Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice; an Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts

"Dux inquieti turbidus Adria." Horace,

"The young man's wrath is like straw on fire, But like red hot steel is the old man's ire."

"Young men soon give and soon forget affronts, Old age is slow at both."

Scene Venice--in the year 1355.

ACT I.

SCENE I.--An Antechamber in the Ducal Palace.

PIETRO speaks, in entering, to BATTISTA.

Pie. Is not the messenger returned?

Bat. Not yet; I have sent frequently, as you commanded, But still the Signory is deep in council, And long debate on Steno's accusation.

Pie. Too long--at least so thinks the Doge.

Bat. How bears he These moments of suspense?

Pie. With struggling patience. Placed at the Ducal table, covered o'er With all the apparel of the state--petitions, Despatches, judgments, acts, reprieves, reports,-- He sits as rapt in duty; but whene'er He hears the jarring of a distant door, Or aught that intimates a coming step, Or murmur of a voice, his quick eye wanders, And he will start up from his chair, then pause, And seat himself again, and fix his gaze Upon some edict; but I have observed For the last hour he has not turned a leaf.

Bat. 'Tis said he is much moved,--and doubtless 'twas Foul scorn in Steno to offend so grossly.

Pie. Aye, if a poor man: Steno's a patrician, Young, galliard, gay, and haughty.

Bat. Then you think He will not be judged hardly?

Pie. 'Twere enough He be judged justly; but 'tis not for us To anticipate the sentence of the Forty.

Bat. And here it comes.--What news, Vincenzo?

Enter VINCENZO.

Vin. 'Tis Decided; but as yet his doom's unknown: I saw the President in act to seal The parchment which will bear the Forty's judgment Unto the Doge, and hasten to inform him. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.--The Ducal Chamber.

MARINO FALIERO, Doge; and his Nephew, BERTUCCIO FALIERO.

Ber. F. It cannot be but they will do you justice.

Doge. Aye, such as the Avogadori did, Who sent up my appeal unto the Forty To try him by his peers, his own tribunal.

Ber. F. His peers will scarce protect him; such an act Would bring contempt on all authority.

Doge. Know you not Venice? Know you not the Forty? But we shall see anon.

Ber. F. (addressing VINCENZO, then entering.) How now--what tidings?

Vin. I am charged to tell his Highness that the court Has passed its resolution, and that, soon As the due forms of judgment are gone through, The sentence will be sent up to the Doge; In the mean time the Forty doth salute The Prince of the Republic, and entreat His acceptation of their duty.

Doge. Yes-- They are wond'rous dutiful, and ever humble. Sentence is passed, you say?

Vin. It is, your Highness: The President was sealing it, when I Was called in, that no moment might be lost In forwarding the intimation due Not only to the Chief of the Republic, But the complainant, both in one united.

Ber. F. Are you aware, from aught you have perceived, Of their decision?

Vin. No, my Lord; you know The secret custom of the courts in Venice.

Ber. F. True; but there still is something given to guess, Which a shrewd gleaner and quick eye would catch at; A whisper, or a murmur, or an air More or less solemn spread o'er the tribunal. The Forty are but men--most worthy men, And wise, and just, and cautious--this I grant-- And secret as the grave to which they doom The guilty: but with all this, in their aspects-- At least in some, the juniors of the number-- A searching eye, an eye like yours, Vincenzo, Would read the sentence ere it was pronounced.

Vin. My Lord, I came away upon the moment, And had no leisure to take note of that Which passed among the judges, even in seeming; My station near the accused too, Michel Steno, Made me--

Doge (abruptly). And how looked he? deliver that.

Vin. Calm, but not overcast, he stood resigned To the decree, whate'er it were;--but lo! It comes, for the perusal of his Highness.

Enter the SECRETARY of the Forty.

Sec. The high tribunal of the Forty sends Health and respect to the Doge Faliero, Chief magistrate of Venice, and requests His Highness to peruse and to approve The sentence passed on Michel Steno, born Patrician, and arraigned upon the charge Contained, together with its penalty, Within the rescript which I now present.

Doge. Retire, and wait without.

Take thou this paper: The misty letters vanish from my eyes; I cannot fix them.

Ber. F. Patience, my dear Uncle: Why do you tremble thus?--nay, doubt not, all Will be as could be wished.

Doge. Say on.

Ber. F. (reading). "Decreed In council, without one dissenting voice, That Michel Steno, by his own confession, Guilty on the last night of Carnival Of having graven on the ducal throne The following words--"

Doge. Would'st thou repeat them? Would'st thou repeat them--thou, a Faliero, Harp on the deep dishonour of our house, Dishonoured in its Chief--that Chief the Prince Of Venice, first of cities?--To the sentence.

Ber. F. Forgive me, my good Lord; I will obey-- (Reads) "That Michel Steno be detained a month In close arrest."

Doge. Proceed.

Ber. F. My Lord, 'tis finished.

Doge. How say you?--finished! Do I dream?--'tis false-- Give me the paper--(snatches the paper and reads)-- "'Tis decreed in council That Michel Steno"--Nephew, thine arm!

Ber. F. Nay, Cheer up, be calm; this transport is uncalled for-- Let me seek some assistance.

Doge. Stop, sir--Stir not-- 'Tis past.

Ber. F. I cannot but agree with you The sentence is too slight for the offence; It is not honourable in the Forty To affix so slight a penalty to that Which was a foul affront to you, and even To them, as being your subjects; but 'tis not Yet without remedy: you can appeal To them once more, or to the Avogadori, Who, seeing that true justice is withheld, Will now take up the cause they once declined, And do you right upon the bold delinquent. Think you not thus, good Uncle? why do you stand So fixed? You heed me not:--I pray you, hear me!

Doge (dashing down the ducal bonnet, and offering to trample upon it, exclaims, as he is withheld by his nephew). Oh! that the Saracen were in St. Mark's! Thus would I do him homage.

Ber. F. For the sake Of Heaven and all its saints, my Lord--

Doge. Away! Oh, that the Genoese were in the port! Oh, that the Huns whom I o'erthrew at Zara Were ranged around the palace!

Ber. F. 'Tis not well In Venice' Duke to say so.

Doge. Venice' Duke! Who now is Duke in Venice? let me see him, That he may do me right.

Ber. F. If you forget Your office, and its dignity and duty. Remember that of man, and curb this passion. The Duke of Venice----

Doge (interrupting him). There is no such thing-- It is a word--nay, worse--a worthless by-word: The most despised, wronged, outraged, helpless wretch, Who begs his bread, if 'tis refused by one, May win it from another kinder heart; But he, who is denied his right by those Whose place it is to do no wrong, is poorer Than the rejected beggar--he's a slave-- And that am I--and thou--and all our house, Even from this hour; the meanest artisan Will point the finger, and the haughty noble May spit upon us:--where is our redress?

Ber. F. The law, my Prince--

Doge (interrupting him). You see what it has done; I asked no remedy but from the law-- I sought no vengeance but redress by law-- I called no judges but those named by law-- As Sovereign, I appealed unto my subjects, The very subjects who had made me Sovereign, And gave me thus a double right to be so. The rights of place and choice, of birth and service, Honours and years, these scars, these hoary hairs, The travel--toil--the perils--the fatigues-- The blood and sweat of almost eighty years, Were weighed i' the balance, 'gainst the foulest stain, The grossest insult, most contemptuous crime Of a rank, rash patrician--and found wanting! And this is to be borne!

Ber. F. I say not that:-- In case your fresh appeal should be rejected, We will find other means to make all even.

Doge. Appeal again! art thou my brother's son? A scion of the house of Faliero? The nephew of a Doge? and of that blood Which hath already given three dukes to Venice? But thou say'st well--we must be humble now.

Ber. F. My princely Uncle! you are too much moved;-- I grant it was a gross offence, and grossly Left without fitting punishment: but still This fury doth exceed the provocation, Or any provocation: if we are wronged, We will ask justice; if it be denied, We'll take it; but may do all this in calmness-- Deep Vengeance is the daughter of deep Silence. I have yet scarce a third part of your years, I love our house, I honour you, its Chief, The guardian of my youth, and its instructor-- But though I understand your grief, and enter In part of your disdain, it doth appal me To see your anger, like our Adrian waves, O'ersweep all bounds, and foam itself to air.

Doge. I tell thee--must I tell thee--what thy father Would have required no words to comprehend? Hast thou no feeling save the external sense Of torture from the touch? hast thou no soul-- No pride--no passion--no deep sense of honour?

Ber. F. 'Tis the first time that honour has been doubted, And were the last, from any other sceptic.

Doge. You know the full offence of this born villain, This creeping, coward, rank, acquitted felon, Who threw his sting into a poisonous libel, And on the honour of--Oh God! my wife, The nearest, dearest part of all men's honour, Left a base slur to pass from mouth to mouth Of loose mechanics, with all coarse foul comments, And villainous jests, and blasphemies obscene; While sneering nobles, in more polished guise, Whispered the tale, and smiled upon the lie Which made me look like them--a courteous wittol, Patient--aye--proud, it may be, of dishonour.

Ber. F. But still it was a lie--you knew it false, And so did all men.

Doge. Nephew, the high Roman Said, "Cæsar's wife must not even be suspected," And put her from him.

Ber. F. True--but in those days----

Doge. What is it that a Roman would not suffer, That a Venetian Prince must bear? old Dandolo Refused the diadem of all the Cæsars, And wore the ducal cap I trample on-- Because 'tis now degraded.

Ber. F. 'Tis even so.

