University of Virginia Library

Scene II.

—The Sea-shore.—Mate and Boatswain of the Maddelena.
Mate.

Bah! we did but what three rats would have
done if it had pleased Providence. With what we got
we may have absolutions for the scuttling of twenty such
ships,—or of forty if the owners be Jews. Spadone
makes small haste to return; surely he has had time ten
times told to hide the booty.

Boatswain.

Hearest thou? The watch is cried at the
city gates.

Mate.

How long are we to wait? If thou knowest the
ways of the Catacombs, hie thee and fetch him off! for
else Aretina will hold him half the night.

Boatswain.

I know them not; but with that yell in his
ears which followed us when we left the ship, it can
hardly be woman's dalliance that withholds him; more
likely she has played him false.

Mate.

Then are we much in jeopardy. Lo! who
comes here? By his gait and carriage it is the Marquis's
fast friend my Lord of Arona. Push off, push off!
Spadone must take his fate.

[They betake themselves to their boat and put to sea.
Enter Ruggiero.
Ruggiero.

Truly Silisco seems to have vanished as his
ship vanished; in a moment and without a warning.
Not though, like the ship, without cause that may be
guessed; for assuredly there will be writs out against
him when the news is known. He has conveyed himself
doubtless to some safe hiding-place. What is that? a
shock of seaweed or a head of hair? By Heaven, it is a
man that wrestles with the surf. Courage, my friend!
hold up thy head but an instant more and I am with
thee.

[Plunges into the surf, and brings out of it a sailor who was sinking.

Why, cheer thee up? thou hast had a tustle for thy life,
but thou hast it and art none the worse I think, for thy
colour comes again. What! thou art doubtless a waif
from the wreck of the Maddelena. But silence! I
trouble thy devotions.

Sailor.

Next to God, Sir, I give thanks to you; for
under God it is to you that I owe my life. Strong
swimming stood me in stead for two long hours, but then
my strength was nigh spent and the surf should have
mastered me but for your help. I thank God for my life,
and I thank God that all men are not the merciless
villains that some are; for the villainy that put me in this
peril might have made me think mankind given over to
the Devil, but for the charity that plucked me out of it.

Ruggiero.

Villainy! Why, was it not the elements?

Sailor.

The elements were guiltless; the wreck was a
wreck of man's making and of the Devil's setting on;
and the captain, the mate, and the boatswain were the
instruments; they scuttled the ship and made off in a
boat with the treasure.

Ruggiero.

Ay, verily did they? And I saw but now
two men that fled at my approach as though the cry of
blood were behind and betook them to their boat.

Sailor.

They should be three. But had they peaked
beavers such as are worn at Rhodes?

Ruggiero.

They had, and doubtless they are full in
flight with their booty. Now if, as thou say'st, thou owest
thy peril to them and thy life to me, commit thyself with
me to the craft that is tethered in yonder cove and we
will give chase to them.

Sailor.

I am yours, Sir, for any service you shall
command, and you could not put me to one more welcome.
What course did they steer?

Ruggiero.

As if making for the coast of Calabria. We
shall have them in sight and to leeward round yonder
point.