University of Virginia Library

Scene II.

—Bay of Naples at Sunrise.
Enter Salvator, with Beppo and Ghino.
Salvator.
Go to!—Haunt me no more! 'Tis at your peril!
I warn you; ye are in peril, following me!
'Tis writ so in the stars; and here, besides,
In inspiration to my soul revealed!
(Aside.)
What mystic feeling wakes suspicion? Ha!
Should it be so? (To them.)
Again I caution you!
Hence, as ye prize your safety, follow not!

Beppo.

Nay, men have found it safe to be with you in
greatest peril. We claim not to be less superstitious
than our betters. Moreover, we have conveniently
understood King Louis's discharge of
you, to include our own. And thus have we
reached Naples together. Why should we now
part?

Salvator.

I know too much of you for sympathy.

Beppo.

We are not poor by choice, if you mean that,
but bitter need. What you greet as a triumph,
we bear as a curse.

Salvator.

Then, labour—

Beppo.

That is a greater curse; and nothing comes
of it!

Salvator.
The greatest blessing, and its own rewarder,
Whether or no rewarded by the world—

Beppo.

Better be rich and powerful oppressors, than

honest, but poor, perhaps, destitute workmen—
with no more to do than soldiers in time of peace.
We work mischief for the want of other work.

Salvator.
Patience is work! But ye would be wrong-doers,
Not patient sufferers! Yet, though slaves in soul,
Ye dream of freedom for your carcases,
Which means worse license than ye would suppress!
But yet misdeem not. I'm not poor by choice,
Though vowed to poverty from earliest life;
Had it been otherwise, I'd still been poor,
But not content. My rule made not my state,
But made me happy, bearing with an evil,
I could not change, except by dying for it,
Which if all did who suffer, they would end it.
But ye, so far from sacrificing life,
Would not a vice. Ye do a crime, and think
That Freedom gains thereby. But for men's crimes,
Ere long she had gained all! Thus ye retard
Her spring and summer, and no fruit matures,
For April winds have blighted bud or blossom!

Ghino.

Come! he grows serious! Where is Zeppa?
He might answer him—

Salvator.
Why comes he not? O, Christ! that they should think
My cause and theirs is common!—Leave me, sirs!
As he, more prudent than yourselves, has done.
O, fool! that I should trust him to enquire
Of my imprisoned daughter! Comes he not?
O, that my voice might pierce her dungeon walls,
And hers might answer so! Now they but echo
Both hers and mine, and make us talk like madness!
[Bell tolls from St. Elmo's.
Toll! toll! and morn but just awake? toll! toll!
How heavily it booms upon my heart,
And speaks a signal meaning to my soul,
As 'twere a special sorrow!—Wherefore tolls it?

Beppo.
For execution of some forfeit life;
Some legal murder!

Salvator.
Say you so? I tremble!
'Tis from St. Elmo's tower! her prison-house!
Great God! should it be hers! O dreadful sound!
How sullen-slow it floats upon the air!
Enter Zeppa (hurriedly).
For mercy! let it cease!—You've come—and look—
Why speak you not? Has nothing tongue and voice,
But that brute metal? Or doth silence best
Translate the dismal language, no lips should
Articulate to the ears? What of my daughter?

Zeppa.
You hear the bell?

Salvator.
Its peals are not for her?
Some malefactor—not for them!

Zeppa.
You'll know
Too surely, shortly. 'Tis their passing bell!

Salvator.
Let it peal on, till the strong turret rock,
And nod to its foundation! Hear it, Heaven!
And let the Earth hear thee! Thy thunder shall
Outvoice the blatant boaster, or the shock
Of lightning make it silent, while thou speakest!

Zeppa.
The bell hath ceased to toll! All's over now!

Salvator
(wildly).
Peace! still it tolls! but ye'll not let me hear it!
Peal on! peal on! Now it is mute indeed!
And hushed the air, as if the storm were coming—
And yet I saw no flash—and see no cloud—
'Tis the still voice that whispers to the soul!

Enter from St. Elmo's Tower, and descend the rock, Hugh del Balzo, Confessor, Executioner, with his axe reversed, several Monks, Soldiers, and a train of Attendants; with Giulio following.
Beppo.

He dreams—See—But the Tower opens;
—down the rocky path, the Chancellor with
his train wend hither.

Zeppa.
Look there, Salvator!

Salvator
(abstractedly).
Instruct my ignorance, what it signifies.
But there's young Giulio—they may yet be safe,
Since he is so!

Beppo.

Salvator! you'll have company. We'll leave you
now. They are not to our liking.

Salvator
(rousing himself).
Nay, stop! I have been slumbering!
Too sure, they're guilty! Let me wake—wake—wake!
'Tis natural instinct works in them at last!
What, would ye sneak away? Can peril come,
Where I make safety? Though ye be criminals,
Would ye be cowards, when there's nought to fear,
Save what your fear may make?