Doge. It is--it is;--I did not visit on The innocent creature thus most vilely slandered Because she took an old man for her lord, For that he had been long her father's friend And patron of her house, as if there were No love in woman's heart but lust of youth And beardless faces;--I did not for this Visit the villain's infamy on her, But craved my country's justice on his head, The justice due unto the humblest being Who hath a wife whose faith is sweet to him, Who hath a home whose hearth is dear to him-- Who hath a name whose honour's all to him, When these are tainted by the accursing breath Of Calumny and Scorn.

Ber. F. And what redress Did you expect as his fit punishment?

Doge. Death! Was I not the Sovereign of the state-- Insulted on his very throne, and made A mockery to the men who should obey me? Was I not injured as a husband? scorned As man? reviled, degraded, as a Prince? Was not offence like his a complication Of insult and of treason?--and he lives! Had he instead of on the Doge's throne Stamped the same brand upon a peasant's stool, His blood had gilt the threshold; for the carle Had stabbed him on the instant.

Ber. F. Do not doubt it, He shall not live till sunset--leave to me The means, and calm yourself.

Doge. Hold, nephew: this Would have sufficed but yesterday; at present I have no further wrath against this man.

Ber. F. What mean you? is not the offence redoubled By this most rank--I will not say--acquittal; For it is worse, being full acknowledgment Of the offence, and leaving it unpunished?

Doge. It is redoubled, but not now by him: The Forty hath decreed a month's arrest-- We must obey the Forty.

Ber. F. Obey them! Who have forgot their duty to the Sovereign?

Doge. Why, yes;--boy, you perceive it then at last; Whether as fellow citizen who sues For justice, or as Sovereign who commands it, They have defrauded me of both my rights (For here the Sovereign is a citizen); But, notwithstanding, harm not thou a hair Of Steno's head--he shall not wear it long.

Ber. F. Not twelve hours longer, had you left to me The mode and means; if you had calmly heard me, I never meant this miscreant should escape, But wished you to suppress such gusts of passion, That we more surely might devise together His taking off.

Doge. No, nephew, he must live; At least, just now--a life so vile as his Were nothing at this hour; in th' olden time Some sacrifices asked a single victim, Great expiations had a hecatomb.

Ber. F. Your wishes are my law: and yet I fain Would prove to you how near unto my heart The honour of our house must ever be.

Doge. Fear not; you shall have time and place of proof: But be not thou too rash, as I have been. I am ashamed of my own anger now; I pray you, pardon me.

Ber. F. Why, that's my uncle! The leader, and the statesman, and the chief Of commonwealths, and sovereign of himself! I wondered to perceive you so forget All prudence in your fury at these years, Although the cause--

Doge. Aye--think upon the cause-- Forget it not:--When you lie down to rest, Let it be black among your dreams; and when The morn returns, so let it stand between The Sun and you, as an ill-omened cloud Upon a summer-day of festival: So will it stand to me;--but speak not, stir not,-- Leave all to me; we shall have much to do, And you shall have a part.--But now retire, 'Tis fit I were alone.

Ber. F. (taking up and placing the ducal bonnet on the table). Ere I depart, I pray you to resume what you have spurned, Till you can change it--haply, for a crown! And now I take my leave, imploring you In all things to rely upon my duty, As doth become your near and faithful kinsman, And not less loyal citizen and subject. [Exit BERTUCCIO FALIERO.

Doge (solus). Adieu, my worthy nephew.--Hollow bauble! [Taking up the ducal cap. Beset with all the thorns that line a crown, Without investing the insulted brow With the all-swaying majesty of Kings; Thou idle, gilded, and degraded toy, Let me resume thee as I would a vizor. [Puts it on. How my brain aches beneath thee! and my temples Throb feverish under thy dishonest weight. Could I not turn thee to a diadem? Could I not shatter the Briarean sceptre Which in this hundred-handed Senate rules, Making the people nothing, and the Prince A pageant? In my life I have achieved Tasks not less difficult--achieved for them, Who thus repay me! Can I not requite them? Oh for one year! Oh! but for even a day Of my full youth, while yet my body served My soul as serves the generous steed his lord, I would have dashed amongst them, asking few In aid to overthrow these swoln patricians; But now I must look round for other hands To serve this hoary head; but it shall plan In such a sort as will not leave the task Herculean, though as yet 'tis but a chaos Of darkly brooding thoughts: my fancy is In her first work, more nearly to the light Holding the sleeping images of things For the selection of the pausing judgment.-- The troops are few in----

Enter VINCENZO.

Vin. There is one without Craves audience of your Highness.

Doge. I'm unwell-- I can see no one, not even a patrician-- Let him refer his business to the Council.

Vin. My Lord, I will deliver your reply; It cannot much import--he's a plebeian, The master of a galley, I believe.

Doge. How! did you say the patron of a galley? That is--I mean--a servant of the state: Admit him, he may be on public service. [Exit VINCENZO.

Doge (solus). This patron may be sounded; I will try him. I know the people to be discontented: They have cause, since Sapienza's adverse day, When Genoa conquered: they have further cause, Since they are nothing in the state, and in The city worse than nothing--mere machines, To serve the nobles' most patrician pleasure. The troops have long arrears of pay, oft promised, And murmur deeply--any hope of change Will draw them forward: they shall pay themselves With plunder:--but the priests--I doubt the priesthood Will not be with us; they have hated me Since that rash hour, when, maddened with the drone, I smote the tardy Bishop at Treviso, Quickening his holy march; yet, ne'ertheless, They may be won, at least their Chief at Rome, By some well-timed concessions; but, above All things, I must be speedy: at my hour Of twilight little light of life remains. Could I free Venice, and avenge my wrongs, I had lived too long, and willingly would sleep Next moment with my sires; and, wanting this, Better that sixty of my fourscore years Had been already where--how soon, I care not-- The whole must be extinguished;--better that They ne'er had been, than drag me on to be The thing these arch-oppressors fain would make me. Let me consider--of efficient troops There are three thousand posted at----

Enter VINCENZO and ISRAEL BERTUCCIO.

Vin. May it please Your Highness, the same patron whom I spake of Is here to crave your patience.

Doge. Leave the chamber, Vincenzo.-- [Exit VINCENZO. Sir, you may advance--what would you?

I. Ber. Redress.

Doge. Of whom?

I. Ber. Of God and of the Doge.

Doge. Alas! my friend, you seek it of the twain Of least respect and interest in Venice. You must address the Council.

I. Ber. 'Twere in vain; For he who injured me is one of them.

Doge. There's blood upon thy face--how came it there?

I. Ber. 'Tis mine, and not the first I've shed for Venice, But the first shed by a Venetian hand: A noble smote me.

Doge. Doth he live?

I. Ber. Not long-- But for the hope I had and have, that you, My Prince, yourself a soldier, will redress Him, whom the laws of discipline and Venice Permit not to protect himself:--if not-- I say no more.

Doge. But something you would do-- Is it not so?

I. Ber. I am a man, my Lord.

Doge. Why so is he who smote you.

I. Ber. He is called so; Nay, more, a noble one--at least, in Venice: But since he hath forgotten that I am one, And treats me like a brute, the brute may turn-- 'Tis said the worm will.

Doge. Say--his name and lineage?

I. Ber. Barbaro.

Doge. What was the cause? or the pretext?

I. Ber. I am the chief of the arsenal, employed At present in repairing certain galleys But roughly used by the Genoese last year. This morning comes the noble Barbaro Full of reproof, because our artisans Had left some frivolous order of his house, To execute the state's decree: I dared To justify the men--he raised his hand;-- Behold my blood! the first time it e'er flowed Dishonourably.

Doge. Have you long time served?

I. Ber. So long as to remember Zara's siege, And fight beneath the Chief who beat the Huns there, Sometime my general, now the Doge Faliero.--

Doge. How! are we comrades?--the State's ducal robes Sit newly on me, and you were appointed Chief of the arsenal ere I came from Rome; So that I recognised you not. Who placed you?

I. Ber. The late Doge; keeping still my old command As patron of a galley: my new office Was given as the reward of certain scars (So was your predecessor pleased to say): I little thought his bounty would conduct me To his successor as a helpless plaintiff; At least, in such a cause.

Doge. Are you much hurt?

I. Ber. Irreparably in my self-esteem.

Doge. Speak out; fear nothing: being stung at heart, What would you do to be revenged on this man?

I. Ber. That which I dare not name, and yet will do.

Doge. Then wherefore came you here?

I. Ber. I come for justice, Because my general is Doge, and will not See his old soldier trampled on. Had any, Save Faliero, filled the ducal throne, This blood had been washed out in other blood.

Doge. You come to me for justice--unto me! The Doge of Venice, and I cannot give it; I cannot even obtain it--'twas denied To me most solemnly an hour ago!

I. Ber. How says your Highness?

Doge. Steno is condemned To a month's confinement.

I. Ber. What! the same who dared To stain the ducal throne with those foul words, That have cried shame to every ear in Venice?

Doge. Aye, doubtless they have echoed o'er the arsenal, Keeping due time with every hammer's clink, As a good jest to jolly artisans; Or making chorus to the creaking oar, In the vile tune of every galley-slave, Who, as he sung the merry stave, exulted He was not a shamed dotard like the Doge.

I. Ber. Is't possible? a month's imprisonment! No more for Steno?

Doge. You have heard the offence, And now you know his punishment; and then You ask redress of me! Go to the Forty, Who passed the sentence upon Michel Steno; They'll do as much by Barbaro, no doubt.

I. Ber. Ah! dared I speak my feelings!

Doge. Give them breath. Mine have no further outrage to endure.

