University of Virginia Library

SCENE V.

Maria.
Ah, why, Del Balzo, have you let come in
The filthy monk, Fra Rupert? He has frightened
Sancia Terlizzi almost into fainting.
And tell me by what right hath he or any
Ordered her up into her room, and taken
Her mother down below, into those chambers
Which we have always been forbid to enter!

Del Balzo.
Perhaps to ask some questions; for the queen
Ought to be satisfied.

Maria.
Then let me go
And ask her: she would tell me in a moment
What they will never get from her.

Del Balzo.
Perhaps,
O princess! you may have mistaken.

Maria.
No:
I never was mistaken in Filippa.
Rudeness can neither move nor discompose her:
A word, a look, of kindness, instantly
Opens her heart and brings her cheek upon you.

Del Balzo.
The countess has more glorious qualities
Than noble birth has given any else.
Whether her heart has all that tenderness . .

Maria.
Is my heart tender.

Del Balzo.
Be it not too tender,
Or it may suffer much, and speedily,
And undeservedly. The queen your sister,
Gentle as you, hath fortitude.

Maria.
Giovanna
Is tenderer than I am; she sheds tears
Oftener than I do, though she hides them better.

Del Balzo.
I saw their traces: but more royally
Never shone courage upon grief opprest.

Maria.
The lovely platane in the garden-walk
Catches the sun upon her buds half-open,
And looks the brightest where unbarkt and unscathed.
O find them out who have afflicted her
With that most cruel blow.

Del Balzo.
'Tis what she bade me,
And what I now am hastening to perform.

[Goes.
Giovanna enters.
Maria.
Courage, Giovanna! courage, my sweet sister!
Del Balzo will find out those wicked men.
O! I forgot to tell him what assistance
Fra Rupert might afford him. Every crime
Is known to him. But certainly Fra Rupert,
Who loved Andrea so, will never cease
Until he find the slayer of his friend.
Ah my poor sister! if you had but heard
The praises of Del Balzo, you would soon
Resume your courage and subdue your tears.

Giovanna.
Before Del Balzo, sister, I disdain
To show them or to speak of them. Be mine
Hid from all eyes! God only knows their source,
Their truth or falsehood. In the light of day
Some lose their bitterness, run smoothly on,
And catch compassion, leisurely, serenely:
Never will mine run thus: my sorrows lie
In my own breast; my fame rests upon others,
Who throw it from them now the blast has nipt it.
'Tis ever so. Applauses win applauses,
Crowds gather about crowds, the solitary
Are shunned as lepers, and in haste past by.

Maria.
But we will not be solitary; we
Are not so easy to pass by in haste;
We are not very leper-looking.

Giovanna.
Cease,
Maria! nothing on this earth so wounds
The stricken bosom as such sportiveness,
Or weighs worn spirits down like levity.
Give me your hand . . Reproof is not reproach.
I might have done the same . . how recently!

Maria.
Hark! what is all that outcry?

Giovanna.
'Tis for him
Whom we have lost.

Maria.
But angry voices mixt
With sorrowful?

Giovanna.
To him both due alike.

Spinello enters.
Spinello.
Hungarian troops throng every street and lane,
Driving before them the infirm, the aged,
The children, of both sexes.

Giovanna.
Shelter them.

Spinello.
Such is the hope of those base enemies,
That, unprovided for defence, the castle
May fall into their hands: and very quickly
(Unless we drive them back) our scanty stores
Leave us exhausted.

Giovanna.
Dost thou fear, Spinello?

Spinello.
I do: but if my sovran bids me bare
This breast of armour and assail her foes,
Soon shall she see what fears there lie within.

Giovanna.
Let me too have my fears, nor worse than thine,
Loyal and brave Spinello! Dare I ask
Of God my daily bread nor give it those
Whose daily prayers have earned it for us all?
I dare not. Throw wide open every gate
And stand between the last of my poor people
And those who drive them in.

Spinello.
We then are lost.

Giovanna.
Not from God's sight, nor theirs who look to God.

Maria.
O sister! may that smile of yours be parent
Of many. It sinks back, and dies upon
The lovely couch it rose from. [Del Balzo enters.]
I will go;
Del Balzo looks, I think, more stern than ever.

Giovanna.
Del Balzo, I perceive thou knowest all,
And pitiest my condition.

[Del Balzo amazed.
Spinello.
Standest thou,
Lookest thou, thus, before thy sovran, sir?

Giovanna.
Be friends, be friends, and spare me one affront.
Wiser it were, and worthier, to devise
How tumults may be quell'd than how increast.
On your discretion lies your country's weal.

[Goes.
Spinello.
Ugo del Balzo! thou art strong in war,
Strong in alliances, in virtue strong,
But darest thou, before the queen, before
The lowest of the loyal, thus impute
With brow of scorn and figure fixt aslant,
Atrocious crimes to purity angelic?

Del Balzo.
Heard'st thou her words and askest thou this question?
Spinello! nor in virtue nor in courage
(Our best alliances) have I pretence
To stand before thee. Chancellor thou art,
And, by the nature of thy office, shouldst
Have undertaken my most awful duty:
Why didst thou not?

