Scene IV.
Elsie Bradburn, admitted by the jailer through the door in the rear, has entered during Travis' last words which she has overheard, and stands for a moment quietly behind him. Travis.
Travis.
[Turning and perceiving Elsie, who sinks into his arms.]
Elsie.
My Travis! thou in prison
Unjustly, most unworthily confined!
Than whom none else delights so much in sunshine,
In balmy air, in freedom from restraint.
Thou canst not live beneath this damp-cold vault,
But wilt fall sick, and as the prairie-flower.
Transferred into a sunless room, will fade,
So thou canst not endure this cruel doom.
Travis.
Grieve not, beloved! since I hold thee now.
This dungeon seems a paradise to me!
Behold these walls! they bloom like rosy bowers;
This ceiling spreads a verdant canopy
Through which the sun, the sun of Love, sends in
His warming beams into my gladdened heart.
But tell, how couldst thou gain access to me?