I. Ber. Then, in a word, it rests but on your word To punish and avenge--I will not say My petty wrong, for what is a mere blow, However vile, to such a thing as I am?-- But the base insult done your state and person.

Doge. You overrate my power, which is a pageant. This Cap is not the Monarch's crown; these robes Might move compassion, like a beggar's rags; Nay, more, a beggar's are his own, and these But lent to the poor puppet, who must play Its part with all its empire in this ermine.

I. Ber. Wouldst thou be King?

Doge. Yes--of a happy people.

I. Ber. Wouldst thou be sovereign lord of Venice?

Doge. Aye, If that the people shared that sovereignty, So that nor they nor I were further slaves To this o'ergrown aristocratic Hydra, The poisonous heads of whose envenomed body Have breathed a pestilence upon us all.

I. Ber. Yet, thou wast born, and still hast lived, patrician.

Doge. In evil hour was I so born; my birth Hath made me Doge to be insulted: but I lived and toiled a soldier and a servant Of Venice and her people, not the Senate; Their good and my own honour were my guerdon. I have fought and bled; commanded, aye, and conquered; Have made and marred peace oft in embassies, As it might chance to be our country's 'vantage; Have traversed land and sea in constant duty, Through almost sixty years, and still for Venice, My fathers' and my birthplace, whose dear spires, Rising at distance o'er the blue Lagoon, It was reward enough for me to view Once more; but not for any knot of men, Nor sect, nor faction, did I bleed or sweat! But would you know why I have done all this? Ask of the bleeding pelican why she Hath ripped her bosom? Had the bird a voice, She'd tell thee 'twas for all her little ones.

I. Ber. And yet they made thee Duke.

Doge. They made me so; I sought it not, the flattering fetters met me Returning from my Roman embassy, And never having hitherto refused Toil, charge, or duty for the state, I did not, At these late years, decline what was the highest Of all in seeming, but of all most base In what we have to do and to endure: Bear witness for me thou, my injured subject, When I can neither right myself nor thee.

I. Ber. You shall do both, if you possess the will; And many thousands more not less oppressed, Who wait but for a signal--will you give it?

Doge. You speak in riddles.

I. Ber. Which shall soon be read At peril of my life--if you disdain not To lend a patient ear.

Doge. Say on.

I. Ber. Not thou, Nor I alone, are injured and abused, Contemned and trampled on; but the whole people Groan with the strong conception of their wrongs: The foreign soldiers in the Senate's pay Are discontented for their long arrears; The native mariners, and civic troops, Feel with their friends; for who is he amongst them Whose brethren, parents, children, wives, or sisters, Have not partook oppression, or pollution, From the patricians? And the hopeless war Against the Genoese, which is still maintained With the plebeian blood, and treasure wrung From their hard earnings, has inflamed them further: Even now--but, I forget that speaking thus, Perhaps I pass the sentence of my death!

Doge. And suffering what thou hast done--fear'st thou death? Be silent then, and live on, to be beaten By those for whom thou hast bled.

I. Ber. No, I will speak At every hazard; and if Venice' Doge Should turn delator, be the shame on him, And sorrow too; for he will lose far more Than I.

Doge. From me fear nothing; out with it!

I. Ber. Know then, that there are met and sworn in secret A band of brethren, valiant hearts and true; Men who have proved all fortunes, and have long Grieved over that of Venice, and have right To do so; having served her in all climes, And having rescued her from foreign foes, Would do the same from those within her walls. They are not numerous, nor yet too few For their great purpose; they have arms, and means, And hearts, and hopes, and faith, and patient courage.

Doge. For what then do they pause?

I. Ber. An hour to strike.

Doge (aside). Saint Mark's shall strike that hour!

I. Ber. I now have placed My life, my honour, all my earthly hopes Within thy power, but in the firm belief That injuries like ours, sprung from one cause, Will generate one vengeance: should it be so, Be our Chief now--our Sovereign hereafter.

Doge. How many are ye?

I. Ber. I'll not answer that Till I am answered.

Doge. How, sir! do you menace?

I. Ber. No; I affirm. I have betrayed myself; But there's no torture in the mystic wells Which undermine your palace, nor in those Not less appalling cells, the "leaden roofs," To force a single name from me of others. The Pozzi and the Piombi were in vain; They might wring blood from me, but treachery never. And I would pass the fearful "Bridge of Sighs," Joyous that mine must be the last that e'er Would echo o'er the Stygian wave which flows Between the murderers and the murdered, washing The prison and the palace walls: there are Those who would live to think on't, and avenge me.

Doge. If such your power and purpose, why come here To sue for justice, being in the course To do yourself due right?

I. Ber. Because the man, Who claims protection from authority, Showing his confidence and his submission To that authority, can hardly be Suspected of combining to destroy it. Had I sate down too humbly with this blow, A moody brow and muttered threats had made me A marked man to the Forty's inquisition; But loud complaint, however angrily It shapes its phrase, is little to be feared, And less distrusted. But, besides all this, I had another reason.

Doge. What was that?

I. Ber. Some rumours that the Doge was greatly moved By the reference of the Avogadori Of Michel Steno's sentence to the Forty Had reached me. I had served you, honoured you, And felt that you were dangerously insulted, Being of an order of such spirits, as Requite tenfold both good and evil: 'twas My wish to prove and urge you to redress. Now you know all; and that I speak the truth, My peril be the proof.

Doge. You have deeply ventured; But all must do so who would greatly win: Thus far I'll answer you--your secret's safe.

I. Ber. And is this all?

Doge. Unless with all intrusted, What would you have me answer?

I. Ber. I would have you Trust him who leaves his life in trust with you.

Doge. But I must know your plan, your names, and numbers; The last may then be doubled, and the former Matured and strengthened.

I. Ber. We're enough already; You are the sole ally we covet now.

Doge. But bring me to the knowledge of your chiefs.

I. Ber. That shall be done upon your formal pledge To keep the faith that we will pledge to you.

Doge. When? where?

I. Ber. This night I'll bring to your apartment Two of the principals: a greater number Were hazardous.

Doge. Stay, I must think of this.-- What if I were to trust myself amongst you, And leave the palace?

I. Ber. You must come alone.

Doge. With but my nephew.

I. Ber. Not were he your son!

Doge. Wretch! darest thou name my son? He died in arms At Sapienza for this faithless state. Oh! that he were alive, and I in ashes! Or that he were alive ere I be ashes! I should not need the dubious aid of strangers.

I. Ber. Not one of all those strangers whom thou doubtest, But will regard thee with a filial feeling, So that thou keep'st a father's faith with them.

Doge. The die is cast. Where is the place of meeting?

I. Ber. At midnight I will be alone and masked Where'er your Highness pleases to direct me, To wait your coming, and conduct you where You shall receive our homage, and pronounce Upon our project.

Doge. At what hour arises The moon?

I. Ber. Late, but the atmosphere is thick and dusky, 'Tis a sirocco.

Doge. At the midnight hour, then, Near to the church where sleep my sires; the same, Twin-named from the apostles John and Paul; A gondola, with one oar only, will Lurk in the narrow channel which glides by. Be there.

I. Ber. I will not fail.

Doge. And now retire----

I. Ber. In the full hope your Highness will not falter In your great purpose. Prince, I take my leave. [Exit Isreal Bertuccio.

Doge (solus). At midnight, by the church Saints John and Paul, Where sleep my noble fathers, I repair-- To what? to hold a council in the dark With common ruffians leagued to ruin states! And will not my great sires leap from the vault, Where lie two Doges who preceded me, And pluck me down amongst them? Would they could! For I should rest in honour with the honoured. Alas! I must not think of them, but those Who have made me thus unworthy of a name Noble and brave as aught of consular On Roman marbles; but I will redeem it Back to its antique lustre in our annals, By sweet revenge on all that's base in Venice, And freedom to the rest, or leave it black To all the growing calumnies of Time, Which never spare the fame of him who fails, But try the Cæsar, or the Catiline, By the true touchstone of desert--Success.

ACT II.

SCENE I.--An Apartment in the Ducal Palace.

ANGIOLINA (wife of the DOGE) and MARIANNA.

Ang. What was the Doge's answer?

Mar. That he was That moment summoned to a conference; But 'tis by this time ended. I perceived Not long ago the Senators embarking; And the last gondola may now be seen Gliding into the throng of barks which stud The glittering waters.

Ang. Would he were returned! He has been much disquieted of late; And Time, which has not tamed his fiery spirit, Nor yet enfeebled even his mortal frame, Which seems to be more nourished by a soul So quick and restless that it would consume Less hardy clay--Time has but little power On his resentments or his griefs. Unlike To other spirits of his order, who, In the first burst of passion, pour away Their wrath or sorrow, all things wear in him An aspect of Eternity: his thoughts, His feelings, passions, good or evil, all Have nothing of old age; and his bold brow Bears but the scars of mind, the thoughts of years, Not their decrepitude: and he of late Has been more agitated than his wont. Would he were come! for I alone have power Upon his troubled spirit.

Mar. It is true, His Highness has of late been greatly moved By the affront of Steno, and with cause: But the offender doubtless even now Is doomed to expiate his rash insult with Such chastisement as will enforce respect To female virtue, and to noble blood.

Ang. 'Twas a gross insult; but I heed it not For the rash scorner's falsehood in itself, But for the effect, the deadly deep impression Which it has made upon Faliero's soul, The proud, the fiery, the austere--austere To all save me: I tremble when I think To what it may conduct.

Mar. Assuredly The Doge can not suspect you?

