Second Signor. They are matters not; the chiefs besides, it Who wield your mercenary staves in fear, trial Stand to your arms, and guard the door-Their followers are dispersed, and many all's lost Unless that fearful bell be silenced soon. The officer hath miss'd his path or purpose, Or met some unforeseen and hideous obstacle. Anselmo, with thy company proceed Straight to the tower; the rest remain with me. [Exit a part of the Guard. Doge. Wretch! if thou wouldst have thy vile life, implore it; It is not now a lease of sixty seconds. Sign. of the Night. So let it be! Than thou and thy base myrmidons, live on, So thou provok'st not peril by resistance, And learn (if souls so much obscured can bear To gaze upon the sunbeams) to be free. Sign. of the Night. And learn thou to be captive-It hath ceased, [The bell ceases to toll. The traitorous signal, which was to have set The bloodhound - mob on their patrician prey The knell hath rung,but it is not the senate's! Doge (after a pause). All's silent, and all's lost! Sign. of the Night. Now,Doge, denounce me As rebel slave of a revolted council! Have I not done my duty? Doge. Peace, thou thing! Thou hast done a worthy deed, and earn'd the price Of blood, and they who use thee will reward thee. But thou wert sent to watch,and not to prate, As thou saidst even now then do thine office, But let it be in silence, as behoves thee, Since, though thy prisoner, I am thy prince. Sign. of the Night. I did not mean to fail in the respect Due to your rank: in this I shall obey you. Doge (aside). There now is nothing left me save to die; And yet how near success! I would have fallen, And proudly, in the hour of triumph, but To miss it thus! Enter other SIGNORS OF THE NIGHT with BERTUCCIO FALIERO prisoner. Second Signor. We took him in the act Ofissuing from the tower, where,at his order, As delegated from the Doge, the signal Had thus begun to sound. First Signor. Are all the passes Which lead up to the palace well secured? taken. B. Fal. Uncle! Doge. It is in vain to war with Fortune; The glory hath departed from our house. B. Fal. Who would have deem'd it?Ah! one moment sooner! Doge. That moment would have changed the face of ages; This gives us to eternity-We'll meet it As men whose triumph is not in success, But who can make their own minds all in all, Equal to every fortune. Droop not, 'tis But a brief passage-I would go alone, Yet if they send us, as 'tis like, together, Let us go worthy of our sires and selves. B. Fal. I shall not shame you, uncle. First Signor. Lords, our orders Are to keep guard on both in separate chambers, Until the council call ye to your trial. Doge. Our trial! will they keep their mockery up Even to the last? but let them deal upon us, As we had dealt on them, but with less pomp. 'Tis but a game of mutual homicides, Who have cast lots for the first death, and they Have won with false dice.-Who hath been our Judas? First Signor. I am not warranted to answer that. The Chief of the Ten, BENINTENDE. Benintende. There now rests, after such conviction of Their manifold and manifest offences, The Saracen and the schismatic Greek, Frank; A city which has open'd India's wealth lives So let them die the death. ́ Bert. We are prepared; Your racks have done that for us. Let us die. Benint. If ye have that to say which would obtain Abatement of your punishment, the Giunta Will hear you; if you have aught to confess, Now is your time, perhaps it may avail ye. Bert. We stand to hear, and not to speak. Benint. Your crimes Are fully proved by your accomplices, And all which circumstance can add to aid them; Yet we would hear from your own lips Bert. Go, ask your racks what they have wrung from us, Or place us there again; we have still some blood left, And some slight sense of pain in these wrench'd limbs: But this ye dare not do; for if we die thereAnd you have left us little life to spend Upon your engines, gorged with pangs already Ye lose the public spectacle with which You would appal your slaves to further slavery! Groans are not words, nor agony assent, I pray you pass to judgment. And you, too, Philip Calendaro, what Have you to say why you should not be doom'd? Cal. I never was a man of many words, And now have few left worth the utterance. Benint. A further application of yon engine May change your tone. Cal. Most true, it will do so; A former application did so; but It will not change my words, or, if it did Benint. What then? Cal. Will my avowal on yon rack Stand good in law? Benint. Assuredly. The culprit be whom I accuse of treason? Benint. Without doubt, he will be brought up to trial. Cal. And on this testimony would he perish? Benint. So your confession be detail'd and full, He will stand here in peril of his life. Spoken or written of our dying words! us now Address our own above!