Spinello.
Because the queen herself
Will'd otherwise; because her chancellor,
She thought, might vindicate some near unduly.

Del Balzo.
She thought so? what! of thee?

Spinello.
Thus it appears.
But on this subject never word escaped
Her lips to me: her own pure spirit frankly
Suggested it: her delicacy shunn'd
All explanation, lacking no excuse.
Thou askest if I heard her at thy entrance:
I heard her, like thyself. The words before
Thou didst not hear; I did. Her last appeal
Was for the wretched driven within the castle,
And doom'd to pine or force us to surrender.
For them she call'd upon thee, never else,
To pity her condition.

Del Balzo.
Pardon me!
I have much wrong'd her. Yet, among the questioned
Were strange confessions. One alone spake scornfully
Amid her tortures.

Spinello.
Is the torture, then,
The tongue of Truth?

Del Balzo.
For once, I fear, 'tis not.

Spinello.
It was Giovanna's resolute design
To issue her first edict through the land
Abolishing this horrid artifice,
Whereby the harden'd only can escape.
“The cruel best bear cruelty,” said she,
“And those who often have committed it
May once go through it.”

Del Balzo.
And would'st thou, Spinello!
Thus lay aside the just restraints of law,
Abolishing what wise and holy men
Raised for the safeguard of society?

Spinello.
The holy and the wise have done such things
As the unwise and the unholy shrink at.

Del Balzo.
It might be thought a hardship in a country
Where laws want ingenuity; where scales,
Bandage, and sword, alone betoken Justice.
Ill-furbisht ineffective armoury,
With nothing but cross-shooting shafts of words!

Spinello.
Since every deed like torture must afflict
A youthful breast, so mild, so sensitive,
Trust it to me, and we will then devise
How the event may best be laid before her.

Del Balzo.
A clue was given by unwilling hands,
Wherewith we entered the dark narrow chambers
Of this strange mystery. Filippa first,
Interrogated if she knew the murderer,
Denied it: then, if she suspected any;
“I do,” was her reply. Whom? She was silent.
Where should suspicion now (tell me, Spinello!)
Wander or fix? I askt her if the Queen
Was privy to the deed. Then swell'd her scorn.
Again I askt her, and show'd the rack.
“Throw me upon it; I will answer thence,”
Said with calm voice Filippa. She was rackt.
Screams from all round fill'd the whole vault. “See, children!
How those who fear their God and love their Prince
Can bear this childish cruelty,” said she.
Although no other voice escaped, the men
Trembled, the women wail'd aloud. “To-morrow,”
Said I, “Filippa! thou must answer Justice.
Release her.” Still the smile was on her face:
She was releast: Death had come down and saved her.

Spinello.
Faithfullest friend of the unhappy! plead
For us whose duty was to plead for thee!
Thou art among the Blessed! On, Del Balzo!

Del Balzo.
Sancia, her daughter's child . .

Spinello.
The playful Sancia?
Whose fifteenth birthday we both kept together . .
Was it the sixth or seventh of last March? . .
Terlizzi's bride two months ago?

Del Balzo.
The same.

Spinello.
And the same fate?

Del Balzo.
She never had seen Death:
She thought her cries could drive him off again,
Thought her soft lips might have relaxt the rigid,
And her warm tears . .

Spinello.
Del Balzo! wert thou there?
Or tearest thou such dreamery from some book,
If any book contain such?

Del Balzo.
I was there;
And what I saw I ordered to be done.
Justice would have it; Justice smote my heart,
Justice sustained it too.

Spinello.
Her husband would
Rather have died than hear one shriek from Sancia.

Del Balzo.
So all men would: for never form so lovely
Lighted the air around it.

Spinello.
Let us go
And bear her home.

Del Balzo.
To me the way lies open;
But much I fear, Spinello, the Hungarians
Possess all avenue to thy escape.

Spinello.
Escape is not the word for me, my friend.
I had forgotten the Hungarians
(It seems) the Queen, myself, captivity . .
I may not hence: relate then if more horrors
Succeeded.

Del Balzo.
When Terlizzi saw Filippa
Lie stiff before him, and that gentle bride
Chafing her limbs, and shrinking with loud yells
Whenever her soft hand felt some swol'n sinew,
In hopes to finish here and save all else,
He cried aloud, “Filippa was the murderess.”
At this she darted at him such a glance
As the mad only dart, and fell down dead.
“'Tis false! 'tis false!” cried he. “Speak, Sancia, speak!
Or hear me say 'tis false.” They dragg'd away
The wavering youth, and fixt him. There he lies,
With what result of such inconstancy
I know not, but am going to inquire . .
If we detect the murderers, all these pains
Are well inflicted.

Spinello.
But if not?

Del Balzo.
The Laws
Have done their duty and struck fear through all.

Spinello.
Alas! that duty seems their only one.

Del Balzo.
Among the first 'tis surely. I must go
And gather up fresh evidence. Farewell,
Spinello.

Spinello.
May good angels guide your steps!
Farewell! That Heaven should give the merciless
So much of power, the merciful so little!