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.

Upon your power.

Benint. Your chief accomplices

But found on my arrival, that besides
The jealous vigilance which always led you
To mock and mar your sovereign's best
intents,

You had, even in the interregnum of
My journey to the capital, curtail'd
And mutilated the few privileges
Yet left the duke: all this I bore, and would

Having confess'd, there is no hope for you. Have borne,until my very hearth was stain'd

Doge. And who be they?
Benint. In number many; but
The first now stands before you in the court,
Bertram, of Bergamo,-would you question
him?

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;
Not even contented with a sceptre, till
They can convert it to a two-edged sword!
Was not the place of Doge sufficient for ye?
What's nobler than the signory of Venice?
Doge. The signory of Venice! You be-
tray'd me-

You-you, who sit there, traitors as ye are!
From my equality with you in birth,
And my superiority in action,

You drew me from my honourable toils
In distant lands on flood in field_in cities
You singled me out like a victim to
Stand crown'd, but bound and helpless, at

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,
And he, the ribald, whom I see amongst you—
Fit judge in such tribunal!--

Benint. (interrupting him) Michel Steno
Is here in virtue of his office, as
One of the Forty; "The Ten" having craved
A Giunta of patricians from the senate
To aid our judgment in a trial arduous
And novel as the present: he was set
Free from the penalty pronounced upon him,
Because the Doge, who should protect the
law,

Seeking to abrogate all law, can claim
No punishment of others by the statutes
Which he himself denies and violates!

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
And honours on his head, could thus allow
His fury, like an angry boy's, to master
All feeling, wisdom, faith, and fear, on such
A provocation as a young man's petulance?
Doge. A spark creates the flame; tis

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
glory,

Vengeance, and victory, and such a name
As would have made Venetian history
Rival to that of Greece and Syracuse
When they were freed, and flourish'd ages
after,

And mine to Gelon and to Thrasybulus:-
Failing, I know the penalty of failure
Is present infamy and death-the future
| Will judge, when Venice is no more, or free ;
Till then, the truth is in abeyance. Pause not;
I would have shown no mercy, and I seck

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
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-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,

Benint. Say, conscript fathers, shall she be admitted?

One of the Giunta. She may have re-
velations of importance

Unto the state, to justify compliance
With her request.

Benint. Is this the general will?
All. It is.

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
Whatever be its purport, to accord
A patient hearing with the due respect
Which fits your ancestry, your rank, 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
To know the worst,even at the worst; forgive
The abruptness of my entrance and my
bearing.

Is it-I cannot speak-I cannot shape
The question—but you answer it ere spoken,
With eyes averted, and with gloomy brows-
Oh God! this is the silence of the grave !

Benint. (after a pause.) Spare us, and
spare thyself the repetition

And though too oft ye made me live in wrath, Of our most awful, but inexorable
Let me die calmly; you may grant me this;-Duty to heaven and men!

I deny nothing - defend nothing-nothing
I ask of you, but silence for myself,
And sentence from the court!

Benint. This full admission
Spares us the harsh necessity of ordering
The torture to elicit the whole truth.
Doge. The torture! you have put me

there already,

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.

Ang. Yet speak; I cannot-
Icannot-no-even now believe these things.
Is he condemn'd?

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
Against a just and paramount tribunal
Were deep offence. But question even the

Doge,

Have wept as they will cry unto their God
For mercy, and be answer'd as they answer-And thence to Rome, which perish'd for a
Had it been fitting for thy name or mine,
And if the cruelty in their cold eyes
Had not announced the heartless wrath