Ghino.

Well! now 'tis too late to fly, and 'scape suspicion
—best brave it out!

Salvator.
Sit still, my heart!
Ay—ay—'tis best! Suspicion! Guilt!—Ha! Giulio!

Giulio.
I bring to you a message from the dead.

Salvator.
If Justice lives, they live!

Giulio.
Then both are dead!
O, would to Heaven you had come yesternight;
Haply, some spell about you might have saved them!

Salvator.
It might—it might! Then—then—I might have saved them!
And I had wished to see her once again,
That we might part more kindly, ere she died!
I'll not weep yet. Stand by, sad boy! awhile—
I'd look upon their murderer—

Balzo.
Who is he?

Salvator.
Thou! Are they dead?

Balzo.
Even now they suffered
The legal penalty for their offences.

Salvator.
Thou art an unprevaricating liar!

Balzo.
I brook not from my peers such term! For thee,
There's but one answer! Thou art dangerous,
Nor shalt remain at large!

Salvator.
Set thy guards on me!
Yet think, the Queen still lives, and pledged my safety—
Thou art a most straight-forward liar!—bold
From despicable ignorance! erring still—
Void of brute instinct, with thy prey before thee,
Leaving it free, and making victim of
What nature never meant to be thy prey!
Thou hast slain the noble for a crime they did not,
And let'st the ignoble, who were guilty, live!
Nay, though they crouch before thee even now,
There, like a fool, thou standest, threatening me,
And bend'st no frown on them!

Beppo, &c.
Betray us not!

Salvator.
Ye have betrayed yourselves! Mysterious Heavens!
That for such worthless things as you, the virtuous
Should perish on the scaffold, and ye safe
Justice defy, though present, glaring on you
With her mock, rayless orbs! Why is she blind,
When villainy has eyes?

Beppo, &c.
Betray us not!

Salvator.
Ye have betrayed yourselves!

Balzo.
Guards! seize the men!
And but for the Queen's word, I'd seize on him!
This jumps with some suspicions late suggested.

Beppo, &c.
Betray us not!

Salvator.
Ye have betrayed yourselves!
I could not—I—not being your accomplice!
Assassins! regicides! my Daughter dies,
And not alone; but with a race as noble,
As ye are base and vile. The innocent
Have suffered for your crime! Am I unnatural,
That I should care as little for their fames,
As ye did for their lives? Have ye no virtue,
Shall I have no affection? Be advised!
Need not the rack to make ye speak the truth,
And spare yourselves that pain—in hope the Queen
May, on my intercession, pardon you!
Who'll lead me where they lie?

Balzo.
Would you go in?

Salvator.
I would look on them!

Balzo.
Lead him, Giulio!
[Exeunt, ascending the rocky path Salvator and Giulio.
Better confess at once, as he advised—
Are ye the murderers of Andreas?

Beppo.
We are Italians—he was an Hungarian!

Balzo.
Who set you on?

Zeppa.
The Monks he had cast off.

[Salvator re-appears above—descends hastily, wildly, and awe-stricken, followed by Giulio.
Balzo.
Look, he returns!—The sight has maddened him!

Salvator.
Thou, Sun! now rising, with thy greater light,
Blind these mis-seeing eyes! I had not thought
That they were headless trunks! From their poor bodies,
The beauty, crown, and ornament divorced,
Nothing but mutilated columns left!
Vision of ruthless havoc! All the forest
Of stately trees cut down, untopped and dwarfed!
'Tis well such things in secrecy are done,
Else might the ghastly sight turn back the Sun!

Balzo.
Justice has been too hasty. These confess—

Salvator.
Justice has been asleep, while Rashness waked!
Justice too hasty? She is ne'er too hasty!
So tardy—never here, but coming always—
She is a creditor that ne'er makes haste,
But lets her debts accumulate, and then
Collects them all at once! She's one 'gainst thee—
The blood of innocence will be avenged!

Balzo.
Those are the shedders of that blood—not I!
Lead them away—at once!

Salvator.
Stay yet awhile!
Mercy with Justice, for the love of grace!
I ask not Vengeance!

Balzo.
I know my duty—

Salvator.
Duty!
To give that pardon which you need yourself,
That is your duty; while to seek it now,
I wander back. Hugh Balzo! if, without
The Queen's consent, you judgement execute,
Beware of retribution!—Giulio! come!
Be you the old man's crutch!—I reel, in sooth,
Beneath my yoke! Were not my heart too worn
To break, it sure had snapt! I do bear up
Most wondrously, and inly laugh to feel
How little sorrow can afflict my soul!
I am grown as young as you!—Come, Giulio! come!

[Exeunt.
Balzo.
Away with them!
[Beppo, &c., are led up the rock—the procession returns.
(Alone)
—Ay! this—this must be seen to!
Some way to hush it up; the vulgar should not
Carp at state-policy—which, come what will,
Sits far above the reach of error still.

[Exit.