University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE SECOND.

Garcia.
Gar.
What do I hear? Oh heaven! that in that cave
The feet of Salviati have not enter'd!
Piero says so! and to Cosmo says it!
Oh horrible and fatal mystery!
Whose is that blood then that I thus have shed?
Oh how I shudder with affright! ... But yet,
What other murder were a crime like this?
Ah! were it true that this my impious hand
Had slain all others rather than himself! ...
Whom hast thou then destroy'd? ... I well remember,
That when I issued breathless from the cave
Piero stood before me suddenly,
With hesitating looks ... What did he say?
Oh, well I recollect; ... he was disturb'd,
And manifested great anxiety
To hear my narrative: for me he waited:
His words were broken, doubtful, apprehensive ...
Nor Salviati's danger, nor my own,
Could ever wake in him such agony ...
Perhaps he himself within that grot had laid
Some snare for my destruction! ... Yet the man
Whom I transfix'd appear'd to me unarm'd.
I was the first to assault him: he spake not ...
What boots it? ... More obscure than threefold night,
Who, except Cosmo or Piero, can
Unravel thee, thou horrid mystery?
But more and more I feel myself o'erwhelm'd
With unaccustom'd fear: within my heart
An unknown terror rises.—Oh suspense,
Oh thou the chief and worst of ills, no more,
No more thy torments will I thus embosom!
Thither I go; thither I go myself,
To see what death ...