Page:Poet Lore, volume 35, 1924.pdf/396

Dr. Svoboda (With a sudden start, placing the vial on the table) I am coming! (Goes quickly to the balcony.) Have no fear, Hromadkova. Nothing will happen to your eye. Wash the wound with the medicine I have given you. Within a weck the inflammation will be gone.

Hromadiova.—May Heaven reward you! And did you know, Honorable Doctor, that the people from the village are getting ready to come to the castle to pay you their respects? With torchlights and music!

Dr. Svoboda—What is this? Ridicule? What do they mean by such madness! (Walking about.)

Hromadkova—No, no! Just a tribute fo their respect! That is because you voted for your nation, and cared nothing, nothing, even though you lost all that you had!

Dr. Svoboda—Hromadkova—tell them that I respectfully beg them to leave off everything—and not to come.

Hromadkova—Why! They won’t have it any other way! And what is the use of spoiling their pleasure? Heaven bless you once more and may the Lord be with you! (Leaving.)

Dr Svoboda—Well, then, let them have their childish pleasure. For me there is another reward—a far greater one—(goes to the table, picking up the vial with the poison.) Poison! That woman surely brought me my death—Physicians, since ancient times, have sought their death by means of poison—I from the former freeholder, just a physician is left once more . . . must remain true to my calling. (Raises the vial, walking to the light to examine it.) Yes, this is the universal healer, the medicine that cures all ills, all that we have fought against in vain; the shortest formula of philosophy, the dropstone of wisdom, and the key which unlocks the other world. Come! my friend! Take me there for all eternity, to that peace from which there is no awakening! (Drinks, staggers, falls and dies. The room grows darker and darker in the fading twilight until it becomes wrapped in blackness. All is still for a moment. Then from a distance comes the strains of a national hymn, drawing nearer to the castle, with shouts and voices. At last the music ceases.)