Ang. Suspect me! Why Steno dared not: when he scrawled his lie, Grovelling by stealth in the moon's glimmering light, His own still conscience smote him for the act, And every shadow on the walls frowned shame Upon his coward calumny.

Mar. 'Twere fit He should be punished grievously.

Ang. He is so.

Mar. What! is the sentence passed? is he condemned?

Ang. I know not that, but he has been detected.

Mar. And deem you this enough for such foul scorn?

Ang. I would not be a judge in my own cause, Nor do I know what sense of punishment May reach the soul of ribalds such as Steno; But if his insults sink no deeper in The minds of the inquisitors than they Have ruffled mine, he will, for all acquittance, Be left to his own shamelessness or shame.

Mar. Some sacrifice is due to slandered virtue.

Ang. Why, what is virtue if it needs a victim? Or if it must depend upon men's words? The dying Roman said, "'twas but a name:" It were indeed no more, if human breath Could make or mar it.

Mar. Yet full many a dame, Stainless and faithful, would feel all the wrong Of such a slander; and less rigid ladies, Such as abound in Venice, would be loud And all-inexorable in their cry For justice.

Ang. This but proves it is the name And not the quality they prize: the first Have found it a hard task to hold their honour, If they require it to be blazoned forth; And those who have not kept it, seek its seeming As they would look out for an ornament Of which they feel the want, but not because They think it so; they live in others' thoughts, And would seem honest as they must seem fair.

Mar. You have strange thoughts for a patrician dame.

Ang. And yet they were my father's; with his name, The sole inheritance he left.

Mar. You want none; Wife to a Prince, the Chief of the Republic.

Ang. I should have sought none though a peasant's bride, But feel not less the love and gratitude Due to my father, who bestowed my hand Upon his early, tried, and trusted friend, The Count Val di Marino, now our Doge.

Mar. And with that hand did he bestow your heart?

Ang. He did so, or it had not been bestowed.

Mar. Yet this strange disproportion in your years, And, let me add, disparity of tempers, Might make the world doubt whether such an union Could make you wisely, permanently happy.

Ang. The world will think with worldlings; but my heart Has still been in my duties, which are many, But never difficult.

Mar. And do you love him?

Ang. I love all noble qualities which merit Love, and I loved my father, who first taught me To single out what we should love in others, And to subdue all tendency to lend The best and purest feelings of our nature To baser passions. He bestowed my hand Upon Faliero: he had known him noble, Brave, generous; rich in all the qualities Of soldier, citizen, and friend; in all Such have I found him as my father said. His faults are those that dwell in the high bosoms Of men who have commanded; too much pride, And the deep passions fiercely fostered by The uses of patricians, and a life Spent in the storms of state and war; and also From the quick sense of honour, which becomes A duty to a certain sign, a vice When overstrained, and this I fear in him. And then he has been rash from his youth upwards, Yet tempered by redeeming nobleness In such sort, that the wariest of republics Has lavished all its chief employs upon him, From his first fight to his last embassy, From which on his return the Dukedom met him.

Mar. But previous to this marriage, had your heart Ne'er beat for any of the noble youth, Such as in years had been more meet to match Beauty like yours? or, since, have you ne'er seen One, who, if your fair hand were still to give, Might now pretend to Loredano's daughter?

Ang. I answered your first question when I said I married.

Mar. And the second?

Ang. Needs no answer.

Mar. I pray you pardon, if I have offended.

Ang. I feel no wrath, but some surprise: I knew not That wedded bosoms could permit themselves To ponder upon what they now might choose, Or aught save their past choice.

Mar. 'Tis their past choice That far too often makes them deem they would Now choose more wisely, could they cancel it.

Ang. It may be so. I knew not of such thoughts.

Mar. Here comes the Doge--shall I retire?

Ang. It may Be better you should quit me; he seems rapt In thought.--How pensively he takes his way! [Exit MARIANNA.

Enter the DOGE and PIETRO.

Doge (musing). There is a certain Philip Calendaro Now in the Arsenal, who holds command Of eighty men, and has great influence Besides on all the spirits of his comrades: This man, I hear, is bold and popular, Sudden and daring, and yet secret; 'twould Be well that he were won: I needs must hope That Israel Bertuccio has secured him, But fain would be----

Pie. My Lord, pray pardon me For breaking in upon your meditation; The Senator Bertuccio, your kinsman, Charged me to follow and enquire your pleasure To fix an hour when he may speak with you.

Doge. At sunset.--Stay a moment--let me see-- Say in the second hour of night. [Exit PIETRO.

Ang. My Lord!

Doge. My dearest child, forgive me--why delay So long approaching me?--I saw you not.

Ang. You were absorbed in thought, and he who now Has parted from you might have words of weight To bear you from the Senate.

Doge. From the Senate?

Ang. I would not interrupt him in his duty And theirs.

Doge. The Senate's duty! you mistake; 'Tis we who owe all service to the Senate.

Ang. I thought the Duke had held command in Venice.

Doge. He shall.--But let that pass.--We will be jocund. How fares it with you? have you been abroad? The day is overcast, but the calm wave Favours the gondolier's light skimming oar; Or have you held a levee of your friends? Or has your music made you solitary? Say--is there aught that you would will within The little sway now left the Duke? or aught Of fitting splendour, or of honest pleasure, Social or lonely, that would glad your heart, To compensate for many a dull hour, wasted On an old man oft moved with many cares? Speak, and 'tis done.

Ang. You're ever kind to me. I have nothing to desire, or to request, Except to see you oftener and calmer.

Doge. Calmer?

Ang. Aye, calmer, my good Lord.--Ah, why Do you still keep apart, and walk alone, And let such strong emotions stamp your brow, As not betraying their full import, yet Disclose too much?

Doge. Disclose too much!--of what? What is there to disclose?

Ang. A heart so ill At ease.

Doge. 'Tis nothing, child.--But in the state You know what daily cares oppress all those Who govern this precarious commonwealth; Now suffering from the Genoese without, And malcontents within--'tis this which makes me More pensive and less tranquil than my wont.

Ang. Yet this existed long before, and never Till in these late days did I see you thus. Forgive me; there is something at your heart More than the mere discharge of public duties, Which long use and a talent like to yours Have rendered light, nay, a necessity, To keep your mind from stagnating. 'Tis not In hostile states, nor perils, thus to shake you,-- You, who have stood all storms and never sunk, And climbed up to the pinnacle of power And never fainted by the way, and stand Upon it, and can look down steadily Along the depth beneath, and ne'er feel dizzy. Were Genoa's galleys riding in the port, Were civil fury raging in Saint Mark's, You are not to be wrought on, but would fall, As you have risen, with an unaltered brow: Your feelings now are of a different kind; Something has stung your pride, not patriotism.

Doge. Pride! Angiolina? Alas! none is left me.

Ang. Yes--the same sin that overthrew the angels, And of all sins most easily besets Mortals the nearest to the angelic nature: The vile are only vain; the great are proud.

Doge. I had the pride of honour, of your honour, Deep at my heart--But let us change the theme.

Ang. Ah no!--As I have ever shared your kindness In all things else, let me not be shut out From your distress: were it of public import, You know I never sought, would never seek To win a word from you; but feeling now Your grief is private, it belongs to me To lighten or divide it. Since the day When foolish Steno's ribaldry detected Unfixed your quiet, you are greatly changed, And I would soothe you back to what you were.

Doge. To what I was!--have you heard Steno's sentence?

Ang. No.

Doge. A month's arrest.

Ang. Is it not enough?

Doge. Enough!--yes, for a drunken galley slave, Who, stung by stripes, may murmur at his master; But not for a deliberate, false, cool villain, Who stains a Lady's and a Prince's honour Even on the throne of his authority.

Ang. There seems to be enough in the conviction Of a patrician guilty of a falsehood: All other punishment were light unto His loss of honour.

Doge. Such men have no honour; They have but their vile lives--and these are spared.

Ang. You would not have him die for this offence?

Doge. Not now:--being still alive, I'd have him live Long as he can; he has ceased to merit death; The guilty saved hath damned his hundred judges, And he is pure, for now his crime is theirs.

Ang. Oh! had this false and flippant libeller Shed his young blood for his absurd lampoon, Ne'er from that moment could this breast have known A joyous hour, or dreamless slumber more.

Doge. Does not the law of Heaven say blood for blood? And he who taints kills more than he who sheds it. Is it the pain of blows, or shame of blows, That makes such deadly to the sense of man? Do not the laws of man say blood for honour,-- And, less than honour, for a little gold? Say not the laws of nations blood for treason? Is't nothing to have filled these veins with poison For their once healthful current? is it nothing To have stained your name and mine--the noblest names? Is't nothing to have brought into contempt A Prince before his people? to have failed In the respect accorded by Mankind To youth in woman, and old age in man? To virtue in your sex, and dignity In ours?--But let them look to it who have saved him.

Ang. Heaven bids us to forgive our enemies.

Doge. Doth Heaven forgive her own? Is there not Hell For wrath eternal?

Ang. Do not speak thus wildly-- Heaven will alike forgive you and your foes.

Doge. Amen! May Heaven forgive them!

Ang. And will you?

Doge. Yes, when they are in Heaven!

Ang. And not till then?

Doge. What matters my forgiveness? an old man's, Worn out, scorned, spurned, abused; what matters then My pardon more than my resentment, both Being weak and worthless? I have lived too long; But let us change the argument.--My child! My injured wife, the child of Loredano, The brave, the chivalrous, how little deemed Thy father, wedding thee unto his friend, That he was linking thee to shame!--Alas! Shame without sin, for thou art faultless. Hadst thou But had a different husband, any husband In Venice save the Doge, this blight, this brand, This blasphemy had never fallen upon thee. So young, so beautiful, so good, so pure, To suffer this, and yet be unavenged!

