He struck me; and that instant had I killed him,
              And put an end to his insolence, but my Comrades
              Rushed in between us:  then did I insist
              (All hated him, and I was stung to madness)
              That we should leave him there, alive!—­we did so.

MARMADUKE And he was famished?

OSWALD Naked was the spot;
              Methinks I see it now—­how in the sun
              Its stony surface glittered like a shield;
              And in that miserable place we left him,
              Alone but for a swarm of minute creatures
              Not one of which could help him while alive,
              Or mourn him dead.

MARMADUKE A man by men cast off,
              Left without burial! nay, not dead nor dying,
              But standing, walking, stretching forth his arms,
              In all things like ourselves, but in the agony
              With which he called for mercy; and—­even so—­
              He was forsaken?

OSWALD There is a power in sounds: 
              The cries he uttered might have stopped the boat
              That bore us through the water—­

MARMADUKE You returned
              Upon that dismal hearing—­did you not?

OSWALD Some scoffed at him with hellish mockery,
              And laughed so loud it seemed that the smooth sea
              Did from some distant region echo us.

MARMADUKE We all are of one blood, our veins are filled
              At the same poisonous fountain!

OSWALD ’Twas an island
              Only by sufferance of the winds and waves,
              Which with their foam could cover it at will. 
              I know not how he perished; but the calm,
              The same dead calm, continued many days.

MARMADUKE
              But his own crime had brought on him this doom,
              His wickedness prepared it; these expedients
              Are terrible, yet ours is not the fault.

OSWALD The man was famished, and was innocent!

MARMADUKE Impossible!

OSWALD The man had never wronged me.

MARMADUKE Banish the thought, crush it, and be at peace. 
              His guilt was marked—­these things could never be
              Were there not eyes that see, and for good ends,
              Where ours are baffled.

OSWALD I had been deceived.

MARMADUKE And from that hour the miserable man
              No more was heard of?

OSWALD I had been betrayed.

MARMADUKE And he found no deliverance!