Cowards and traitors! Why, the very conscience
Which ye would sell for gold and for revenge

Is an equivocation: it sleeps over

A thousand daily acts disgracing men ;

And, when a deed where mercy insults Heaven-
Why do I talk?

[Snatching a dagger from one of them, and raising it.

Hadst thou a tongue to say

"She murdered her own father," I must do it !—

But never dream ye shall outlive him long!

Olimpio. Stop, for God's sake!

Marzio.

I will go back and kill him.

Olimpio. Give me the weapon; we must do thy will.

Beatrice. Take it! Depart! Return!

[Exeunt OLIMPIO and MARZIO.

How pale thou art !

We do but that which 'twere a deadly crime

To leave undone.

Lucretia.

Beatrice.

Would it were done!

Even whilst

That doubt is passing through your mind, the world
Is conscious of a change. Darkness and hell
Have swallowed up the vapour they sent forth
To blacken the sweet light of life. My breath
Comes, methinks, lighter, and the gelid blood
Runs freely through my veins. Hark!

Enter OLIMPIO and MARZIO.

Olimpio.

He is

Dead!

Marzio. We strangled him, that there might be no blood; And then we threw his heavy corpse i' the garden

Under the balcony; 'twill seem it fell.

Beatrice (giving them a bag of coin). Here, take this gold,

and hasten to your homes.

And, Marzio, because thou wast only awed

By that which made me tremble, wear thou this!

[Clothes him in a rich mantle.

It was the mantle which my grandfather
Wore in his high prosperity, and men
Envied his state: so may they envy thine!
Thou wert a weapon in the hand of God

To a just use. Live long and thrive! And mark,

If thou hast crimes, repent: this deed is done.

[A horn is sounded. Lucretia. Hark, 'tis the castle horn: my God! it sounds

Like the last trump!

Beatrice.

Some tedious guest is coming.

Lucretia. The drawbridge is let down; there is a tramp Of horses in the court! Fly, hide yourselves!

[Exeunt OLIMPIO and MARZIO.

Beatrice. Let us retire to counterfeit deep rest.

I scarcely need to counterfeit it now;
The spirit which doth reign within these limbs
Seems strangely undisturbed: I could even sleep
Fearless and calm. All ill is surely past.

SCENE IV. Another Apartment in the Castle.

[Exeunt.

Enter on one side the Legate SAVELLA, introduced by a Servant, and on the other LUCRETIA and BERNARDO.

Savella. Lady, my duty to his Holiness

Be my excuse that thus unseasonably

I break upon your rest. I must speak with

Count Cenci; doth he sleep?

Lucretia (in a hurried and confused manner.) I think he sleeps. Yet wake him not, I pray; spare me awhile.

He is a wicked and a wrathful man;

Should he be roused out of his sleep to-night,
Which is, I know, a hell of angry dreams,

It were not well; indeed it were not well.

Wait till daybreak. (Aside.) Oh! I am deadly sick!
Savella. I grieve thus to distress you, but the Count

Must answer charges of the gravest import,

And suddenly; such my commission is.

Lucretia (with increased agitation.) I dare not rouse him, I know none who dare;

'Twere perilous ;—you might as safely waken

A serpent, or a corpse in which some fiend

Were laid to sleep.

Savella.

Lady, my moments here

Are counted. I must rouse him from his sleep,

Since none else dare.

Lucretia (aside.)

Oh terror! Oh despair!

(To BERNARDO.) Bernardo, conduct you the Lord Legate to [Exeunt SAVELLA and BERNARDO.

Your father's chamber.

Come to arrest the culprit who now stands

Before the throne of unappealable God.

Both Earth and Heaven, consenting arbiters,
Acquit our deed.

Would that he yet might live! Even now I heard
The legate's followers whisper as they passed

They had a warrant for his instant death.

All was prepared, by unforbidden means,

Which we must pay so dearly, having done.

Even now they search the tower, and find the body!
Now they suspect the truth; now they consult,

Before they come to tax us with the fact !
Oh horrible, 'tis all discovered!

