University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE FIFTH.

Piero, Garcia.
Pi.
Brother, what hast thou done? Alas! ...

Gar.
What ails thee?

Pi.
In truth I now do pity thee sincerely.

Gar.
Now? ... What has happened? ...

Pi.
Oh unhappy brother!
Cosmo doth threaten thee, and darkly frowns,
Pronouncing thee a traitor.

Gar.
Such I am not.

Pi.
But yet my father is exasperate
Beyond all bounds. He hath already summon'd
Into his presence Salviati's daughter,
Laden with heavy and opprobrious chains.

Gar.
Oh Heaven! ... Vile tyrant ... I will fly ...

Pi.
Ah! ... Where?

Gar.
To drag her from unworthy chains.

Pi.
Thou may'st
Drag her to horrid death by thy imprudence.
Under the penalty of death he gave her
Into the custody of cruel Geri.
If he, by whomsoever it may be,
Perceives the smallest action in her favour,
Geri is bidden instantly to slay her
With his own hands ...

Gar.
We soon shall see ...

Pi.
Ah stop! ...
What would'st thou do?

Gar.
To slay her? Oh distraction! ...
But was he not accosted by my mother? ...

Pi.
She came erewhile; but the terrific sentence
Was executed. She would speak to him;
But her indignant consort silenced her:
She wept; but tears he told her were not wanted:
He said, “To exculpate himself from all,
“I to thy Garcia have consign'd the means.”

Gar.
Of what, of what, to exculpate myself?
Being thy son? Indelible that blot.—
Gave me the means? Thou seest what means: this sword,
Which in the breast of wretched Salviati
I am appointed treacherously to plunge.
Ah Cosmo, why am I a son of thine?
Ah, were I not, this sword would then, indeed,
Be the best means to exculpate myself.
But against thee I cannot; oh distraction! ...
Against myself ...

Pi.
What would'st thou do? ... Desist ...

Gar.
Rather than see that much-loved maiden dragg'd
To ignominious death, rather than be
Polluted with her father's blood, I here
Would kill myself ...

Pi.
Ah pause; ... listen to me; ...
Reflect that Cosmo is unchangeable.
He, at all risks, wills Salviati's death:
And if from thee he wills it, by thy death
Thou sav'st not him; rather reservest him
For pangs more exquisite: ah, thou well knowest,
Whether, because defrauded of its means,
Cosmo's revenge abates. And th'innocent daughter,
Perhaps she too ...

Gar.
Oh Heaven!

Pi.
But why perhaps?
It is too sure! If thou refuse t'obey,
Father and daughter he will immolate.

Gar.
Thou mak'st me shudder with excess of horror.
But how can I destroy, and treacherously,
A just and innocent man? Hither entice
At night, and under the flagitious mask
Of simulated amity, a friend,
The father of the lady I adore? ...

Pi.
Ah! surely such extremity as thine
Was never heard before; nor are there minds
So firm, as not to shrink from such a trial.
But yet what would'st thou? What else canst thou do?
Thou only canst accumulate crime on crime.
Let one alone expire; that were the best ...

Gar.
And shall I live? ...

Pi.
Hear me. He is the culprit
Who forces thee to such a crime, not thou.—
But yet I can in part lessen for thee
The horror of this stratagem, if thou
Permittest that the messenger be sent
By me to Salviati in thy name.
Resolve; resolve at once; and oh! reflect
In what unutterable agony
Thy Julia languishes ...

Gar.
Beloved Julia! ...
And shall I kill thy father? ... No, I cannot ...
Yet, if I slay not him, I murder thee ...
For I can neither perish nor avenge thee,
And scarcely can I save thee!—But I ought,
Ere I resolve, once more to hear my mother:
Perchance my grief, my rage, my desperate love,
May point another path.

Pi.
Ah no! ...

Gar.
But yet
If 'tis my fate, that I this horrid crime ...
Hear me: if I return not in an hour
Hither to thee, it is indeed too true
That I was forced to chuse to immolate
The father of my Julia.—Then I leave
To thee, since thou wilt have it so, the task
To send the impious messenger of death.