Ang. I am too well avenged, for you still love me, And trust, and honour me; and all men know That you are just, and I am true: what more Could I require, or you command?

Doge. 'Tis well, And may be better; but whate'er betide, Be thou at least kind to my memory.

Ang. Why speak you thus?

Doge. It is no matter why; But I would still, whatever others think, Have your respect both now and in my grave.

Ang. Why should you doubt it? has it ever failed?

Doge. Come hither, child! I would a word with you. Your father was my friend; unequal Fortune Made him my debtor for some courtesies Which bind the good more firmly: when, oppressed With his last malady, he willed our union, It was not to repay me, long repaid Before by his great loyalty in friendship; His object was to place your orphan beauty In honourable safety from the perils, Which, in this scorpion nest of vice, assail A lonely and undowered maid. I did not Think with him, but would not oppose the thought Which soothed his death-bed.

Ang. I have not forgotten The nobleness with which you bade me speak If my young heart held any preference Which would have made me happier; nor your offer To make my dowry equal to the rank Of aught in Venice, and forego all claim My father's last injunction gave you.

Doge. Thus, 'Twas not a foolish dotard's vile caprice, Nor the false edge of agéd appetite, Which made me covetous of girlish beauty, And a young bride: for in my fieriest youth I swayed such passions; nor was this my age Infected with that leprosy of lust Which taints the hoariest years of vicious men, Making them ransack to the very last The dregs of pleasure for their vanished joys; Or buy in selfish marriage some young victim, Too helpless to refuse a state that's honest, Too feeling not to know herself a wretch. Our wedlock was not of this sort; you had Freedom from me to choose, and urged in answer Your father's choice.

Ang. I did so; I would do so In face of earth and Heaven; for I have never Repented for my sake; sometimes for yours, In pondering o'er your late disquietudes.

Doge. I knew my heart would never treat you harshly: I knew my days could not disturb you long; And then the daughter of my earliest friend, His worthy daughter, free to choose again. Wealthier and wiser, in the ripest bloom Of womanhood, more skilful to select By passing these probationary years, Inheriting a Prince's name and riches, Secured, by the short penance of enduring An old man for some summers, against all That law's chicane or envious kinsmen might Have urged against her right; my best friend's child Would choose more fitly in respect of years, And not less truly in a faithful heart.

Ang. My Lord, I looked but to my father's wishes, Hallowed by his last words, and to my heart For doing all its duties, and replying With faith to him with whom I was affianced. Ambitious hopes ne'er crossed my dreams; and should The hour you speak of come, it will be seen so.

Doge. I do believe you; and I know you true: For Love--romantic Love--which in my youth I knew to be illusion, and ne'er saw Lasting, but often fatal, it had been No lure for me, in my most passionate days, And could not be so now, did such exist. But such respect, and mildly paid regard As a true feeling for your welfare, and A free compliance with all honest wishes,-- A kindness to your virtues, watchfulness Not shown, but shadowing o'er such little failings As Youth is apt in, so as not to check Rashly, but win you from them ere you knew You had been won, but thought the change your choice; A pride not in your beauty, but your conduct; A trust in you; a patriarchal love, And not a doting homage; friendship, faith,-- Such estimation in your eyes as these Might claim, I hoped for.

Ang. And have ever had.

Doge. I think so. For the difference in our years You knew it choosing me, and chose; I trusted Not to my qualities, nor would have faith In such, nor outward ornaments of nature, Were I still in my five and twentieth spring; I trusted to the blood of Loredano Pure in your veins; I trusted to the soul God gave you--to the truths your father taught you-- To your belief in Heaven--to your mild virtues-- To your own faith and honour, for my own.

Ang. You have done well.--I thank you for that trust, Which I have never for one moment ceased To honour you the more for.

Doge. Where is Honour, Innate and precept-strengthened, 'tis the rock Of faith connubial: where it is not--where Light thoughts are lurking, or the vanities Of worldly pleasure rankle in the heart, Or sensual throbs convulse it, well I know 'Twere hopeless for humanity to dream Of honesty in such infected blood, Although 'twere wed to him it covets most: An incarnation of the poet's God In all his marble-chiselled beauty, or The demi-deity, Alcides, in His majesty of superhuman Manhood, Would not suffice to bind where virtue is not; It is consistency which forms and proves it: Vice cannot fix, and Virtue cannot change. The once fall'n woman must for ever fall; For Vice must have variety, while Virtue Stands like the Sun, and all which rolls around Drinks life, and light, and glory from her aspect.

Ang. And seeing, feeling thus this truth in others, (I pray you pardon me;) but wherefore yield you To the most fierce of fatal passions, and Disquiet your great thoughts with restless hate Of such a thing as Steno?

Doge. You mistake me. It is not Steno who could move me thus; Had it been so, he should--but let that pass.

Ang. What is't you feel so deeply, then, even now?

Doge. The violated majesty of Venice, At once insulted in her Lord and laws.

Ang. Alas! why will you thus consider it?

Doge. I have thought on't till--but let me lead you back To what I urged; all these things being noted, I wedded you; the world then did me justice Upon the motive, and my conduct proved They did me right, while yours was all to praise: You had all freedom--all respect--all trust From me and mine; and, born of those who made Princes at home, and swept Kings from their thrones On foreign shores, in all things you appeared Worthy to be our first of native dames.

Ang. To what does this conduct?

Doge. To thus much--that A miscreant's angry breath may blast it all-- A villain, whom for his unbridled bearing, Even in the midst of our great festival, I caused to be conducted forth, and taught How to demean himself in ducal chambers; A wretch like this may leave upon the wall The blighting venom of his sweltering heart, And this shall spread itself in general poison; And woman's innocence, man's honour, pass Into a by-word; and the doubly felon (Who first insulted virgin modesty By a gross affront to your attendant damsels Amidst the noblest of our dames in public) Requite himself for his most just expulsion By blackening publicly his Sovereign's consort, And be absolved by his upright compeers.

Ang. But he has been condemned into captivity.

Doge. For such as him a dungeon were acquittal; And his brief term of mock-arrest will pass Within a palace. But I've done with him; The rest must be with you.

Ang. With me, my Lord?

Doge. Yes, Angiolina. Do not marvel; I Have let this prey upon me till I feel My life cannot be long; and fain would have you Regard the injunctions you will find within This scroll (giving her a paper) ----Fear not; they are for your advantage: Read them hereafter at the fitting hour.

Ang. My Lord, in life, and after life, you shall Be honoured still by me: but may your days Be many yet--and happier than the present! This passion will give way, and you will be Serene, and what you should be--what you were.

Doge. I will be what I should be, or be nothing; But never more--oh! never, never more, O'er the few days or hours which yet await The blighted old age of Faliero, shall Sweet Quiet shed her sunset! Never more Those summer shadows rising from the past Of a not ill-spent nor inglorious life, Mellowing the last hours as the night approaches, Shall soothe me to my moment of long rest. I had but little more to ask, or hope, Save the regards due to the blood and sweat, And the soul's labour through which I had toiled To make my country honoured. As her servant-- Her servant, though her chief--I would have gone Down to my fathers with a name serene And pure as theirs; but this has been denied me. Would I had died at Zara!

Ang. There you saved The state; then live to save her still. A day, Another day like that would be the best Reproof to them, and sole revenge for you.

Doge. But one such day occurs within an age; My life is little less than one, and 'tis Enough for Fortune to have granted once, That which scarce one more favoured citizen May win in many states and years. But why Thus speak I? Venice has forgot that day-- Then why should I remember it?--Farewell, Sweet Angiolina! I must to my cabinet; There's much for me to do--and the hour hastens.

Ang. Remember what you were.

Doge. It were in vain! Joy's recollection is no longer joy, While Sorrow's memory is a sorrow still.

Ang. At least, whate'er may urge, let me implore That you will take some little pause of rest: Your sleep for many nights has been so turbid, That it had been relief to have awaked you, Had I not hoped that Nature would o'erpower At length the thoughts which shook your slumbers thus. An hour of rest will give you to your toils With fitter thoughts and freshened strength.

Doge. I cannot-- I must not, if I could; for never was Such reason to be watchful: yet a few-- Yet a few days and dream-perturbéd nights, And I shall slumber well--but where?--no matter. Adieu, my Angiolina.

Ang. Let me be An instant--yet an instant your companion! I cannot bear to leave you thus.

Doge. Come then, My gentle child--forgive me: thou wert made For better fortunes than to share in mine, Now darkling in their close toward the deep vale Where Death sits robed in his all-sweeping shadow. When I am gone--it may be sooner than Even these years warrant, for there is that stirring Within--above--around, that in this city Will make the cemeteries populous As e'er they were by pestilence or war,-- When I am nothing, let that which I was Be still sometimes a name on thy sweet lips, A shadow in thy fancy, of a thing Which would not have thee mourn it, but remember. Let us begone, my child--the time is pressing.

SCENE II.--A retired spot near the Arsenal.

ISRAEL BERTUCCIO and PHILIP CALENDARO.

Cal. How sped you, Israel, in your late complaint?

I. Ber. Why, well.

Cal. Is't possible! will he be punished?

I. Ber. Yes.

Cal. With what? a mulct or an arrest?

I. Ber. With death!

Cal. Now you rave, or must intend revenge, Such as I counselled you, with your own hand.