-Lead on; we are ready. Cal. Israel, hadst thou but hearken'd unto me, Cal. Then look well to thy proud self, It had not now been thus; and yon pale For by the eternity which yawns before me, The nature of your crime-our law-and peril Guards! lead them forth, and upon the Of the red columns, where, on-festal The Doge stands to behold the chase of bulls, To the full view of the assembled people! Bert. Signors, farewell! we shall not Meet in one place. Benint. And lest they should essay in the act Painful to them, and useless all to you. All those who had not heart to risk their lives What matter a few syllables? let's die So shall our blood more readily arise villain, The coward Bertram, would — What brooks it now to ponder upon this? I did not seek this task; 'twas forced upon me: Bert. I die and pardon thee! Cal. (spitting at him) I die and scorn thee! "Tis time that we proceed to pass our sentence Benint. Avogadori, order that the Doge One of the Giunta. And the rest, Benint. When all the chiefs Have been disposed of. Some have fled to Chiozza; But there are thousands in pursuit of them, senate. Enter the DoGE as Prisoner, with Guards, etc. and by the law Than empires can confer, in quiet honour, A city's glory-we have laid already Ne'er rear'd their sanguinary shadows to Upon your power. Benint. Your chief accomplices But found on my arrival, that besides You had, even in the interregnum of By the pollution of your ribaldry, Having confess'd, there is no hope for you. Have borne,until my very hearth was stain'd Doge. (looking at him contemptuously) No. Benint. And two others, Israel Bertuccio, And Philip Calendaro, have admitted Their fellowship in treason with the Doge! Doge. And where are they? Benint. Gone to their place, and now Answering to Heaven for what they did on earth. Doge. Ah! the plebeian Brutus,is he gone? And the quick Cassius of the arsenal?— How did they meet their doom? Benint. Think of your own; It is approaching. You decline to plead, then? Doge. I cannot plead to my inferiors, nor Can recognise your legal power to try me: Show me the law! Benint. On great emergencies, The law must be remodell'd or amended: Our fathers had not fix'd the punishment Of such a crime, as on the old Roman tables The sentence against parricide was left In pure forgetfulness; they could not render That penal, which had neither name nor thought In their great bosoms: who would have foreseen That nature could be filed to such a crime As sons 'gainst sires, and princes 'gainst their realms? Your sin hath made us make a law which will Become a precedent 'gainst such haught traitors. As would with treason mount to tyranny; You-you, who sit there, traitors as ye are! at Which reach'd me first at Romc,and I obey'd; Benint. (interrupting him) Michel Steno Seeking to abrogate all law, can claim Doge. His PUNISHMENT! I rather see him Which makes the cup run o'er, and mine was full Already: you oppress'd the prince and people; I would have freed both, and have fail'd in both: The price of such success would have been glory, Vengeance, and victory, and such a name And mine to Gelon and to Thrasybulus:- Of our tribunal? Doge. I confess to have fail'd: Fortune is female; from my youth her favours Were not withheld; the fault was mine to hope Her former smiles again at this late hour. Benint. You do not then in aught arraign our equity? Doge. Noble Venetians! stir me not with questions. I am resign'd to the worst; but in me still Have something of the blood of brighter days, And am not over-patient. Pray you, spare me Further interrogation, which boots nothing, Except to turn a trial to debate. I shall but answer that which will offend you, And please your enemies -- a host already: 'Tis true, these sullen walls should yield no echo; But walls have ears-1 —nay, more, they have tongues; and if There were no other way for truth to o'erleap them, You who condemn me, you who fear and slay me, Yet could not bear in silence to your graves What you would hear from me of good or evil; The secret were too mighty for your souls: Then let it sleep in mine, unless you court A danger which would double that you escape. Such my defence would be, had I full scope, To make it famous; for true words are things, And dying men's are things which long outlive, And oftentimes avenge them; bury mine, If ye would fain survive me: take this counsel, And though too oft ye made me live in wrath, Benint. This full admission Daily since I was Doge; but if you will Add the corporeal rack, you may: these limbs Will yield with age to crushing iron; but There's that within my heart shall strain your engines. Enter an OFFICER. Officer. Noble Venetians! Duchess Faliero Requests admission to the Giunta's presence. Benint. Say, conscript fathers, shall she be admitted? One of the Giunta. She may have revelations of importance Unto the state, to justify compliance Benint. Is this the general will? Doge. Oh, admirable laws of Venice! Which would admit the wife,in the full hope That she might testify against the husband. What glory to the chaste Venetian dames! But such blasphemers 'gainst all honour, as Sit here, do well to act in their vocation. Now, villain Steno! if this woman fail, I'll pardon thee thy lie, and thy escape, And my own violent death, and thy vile life. The DUCHESs enters. Benint. Lady! this just tribunal has resolved, Though the request be strange, to grant it,and virtues: But you turn pale-ho! there, look to the lady! Place a chair instantly. Ang. A moment's faintness'Tis past; I pray you pardon me, I sit not In presence of my prince,and of my husband, While he is on his feet. Benint. Your pleasure, lady? Ang. Strange rumours, but most true, if all I hear And see be sooth,have reach'd me, and I come Is it—I cannot speak—I cannot shape Benint. (after a pause.) Spare us, and Ang. Yet speak; I cannot I cannot-no-even now believe these things. Is he condemn'd? |