SCENE 1.-The Hall of the Council of Ten I assembled with the additional Senators, who, on the Trials of the Conspirators for the Treason of MARINO FALIERO, composed what was called the Giunta. Guards, Officers, etc. etc.-ISRAEL BERTUCCIO and CALENDARO as Prisoners.-BERTRAM,LIONI, and Witnesses, etc. 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; Bert. So my life grows: I Was bred a soldier, not a senator. Benint. Perhaps you think by this blunt brevity To brave your judges to postpone the sentence? Bert. Do you be brief as I am, and believe me, shall prefer that mercy to your pardon. Benint. Is this your sole reply to the tribunal? 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, Benint. What do you mean? Benint. You know the Doge? Bert. I served with him at Zara In the field, when you were pleading here Benint. Assuredly. Cal. Whoe'er 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. For by the eternity which yawns before me, The nature of your crime-our law-and peril The state now stands in, leave not an hour's respite Gaards! lead them forth, and upon the balcony Of the red columns, where, on festal Thursday, The Doge stands to behold the chase of bulls, Let them be justified and leave exposed Their wavering relics, in the place of judgment, To the full view of the assembled people! And Heaven have mercy on their souls! The Giunta. Amen! Bert. Signors, farewell! we shall not all again Meet in one place. Benint. And lest they should essay To stir up the distracted multitudeGuards! let their mouths be gagg'd, even in the act Of execution.-Lead them hence! Cal. What! must we Not even say farewell to some fond friend, Nor leave a last word with our confessor? Benint. A priest is waiting in the antechamber; But, for your friends, such interviews would be |Spoken or written of our dying words! They tremble at our voices- nay, they dread Our very silence-let them live in fear!Leave them unto their thoughts, and let us now Address our own above!—Lead on; we are ready. Cal. Israel, hadst thou but hearken'd unto me, It had not now been thus; and yon palc villain, The coward Bertram, would- What brooks it now to ponder upon this? Bertram. Alas! I fain you died in peace with me: I did not seek this task; 'twas forced upon me: Say, you forgive me, though I never can Retrieve my own forgiveness frown not thus! Bert. I die and pardon thee! "Tis time that we proceed to pass our sentence Benint. Avogadori, order that the Doge Be brought before the council. One of the Giunta. And the rest, When shall they be brought up? Benint. When all the chiefs Have been disposed of. Some have fled Upon your power. Benint. Your chief accomplices But found on my arrival, that besides You had, even in the interregnum of Having confess'd, there is no hope for you. Have borne,until my very hearth was stain'd Doge. And who be they? Doge. (looking at him contemptuously) No. 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? Benint. On great emergencies, The law must be remodell'd or amended: In their great bosoms: who would have 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 As would with treason mount to tyranny; You-you, who sit there, traitors as ye are! You drew me from my honourable toils the altar Where you alone could minister. I knew not. I sought not-wish'd not--dream'd not the election, Which reach'd me first at Rome, and I obey'd; By the pollution of your ribaidry, Benint. (interrupting him) Michel Steno Seeking to abrogate all law, can claim Doge. His PUNISHMENT! I rather see him there, Where he now sits, to glut him with my death, Than in the mockery of castigation, Which your foul, outward, juggling show of justice Decreed as sentence! Base as was his crime, 'Twas purity compared with your protection. Benint. And can it be, that the great Doge of Venice, With three parts of a century of years the last drop 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 Vengeance, and victory, and such a name And mine to Gelon and to Thrasybulus:- Now you may flock round mine, and trample on it, As you have done upon my heart while living. Benint. You do confess then, and admit the justice 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 And am not over-patient. Pray you, spare me I shall but answer that which will offend And please your enemies a host already: Tis true, these sullen walls should yield no echo; But walls have ears-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 Yet could not bear in silence to your graves escape. Such my defence would be, had I full scope, And oftentimes avenge them; bury mine, Benint. Say, conscript fathers, shall she be admitted? One of the Giunta. She may have re- Unto the state, to justify compliance Benint. Is this the general will? Doge. Oh, admirable laws of Venice! Benint. Lady! this just tribunal has Though the request be strange, to grant it,and But you turn pale-ho! there, look to the 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, 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 And though too oft ye made me live in wrath, Of our most awful, but inexorable I deny nothing - defend nothing-nothing Benint. This full admission there already, Daily since I was Doge; but if you will Enter an OFFICER. Ang. Yet speak; I cannot- Benint. Alas! Ang. And was he guilty? Benint. Lady! the natural distraction of Thy thoughts at such a moment makes the question Merit forgiveness; else a doubt like this Doge, Doge. I have lived too long not to know how to die! Thy suing to these men were but the bleating A word with thee, and with this noble lady, I crave,not pardon, but compassion from you, both. Of pleasure, and all pangs of pain, are feeble When the proud name on which they pinnacled Their hopes is breathed on, jealous as the eagle Of her high aiery; let what we now Behold, and feel, and suffer, be a lesson To wretches how they tamper in their spleen With beings of a higher order. Insects Have made the lion mad ere now; a shaft I' the heel o'erthrew the bravest of the brave; A wife's dishonour was the bane of Troy; A wife's dishonour unking'd Rome for ever; An injured husband brought the Gauls to Clusium, time; Have wept as they will cry unto their God within. Then, as a prince, address thee to thy doom! An obscene gesture cost Caligula |