_Scud._ No; the hitching line was cut with a knife.

_Pete._ Say, Mas'r Scudder, s'pose we go in round by de quarters and raise de darkies, den dey cum long wid us, and we 'proach dat ole house like Gin'ral Jackson when he took London out dar.

_Scud._ Hello, Pete, I never heard of that affair.

_Pete._ I tell you, sar--hush!

_Scud._ What? [_Music._]

_Pete._ Was dat?--a cry out dar in de swamp--dar agin!

_Scud._ So it is. Something forcing its way through the undergrowth--it comes this way--it's either a bear or a runaway nigger. [_Draws pistol_--M'Closky _rushes on and falls at_ Scudder's _feet._]

_Scud._ Stand off--what are ye?

_Pete._ Mas'r Clusky.

_M'Closky._ Save me--save me! I can go no farther. I heard voices.

_Scud._ Who's after you?

_M'Closky._ I don't know, but I feel it's death! In some form, human, or wild beast, or ghost, it has tracked me through the night. I fled; it followed. Hark! there it comes--it comes--don't you hear a footstep on the dry leaves?

_Scud._ Your crime has driven you mad.

_M'Closky._ D'ye hear it--nearer--nearer--ah! [Wahnotee _rushes on, and at_ M'Closky, L. H.]

_Scud._ The Injiun! by thunder.

_Pete._ You'se a dead man, Mas'r Clusky--you got to b'lieve dat.

_M'Closky._ No--no. If I must die, give me up to the law; but save me from the tomahawk. You are a white man; you'll not leave one of your own blood to be butchered by the red-skin?

_Scud._ Hold on now, Jacob; we've got to figure on that--let us look straight at the thing. Here we are on the selvage of civilization. It ain't our sile, I believe, rightly; but Nature has said that where the white man sets his foot, the red man and the black man shall up sticks and stand around. But what do we pay for that possession? In cash? No--in kind--that is, in protection, forbearance, gentleness; in all them goods that show the critters the difference between the Christian and the savage. Now, what have you done to show them the distinction? for, darn me, if I can find out.

_M'Closky._ For what I have done, let me be tried.

_Scud._ You have been tried--honestly tried and convicted. Providence has chosen your executioner. I shan't interfere.

_Pete._ O, no; Mas'r Scudder, don't leave Mas'r Closky like dat--don't, sa--'tain't what good Christian should do.

_Scud._ D'ye hear that, Jacob? This old nigger, the grandfather of the boy you murdered, speaks for you--don't that go through you? D'ye feel it? Go on, Pete, you've waked up the Christian here, and the old hoss responds. [_Throws bowie-knife to_ M'Closky.] Take that, and defend yourself.

_Exit_ Scudder _and_ Pete, R. 1. E.--Wahnotee _faces him.--Fight--buss._ M'Closky _runs off,_ L. 1. E.--Wahnote _follows him.--Screams outside._

Scene IV.--_Parlor at Terrebonne._

Enter Zoe, C. [_Music._]

_Zoe._ My home, my home! I must see you no more. Those little flowers can live, but I cannot. To-morrow they'll bloom the same--all will be here as now, and I shall be cold. O! my life, my happy life; why has it been so bright?

_Enter_ Mrs. Peyton _and_ Dora, C.

_Dora._ Zoe, where have you been?

_Mrs. P._ We felt quite uneasy about you.

_Zoe._ I've been to the negro quarters. I suppose I shall go before long, and I wished to visit all the places, once again, to see the poor people.

_Mrs. P._ Zoe, dear, I'm glad to see you more calm this morning.

_Dora._ But how pale she looks, and she trembles so.

_Zoe._ Do I? [_Enter_ George, C.] Ah! he is here.

_Dora._ George, here she is!

_Zoe._ I have come to say good-by, sir; two hard words--so hard, they might break many a heart; mightn't they?

_George._ O, Zoe! can you smile at this moment?

_Zoe._ You see how easily I have become reconciled to my fate--so it will be with you. You will not forget poor Zoe! but her image will pass away like a little cloud that obscured your happiness a while--you will love each other; you are both too good not to join your hearts. Brightness will return amongst you. Dora, I once made you weep; those were the only tears I caused any body. Will you forgive me?