I. Ber. Yes; and for one sole draught of hate, forego The great redress we meditate for Venice, And change a life of hope for one of exile; Leaving one scorpion crushed, and thousands stinging My friends, my family, my countrymen! No, Calendaro; these same drops of blood, Shed shamefully, shall have the whole of his For their requital----But not only his; We will not strike for private wrongs alone: Such are for selfish passions and rash men, But are unworthy a Tyrannicide.

Cal. You have more patience than I care to boast. Had I been present when you bore this insult, I must have slain him, or expired myself In the vain effort to repress my wrath.

I. Ber. Thank Heaven you were not--all had else been marred: As 'tis, our cause looks prosperous still.

Cal. You saw The Doge--what answer gave he?

I. Ber. That there was No punishment for such as Barbaro.

Cal. I told you so before, and that 'twas idle To think of justice from such hands.

I. Ber. At least, It lulled suspicion, showing confidence. Had I been silent, not a Sbirro but Had kept me in his eye, as meditating A silent, solitary, deep revenge.

Cal. But wherefore not address you to the Council? The Doge is a mere puppet, who can scarce Obtain right for himself. Why speak to him?

I. Ber. You shall know that hereafter.

Cal. Why not now?

I. Ber. Be patient but till midnight. Get your musters, And bid our friends prepare their companies: Set all in readiness to strike the blow, Perhaps in a few hours: we have long waited For a fit time--that hour is on the dial, It may be, of to-morrow's sun: delay Beyond may breed us double danger. See That all be punctual at our place of meeting, And armed, excepting those of the Sixteen, Who will remain among the troops to wait The signal.

Cal. These brave words have breathed new life Into my veins; I am sick of these protracted And hesitating councils: day on day Crawled on, and added but another link To our long fetters, and some fresher wrong Inflicted on our brethren or ourselves, Helping to swell our tyrants' bloated strength. Let us but deal upon them, and I care not For the result, which must be Death or Freedom! I'm weary to the heart of finding neither.

I. Ber. We will be free in Life or Death! the grave Is chainless. Have you all the musters ready? And are the sixteen companies completed To sixty?

Cal. All save two, in which there are Twenty-five wanting to make up the number.

I. Ber. No matter; we can do without. Whose are they?

Cal. Bertram's and old Soranzo's, both of whom Appear less forward in the cause than we are.

I. Ber. Your fiery nature makes you deem all those Who are not restless cold; but there exists Oft in concentred spirits not less daring Than in more loud avengers. Do not doubt them.

Cat. I do not doubt the elder; but in Bertram There is a hesitating softness, fatal To enterprise like ours: I've seen that man Weep like an infant o'er the misery Of others, heedless of his own, though greater; And in a recent quarrel I beheld him Turn sick at sight of blood, although a villain's.

I. Ber. The truly brave are soft of heart and eyes, And feel for what their duty bids them do. I have known Bertram long; there doth not breathe A soul more full of honour.

Cal. It may be so: I apprehend less treachery than weakness; Yet as he has no mistress, and no wife To work upon his milkiness of spirit, He may go through the ordeal; it is well He is an orphan, friendless save in us: A woman or a child had made him less Than either in resolve.

I. Ber. Such ties are not For those who are called to the high destinies Which purify corrupted commonwealths; We must forget all feelings save the one, We must resign all passions save our purpose, We must behold no object save our country, And only look on Death as beautiful, So that the sacrifice ascend to Heaven, And draw down Freedom on her evermore.

Cal. But if we fail----

I. Ber. They never fail who die In a great cause: the block may soak their gore: Their heads may sodden in the sun; their limbs Be strung to city gates and castle walls-- But still their Spirit walks abroad. Though years Elapse, and others share as dark a doom, They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts Which overpower all others, and conduct The world at last to Freedom. What were we, If Brutus had not lived? He died in giving Rome liberty, but left a deathless lesson-- A name which is a virtue, and a Soul Which multiplies itself throughout all time, When wicked men wax mighty, and a state Turns servile. He and his high friend were styled "The last of Romans!" Let us be the first Of true Venetians, sprung from Roman sires.

Cal. Our fathers did not fly from Attila Into these isles, where palaces have sprung On banks redeemed from the rude ocean's ooze, To own a thousand despots in his place. Better bow down before the Hun, and call A Tartar lord, than these swoln silkworms masters! The first at least was man, and used his sword As sceptre: these unmanly creeping things Command our swords, and rule us with a word As with a spell.

I. Ber. It shall be broken soon. You say that all things are in readiness; To-day I have not been the usual round, And why thou knowest; but thy vigilance Will better have supplied my care: these orders In recent council to redouble now Our efforts to repair the galleys, have Lent a fair colour to the introduction Of many of our cause into the arsenal, As new artificers for their equipment, Or fresh recruits obtained in haste to man The hoped-for fleet.--Are all supplied with arms?

Cal. All who were deemed trust-worthy: there are some Whom it were well to keep in ignorance Till it be time to strike, and then supply them; When in the heat and hurry of the hour They have no opportunity to pause, But needs must on with those who will surround them.

I. Ber. You have said well. Have you remarked all such?

Cal. I've noted most; and caused the other chiefs To use like caution in their companies. As far as I have seen, we are enough To make the enterprise secure, if 'tis Commenced to-morrow; but, till 'tis begun, Each hour is pregnant with a thousand perils.

I. Ber. Let the Sixteen meet at the wonted hour, Except Soranzo, Nicoletto Blondo, And Marco Giuda, who will keep their watch Within the arsenal, and hold all ready, Expectant of the signal we will fix on.

Cal. We will not fail.

I. Ber. Let all the rest be there; I have a stranger to present to them.

Cal. A stranger! doth he know the secret?

I. Ber. Yes.

Cal. And have you dared to peril your friends' lives On a rash confidence in one we know not?

I. Ber. I have risked no man's life except my own-- Of that be certain: he is one who may Make our assurance doubly sure, according His aid; and if reluctant, he no less Is in our power: he comes alone with me, And cannot 'scape us; but he will not swerve.

Cal. I cannot judge of this until I know him: Is he one of our order?

I. Ber. Aye, in spirit, Although a child of Greatness; he is one Who would become a throne, or overthrow one-- One who has done great deeds, and seen great changes; No tyrant, though bred up to tyranny; Valiant in war, and sage in council; noble In nature, although haughty; quick, yet wary: Yet for all this, so full of certain passions, That if once stirred and baffled, as he has been Upon the tenderest points, there is no Fury In Grecian story like to that which wrings His vitals with her burning hands, till he Grows capable of all things for revenge; And add too, that his mind is liberal, He sees and feels the people are oppressed, And shares their sufferings. Take him all in all, We have need of such, and such have need of us.

Cal. And what part would you have him take with us?

I. Ber. It may be, that of Chief.

Cal. What! and resign Your own command as leader?

I. Ber. Even so. My object is to make your cause end well, And not to push myself to power. Experience, Some skill, and your own choice, had marked me out To act in trust as your commander, till Some worthier should appear: if I have found such As you yourselves shall own more worthy, think you That I would hesitate from selfishness, And, covetous of brief authority, Stake our deep interest on my single thoughts, Rather than yield to one above me in All leading qualities? No, Calendaro, Know your friend better; but you all shall judge. Away! and let us meet at the fixed hour. Be vigilant, and all will yet go well.

Cal. Worthy Bertuccio, I have known you ever Trusty and brave, with head and heart to plan What I have still been prompt to execute. For my own part, I seek no other Chief; What the rest will decide, I know not, but I am with YOU, as I have ever been, In all our undertakings. Now farewell, Until the hour of midnight sees us meet. [Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I.--Scene, the Space between the Canal and the Church of San Giovanni e San Paolo. An equestrian Statue before it.--A Gondola lies in the Canal at some distance.

Enter the DOGE alone, disguised.

Doge (solus). I am before the hour, the hour whose voice, Pealing into the arch of night, might strike These palaces with ominous tottering, And rock their marbles to the corner-stone, Waking the sleepers from some hideous dream Of indistinct but awful augury Of that which will befall them. Yes, proud city! Thou must be cleansed of the black blood which makes thee A lazar-house of tyranny: the task Is forced upon me, I have sought it not; And therefore was I punished, seeing this Patrician pestilence spread on and on, Until at length it smote me in my slumbers, And I am tainted, and must wash away The plague spots in the healing wave. Tall fane! Where sleep my fathers, whose dim statues shadow The floor which doth divide us from the dead, Where all the pregnant hearts of our bold blood, Mouldered into a mite of ashes, hold In one shrunk heap what once made many heroes, When what is now a handful shook the earth-- Fane of the tutelar saints who guard our house! Vault where two Doges rest--my sires! who died The one of toil, the other in the field, With a long race of other lineal chiefs And sages, whose great labours, wounds, and state I have inherited,--let the graves gape, Till all thine aisles be peopled with the dead, And pour them from thy portals to gaze on me! I call them up, and them and thee to witness What it hath been which put me to this task-- Their pure high blood, their blazon-roll of glories, Their mighty name dishonoured all in me, Not by me, but by the ungrateful nobles We fought to make our equals, not our lords: And chiefly thou, Ordelafo the brave, Who perished in the field, where I since conquered, Battling at Zara, did the hecatombs Of thine and Venice' foes, there offered up By thy descendant, merit such acquittance? Spirits! smile down upon me! for my cause Is yours, in all life now can be of yours,-- Your fame, your name, all mingled up in mine, And in the future fortunes of our race! Let me but prosper, and I make this city Free and immortal, and our House's name Worthier of what you were--now and hereafter!