What is done wisely is done well. Be bold

As thou art just. 'Tis like a truant child

To fear that others know what thou hast done,

Even from thine own strong consciousness; and thus

Write on unsteady eyes and altered cheeks

All thou wouldst hide. Be faithful to thyself,

And fear no other witness but thy fear.
For, if, as cannot be, some circumstance
Should rise in accusation, we can blind
Suspicion with such cheap astonishment,
Or overbear it with such guiltless pride,
As murderers cannot feign.
And what may follow now regards not me.
I am as universal as the light;

The deed is done,

Free as the earth-surrounding air; as firm
As the world's centre. Consequence, to me,
Is as the wind which strikes the solid rock,
But shakes it not.

Voices.

[A cry within and tumult. Murder! Murder! Murder! Enter BERNARDO and SAVElla.

Savella (to his followers.) Go search the castle round; sound

the alarm;

Look to the gates, that none escape!

Beatrice.

What now?

Bernardo. I know not what to say-My father's dead.

Beatrice. How, dead? he only sleeps; you mistake, brother. His sleep is very calm, very like death;

'Tis wonderful how well a tyrant sleeps.

He is not dead.

Bernardo.

Dead, murdered!

Lucretia (with extreme agitation.)

Oh no, no!

He is not murdered, though he may be dead;

I have alone the keys of those apartments.
Savella. Ha! Is it so?

Beatrice.

We will retire; my mother is not well;

My lord, I pray excuse us;

[Exeunt LUCRETIA and BEATRICE.

She seems quite overcome with this strange horror.

Savella. Can you suspect who may have murdered him?

Bernardo. I know not what to think.

Savella.

Who had an interest in his death?

Bernardo.

Can you name any

Alas!

I can name none who had not, and those most
Who most lament that such a deed is done;

My mother, and my sister, and myself.

Savella. 'Tis strange! There were clear marks of violence. I found the old man's body in the moonlight, Hanging beneath the window of his chamber Among the branches of a pine: he could not Have fallen there, for all his limbs lay heaped And effortless; 'tis true there was no blood.— Favour me, sir-it much imports your house That all should be made clear-to tell the ladies That I request their presence.

Guard.

[Exit BERNARDO.

Enter Guards, bringing in MARZIO.
We have one.

Officer. My lord, we found this ruffian and another
Lurking among the rocks; there is no doubt
But that they are the murderers of Count Cenci.
Each had a bag of coin. This fellow wore
A gold-inwoven robe, which, shining bright
Under the dark rocks to the glimmering moon,
Betrayed them to our notice. The other fell
Desperately fighting.

Savella.

What does he confess?

Officer. He keeps firm silence; but these lines found on him

May speak.

Savella. Their language is at least sincere.

"TO THE LADY BEATRICE.

[Reads.

"That the atonement of what my nature sickens to conjecture may soon arrive, I send thee, at thy brother's desire, those who will speak and do more than I dare write.

"Thy devoted servant,

"ORSINO."

Enter LUCRETIA, BEATRICE, and BERNARDO.

Know'st thou this writing, lady?

Beatrice.

Savella.

No.

Nor thou?

Lucretia (her conduct throughout the scene is marked by ex

treme agitation.)

Where was it found? What is it? It should be
Orsino's hand! It speaks of that strange horror
Which never yet found utterance, but which made
Between that hapless child and her dead father
A gulf of obscure hatred.

Savella.

Is it so ?

Is it true, lady, that thy father did
Such outrages as to awaken in thee
Unfilial hate?

Beatrice.

Not hate, 'twas more than hate :

This is most true, yet wherefore question me?

Savella. There is a deed demanding question done;

Thou hast a secret which will answer not.

[rash.

Beatrice. What say'st? My lord, your words are bold and
Savella. I do arrest all present in the name

Of the Pope's Holiness. You must to Rome.

Lucretia. Oh not to Rome! Indeed we are not guilty.
Beatrice. Guilty! Who dares talk of guilt? My lord,

I am more innocent of parricide

Than is a child born fatherless.

Dear mother,

Your gentleness and patience are no shield

For this keen-judging world, this two-edged lie,

Which seems, but is not. What will human laws--
Rather, will ye who are their ministers-