_Dora._ Forgive you--[_Kisses her._]

_Zoe._ I feel you do, George.

_George._ Zoe, you are pale. Zoe!--she faints!

_Zoe._ No; a weakness, that's all--a little water. [_Dora gets water._] I have a restorative here--will you poor it in the glass? [Dora _attempts to take it._] No; not you--George. [George _pours contents of phial in glass._] Now, give it to me. George, dear George, do you love me?

_George._ Do you doubt it, Zoe?

_Zoe._ No! [_Drinks._]

_Dora._ Zoe, if all I possess would buy your freedom, I would gladly give it.

_Zoe._ I am free! I had but one Master on earth, and he has given me my freedom!

_Dora._ Alas! but the deed that freed you was not lawful.

_Zoe._ Not lawful--no--but I am going to where there is no law--where there is only justice.

_George._ Zoe, you are suffering--your lips are white--your cheeks are flushed.

_Zoe._ I must be going--it is late. Farewell, Dora. [_Retires._]

_Pete._ [_Outside,_ R.] Whar's Missus--whar's Mas'r George?

_George._ They come.

_Enter_ Scudder.

_Scud._ Stand around and let me pass--room thar! I feel so big with joy, creation ain't wide enough to hold me. Mrs. Peyton, George Peyton, Terrebonne is yours. It was that rascal M'Closky--but he got rats, I avow--he killed the boy, Paul, to rob this letter from the mail-bags--the letter from Liverpool you know--he sot fire to the shed--that was how the steamboat got burned up.

_Mrs. P._ What d'ye mean?

_Scud._ Read--read that. [_Gives letter._]

_George._ Explain yourself.

_Enter_ Sunnyside.

_Sunny._ Is it true?

_Scud._ Every word of it, Squire. Here, you tell it, since you know it. If I was to try, I'd bust.

_Mrs. P._ Read, George. Terrebonne is yours.

_Enter_ Pete, Dido, Solon, Minnie, _and_ Grace.

_Pete._ Whar is she--whar is Miss Zoe?

_Scud._ What's the matter?

_Pete._ Don't ax me. Whar's de gal? I say.

_Scud._ Here she is--Zoe!--water--she faints.

_Pete._ No--no. 'Tain't no faint--she's a dying, sa; she got pison from old Dido here, this mornin'.

_George._ Zoe.

_Scud._ Zoe! is this true?--no, it ain't--darn it, say it ain't. Look here, you're free, you know nary a master to hurt you now; you will stop here as long as you're a mind to, only don't look so.

_Dora._ Her eyes have changed color.

_Pete._ Dat's what her soul's gwine to do. It's going up dar, whar dere's no line atween folks.

_George._ She revives.

_Zoe._ [_On sofa,_ C.] George--where--where--

_George._ O, Zoe! what have you done?

_Zoe._ Last night I overheard you weeping in your room, and you said, "I'd rather see her dead than so!"

_George._ Have I prompted you to this?

_Zoe._ No; but I loved you so, I could not bear my fate; and then I stood your heart and hers. When I am dead she will not be jealous of your love for me, no laws will stand between us. Lift me; so--[_George raises her head_]--let me look at you, that your face may be the last I see of this world. O! George, you may without a blush confess your love for the Octoroon! [_Dies._--George _lowers her head gently.--Kneels.--Others form picture._]

_Darken front of house and stage._

[_Light fires.--Draw flats and discover_ Paul's _grave._--M'Closky _dead on top of it._--Wahnotee _standing triumphantly over him._]

SLOW CURTAIN

Transcriber's Notes

Scene I is announced for Act I, though there is only one scene.

Original spellings left in this book

travelling
moccason
judgment(s)
compagnie
travelled
fibres
Both "hillo" and "hello" are used by the author

Typo? In several places a contraction "wan't" appears where the context requires the verb "want." The change was made.

There is a large amount of slang, dialect and colloquialisms in the play that have been left.

RBB