Enter ISRAEL BERTUCCIO.

I. Ber. Who goes there?

Doge. A friend to Venice.

I. Ber. 'Tis he. Welcome, my Lord,--you are before the time.

Doge. I am ready to proceed to your assembly.

I. Ber. Have with you.--I am proud and pleased to see Such confident alacrity. Your doubts Since our last meeting, then, are all dispelled?

Doge. Not so--but I have set my little left Of life upon this cast: the die was thrown When I first listened to your treason.--Start not! That is the word; I cannot shape my tongue To syllable black deeds into smooth names, Though I be wrought on to commit them. When I heard you tempt your Sovereign, and forbore To have you dragged to prison, I became Your guiltiest accomplice: now you may, If it so please you, do as much by me.

I. Ber. Strange words, my Lord, and most unmerited; I am no spy, and neither are we traitors.

Doge. We--We!--no matter--you have earned the right To talk of us.--But to the point.--If this Attempt succeeds, and Venice, rendered free And flourishing, when we are in our graves, Conducts her generations to our tombs, And makes her children with their little hands Strew flowers o'er her deliverers' ashes, then The consequence will sanctify the deed, And we shall be like the two Bruti in The annals of hereafter; but if not, If we should fail, employing bloody means And secret plot, although to a good end, Still we are traitors, honest Israel;--thou No less than he who was thy Sovereign Six hours ago, and now thy brother rebel.

I. Ber. 'Tis not the moment to consider thus, Else I could answer.--Let us to the meeting, Or we may be observed in lingering here.

Doge. We are observed, and have been.

I. Ber. We observed! Let me discover--and this steel-----

Doge. Put up; Here are no human witnesses: look there-- What see you?

I. Ber. Only a tall warrior's statue Bestriding a proud steed, in the dim light Of the dull moon.

Doge. That Warrior was the sire Of my sire's fathers, and that statue was Decreed to him by the twice rescued city:-- Think you that he looks down on us or no?

I. Ber. My Lord, these are mere fantasies; there are No eyes in marble.

Doge. But there are in Death. I tell thee, man, there is a spirit in Such things that acts and sees, unseen, though felt; And, if there be a spell to stir the dead, 'Tis in such deeds as we are now upon. Deem'st thou the souls of such a race as mine Can rest, when he, their last descendant Chief, Stands plotting on the brink of their pure graves With stung plebeians?

I. Ber. It had been as well To have pondered this before,--ere you embarked In our great enterprise.--Do you repent?

Doge. No--but I feel, and shall do to the last. I cannot quench a glorious life at once, Nor dwindle to the thing I now must be, And take men's lives by stealth, without some pause: Yet doubt me not; it is this very feeling, And knowing what has wrung me to be thus, Which is your best security. There's not A roused mechanic in your busy plot So wronged as I, so fall'n, so loudly called To his redress: the very means I am forced By these fell tyrants to adopt is such, That I abhor them doubly for the deeds Which I must do to pay them back for theirs.

I. Ber. Let us away--hark--the Hour strikes.

Doge. On--on-- It is our knell, or that of Venice.--On.

I. Ber. Say rather, 'tis her Freedom's rising peal Of Triumph. This way--we are near the place. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.--The House where the Conspirators meet.

DAGOLINO, DORO, BERTRAM, FEDELE TREVISANO, CALENDARO, ANTONIO DELLE BENDE, ETC., ETC.

Cal. (entering). Are all here?

Dag. All with you; except the three On duty, and our leader Israel, Who is expected momently.

Cal. Where's Bertram?

Ber. Here!

Cal. Have you not been able to complete The number wanting in your company?

Ber. I had marked out some: but I have not dared To trust them with the secret, till assured That they were worthy faith.

Cal. There is no need Of trusting to their faith; who, save ourselves And our more chosen comrades, is aware Fully of our intent? they think themselves Engaged in secret to the Signory, To punish some more dissolute young nobles Who have defied the law in their excesses; But once drawn up, and their new swords well fleshed In the rank hearts of the more odious Senators, They will not hesitate to follow up Their blow upon the others, when they see The example of their chiefs, and I for one Will set them such, that they for very shame And safety will not pause till all have perished.

Ber. How say you? all!

Cal. Whom wouldst thou spare?

Ber. I spare? I have no power to spare. I only questioned, Thinking that even amongst these wicked men There might be some, whose age and qualities Might mark them out for pity.

Cal. Yes, such pity As when the viper hath been cut to pieces, The separate fragments quivering in the sun, In the last energy of venomous life, Deserve and have. Why, I should think as soon Of pitying some particular fang which made One in the jaw of the swoln serpent, as Of saving one of these: they form but links Of one long chain; one mass, one breath, one body; They eat, and drink, and live, and breed together, Revel, and lie, oppress, and kill in concert,-- So let them die as one!

Dag. Should one survive, He would be dangerous as the whole; it is not Their number, be it tens or thousands, but The spirit of this Aristocracy Which must be rooted out; and if there were A single shoot of the old tree in life, 'Twould fasten in the soil, and spring again To gloomy verdure and to bitter fruit. Bertram, we must be firm!

Cal. Look to it well Bertram! I have an eye upon thee.

Ber. Who Distrusts me?

Cal. Not I; for if I did so, Thou wouldst not now be there to talk of trust: It is thy softness, not thy want of faith, Which makes thee to be doubted.

Ber. You should know Who hear me, who and what I am; a man Roused like yourselves to overthrow oppression; A kind man, I am apt to think, as some Of you have found me; and if brave or no, You, Calendaro, can pronounce, who have seen me Put to the proof; or, if you should have doubts, I'll clear them on your person!

Cal. You are welcome, When once our enterprise is o'er, which must not Be interrupted by a private brawl.

Ber. I am no brawler; but can bear myself As far among the foe as any he Who hears me; else why have I been selected To be of your chief comrades? but no less I own my natural weakness; I have not Yet learned to think of indiscriminate murder Without some sense of shuddering; and the sight Of blood which spouts through hoary scalps is not To me a thing of triumph, nor the death Of man surprised a glory. Well--too well I know that we must do such things on those Whose acts have raised up such avengers; but If there were some of these who could be saved From out this sweeping fate, for our own sakes And for our honour, to take off some stain Of massacre, which else pollutes it wholly, I had been glad; and see no cause in this For sneer, nor for suspicion!

Dag. Calm thee, Bertram, For we suspect thee not, and take good heart. It is the cause, and not our will, which asks Such actions from our hands: we'll wash away All stains in Freedom's fountain!

Enter ISRAEL BERTUCCIO, and the DOGE, disguised.

Dag. Welcome, Israel.

Consp. Most welcome.--Brave Bertuccio, thou art late-- Who is this stranger?

Cal. It is time to name him. Our comrades are even now prepared to greet him In brotherhood, as I have made it known That thou wouldst add a brother to our cause, Approved by thee, and thus approved by all, Such is our trust in all thine actions. Now Let him unfold himself.

I. Ber. Stranger, step forth! [The Doge discovers himself.

Consp. To arms!--we are betrayed--it is the Doge! Down with them both! our traitorous captain, and The tyrant he hath sold us to.

Cal. (drawing his sword). Hold! hold! Who moves a step against them dies. Hold! hear Bertuccio--What! are you appalled to see A lone, unguarded, weaponless old man Amongst you?--Israel, speak! what means this mystery?

I. Ber. Let them advance and strike at their own bosoms, Ungrateful suicides! for on our lives Depend their own, their fortunes, and their hopes.

Doge. Strike!--If I dreaded death, a death more fearful Than any your rash weapons can inflict, I should not now be here: Oh, noble Courage! The eldest born of Fear, which makes you brave Against this solitary hoary head! See the bold chiefs, who would reform a state And shake down senates, mad with wrath and dread At sight of one patrician! Butcher me! You can, I care not.--Israel, are these men The mighty hearts you spoke of? look upon them!

Cal. Faith! he hath shamed us, and deservedly, Was this your trust in your true Chief Bertuccio, To turn your swords against him and his guest? Sheathe them, and hear him.

I. Ber. I disdain to speak. They might and must have known a heart like mine Incapable of treachery; and the power They gave me to adopt all fitting means To further their design was ne'er abused. They might be certain that who e'er was brought By me into this Council had been led To take his choice--as brother, or as victim.

Doge. And which am I to be? your actions leave Some cause to doubt the freedom of the choice.

I. Ber. My Lord, we would have perished here together, Had these rash men proceeded; but, behold, They are ashamed of that mad moment's impulse, And droop their heads; believe me, they are such As I described them.--Speak to them.

Cal. Aye, speak; We are all listening in wonder.

I. Ber. (addressing the conspirators). You are safe, Nay, more, almost triumphant--listen then, And know my words for truth.

Doge. You see me here, As one of you hath said, an old, unarmed, Defenceless man; and yesterday you saw me Presiding in the hall of ducal state, Apparent Sovereign of our hundred isles, Robed in official purple, dealing out The edicts of a power which is not mine, Nor yours, but of our masters--the patricians. Why I was there you know, or think you know; Why I am here, he who hath been most wronged, He who among you hath been most insulted, Outraged and trodden on, until he doubt If he be worm or no, may answer for me, Asking of his own heart what brought him here? You know my recent story, all men know it, And judge of it far differently from those Who sate in judgement to heap scorn on scorn. But spare me the recital--it is here, Here at my heart the outrage--but my words, Already spent in unavailing plaints, Would only show my feebleness the more, And I come here to strengthen even the strong, And urge them on to deeds, and not to war With woman's weapons; but I need not urge you. Our private wrongs have sprung from public vices, In this--I cannot call it commonwealth, Nor kingdom, which hath neither prince nor people, But all the sins of the old Spartan state Without its virtues--temperance and valour. The Lords of Lacedæmon were true soldiers, But ours are Sybarites, while we are Helots, Of whom I am the lowest, most enslaved; Although dressed out to head a pageant, as The Greeks of yore made drunk their slaves to form A pastime for their children. You are met To overthrow this Monster of a state, This mockery of a Government, this spectre, Which must be exorcised with blood,--and then We will renew the times of Truth and Justice, Condensing in a fair free commonwealth Not rash equality but equal rights, Proportioned like the columns to the temple, Giving and taking strength reciprocal, And making firm the whole with grace and beauty, So that no part could be removed without Infringement of the general symmetry. In operating this great change, I claim To be one of you--if you trust in me; If not, strike home,--my life is compromised, And I would rather fall by freemen's hands Than live another day to act the tyrant As delegate of tyrants: such I am not, And never have been--read it in our annals; I can appeal to my past government In many lands and cities; they can tell you If I were an oppressor, or a man Feeling and thinking for my fellow men. Haply had I been what the Senate sought, A thing of robes and trinkets, dizened out To sit in state as for a Sovereign's picture; A popular scourge, a ready sentence-signer, A stickler for the Senate and "the Forty," A sceptic of all measures which had not The sanction of "the Ten," a council-fawner, A tool--a fool--a puppet,--they had ne'er Fostered the wretch who stung me. What I suffer Has reached me through my pity for the people; That many know, and they who know not yet Will one day learn: meantime I do devote, Whate'er the issue, my last days of life-- My present power such as it is, not that Of Doge, but of a man who has been great Before he was degraded to a Doge, And still has individual means and mind; I stake my fame (and I had fame)--my breath-- (The least of all, for its last hours are nigh) My heart--my hope--my soul--upon this cast! Such as I am, I offer me to you And to your chiefs; accept me or reject me,-- A Prince who fain would be a Citizen Or nothing, and who has left his throne to be so.

Cal. Long live Faliero!--Venice shall be free!

Consp. Long live Faliero!

I. Ber. Comrades! did I well? Is not this man a host in such a cause?

Doge. This is no time for eulogies, nor place For exultation. Am I one of you?

Cal. Aye, and the first among us, as thou hast been Of Venice--be our General and Chief.

Doge. Chief!--General!--I was General at Zara, And Chief in Rhodes and Cyprus, Prince in Venice: I cannot stoop--that is, I am not fit To lead a band of--patriots: when I lay Aside the dignities which I have borne, 'Tis not to put on others, but to be Mate to my fellows--but now to the point: Israel has stated to me your whole plan-- 'Tis bold, but feasible if I assist it, And must be set in motion instantly.

Cal. E'en when thou wilt. Is it not so, my friends? I have disposed all for a sudden blow; When shall it be then?

Doge. At sunrise.

Ber. So soon?

Doge. So soon?--so late--each hour accumulates Peril on peril, and the more so now Since I have mingled with you;--know you not The Council, and "the Ten?" the spies, the eyes Of the patricians dubious of their slaves, And now more dubious of the Prince they have made one? I tell you, you must strike, and suddenly, Full to the Hydra's heart--its heads will follow.

Cal. With all my soul and sword, I yield assent; Our companies are ready, sixty each, And all now under arms by Israel's order; Each at their different place of rendezvous, And vigilant, expectant of some blow; Let each repair for action to his post! And now, my Lord, the signal?

Doge. When you hear The great bell of Saint Mark's, which may not be Struck without special order of the Doge (The last poor privilege they leave their Prince), March on Saint Mark's!

I. Ber. And there?--

Doge. By different routes Let your march be directed, every sixty Entering a separate avenue, and still Upon the way let your cry be of War And of the Genoese Fleet, by the first dawn Discerned before the port; form round the palace, Within whose court will be drawn out in arms My nephew and the clients of our house, Many and martial; while the bell tolls on, Shout ye, "Saint Mark!--the foe is on our waters!"

Cal. I see it now--but on, my noble Lord.

Doge. All the patricians flocking to the Council, (Which they dare not refuse, at the dread signal Pealing from out their Patron Saint's proud tower,) Will then be gathered in unto the harvest, And we will reap them with the sword for sickle. If some few should be tardy or absent, them, 'Twill be but to be taken faint and single, When the majority are put to rest.

Cal. Would that the hour were come! we will not scotch, But kill.

Ber. Once more, sir, with your pardon, I Would now repeat the question which I asked Before Bertuccio added to our cause This great ally who renders it more sure, And therefore safer, and as such admits Some dawn of mercy to a portion of Our victims--must all perish in this slaughter?

Cal. All who encounter me and mine--be sure, The mercy they have shown, I show.

Consp. All! all! Is this a time to talk of pity? when Have they e'er shown, or felt, or feigned it?

I. Ber. Bertram, This false compassion is a folly, and Injustice to thy comrades and thy cause! Dost thou not see, that if we single out Some for escape, they live but to avenge The fallen? and how distinguish now the innocent From out the guilty? all their acts are one-- A single emanation from one body, Together knit for our oppression! 'Tis Much that we let their children live; I doubt If all of these even should be set apart: The hunter may reserve some single cub From out the tiger's litter, but who e'er Would seek to save the spotted sire or dam, Unless to perish by their fangs? however, I will abide by Doge Faliero's counsel: Let him decide if any should be saved.

Doge. Ask me not--tempt me not with such a question-- Decide yourselves.

I. Ber. You know their private virtues Far better than we can, to whom alone Their public vices, and most foul oppression, Have made them deadly; if there be amongst them One who deserves to be repealed, pronounce.

Doge. Dolfino's father was my friend, and Lando Fought by my side, and Marc Cornaro shared My Genoese embassy: I saved the life Of Veniero--shall I save it twice? Would that I could save them and Venice also! All these men, or their fathers, were my friends Till they became my subjects; then fell from me As faithless leaves drop from the o'erblown flower, And left me a lone blighted thorny stalk, Which, in its solitude, can shelter nothing; So, as they let me wither, let them perish!

Cal. They cannot co-exist with Venice' freedom!

Doge. Ye, though you know and feel our mutual mass Of many wrongs, even ye are ignorant What fatal poison to the springs of Life, To human ties, and all that's good and dear, Lurks in the present institutes of Venice: All these men were my friends; I loved them, they Requited honourably my regards; We served and fought; we smiled and wept in concert; We revelled or we sorrowed side by side; We made alliances of blood and marriage; We grew in years and honours fairly,--till Their own desire, not my ambition, made Them choose me for their Prince, and then farewell! Farewell all social memory! all thoughts In common! and sweet bonds which link old friendships, When the survivors of long years and actions, Which now belong to history, soothe the days Which yet remain by treasuring each other, And never meet, but each beholds the mirror Of half a century on his brother's brow, And sees a hundred beings, now in earth, Flit round them whispering of the days gone by, And seeming not all dead, as long as two Of the brave, joyous, reckless, glorious band, Which once were one and many, still retain A breath to sigh for them, a tongue to speak Of deeds that else were silent, save on marble---- Oimé Oimé!--and must I do this deed?

I. Ber. My Lord, you are much moved: it is not now That such things must be dwelt upon.

Doge. Your patience A moment--I recede not: mark with me The gloomy vices of this government. From the hour they made me Doge, the Doge they made me-- Farewell the past! I died to all that had been, Or rather they to me: no friends, no kindness, No privacy of life--all were cut off: They came not near me--such approach gave umbrage; They could not love me--such was not the law; They thwarted me--'twas the state's policy; They baffled me--'twas a patrician's duty; They wronged me, for such was to right the state; They could not right me--that would give suspicion; So that I was a slave to my own subjects; So that I was a foe to my own friends; Begirt with spies for guards, with robes for power, With pomp for freedom, gaolers for a council, Inquisitors for friends, and Hell for life! I had only one fount of quiet left, And that they poisoned! My pure household gods Were shivered on my hearth, and o'er their shrine Sate grinning Ribaldry, and sneering Scorn.

I. Ber. You have been deeply wronged, and now shall be Nobly avenged before another night.

Doge. I had borne all--it hurt me, but I bore it-- Till this last running over of the cup Of bitterness--until this last loud insult, Not only unredressed, but sanctioned; then, And thus, I cast all further feelings from me-- The feelings which they crushed for me, long, long Before, even in their oath of false allegiance! Even in that very hour and vow, they abjured Their friend and made a Sovereign, as boys make Playthings, to do their pleasure--and be broken! I from that hour have seen but Senators In dark suspicious conflict with the Doge, Brooding with him in mutual hate and fear; They dreading he should snatch the tyranny From out their grasp, and he abhorring tyrants. To me, then, these men have no private life, Nor claim to ties they have cut off from others; As Senators for arbitrary acts Amenable, I look on them--as such Let them be dealt upon.

Cal. And now to action! Hence, brethren, to our posts, and may this be The last night of mere words: I'd fain be doing! Saint Mark's great bell at dawn shall find me wakeful!

I. Ber. Disperse then to your posts: be firm and vigilant; Think on the wrongs we bear, the rights we claim. This day and night shall be the last of peril! Watch for the signal, and then march. I go To join my band; let each be prompt to marshal His separate charge: the Doge will now return To the palace to prepare all for the blow. We part to meet in Freedom and in Glory!

Cal. Doge, when I greet you next, my homage to you Shall be the head of Steno on this sword!

Doge. No; let him be reserved unto the last, Nor turn aside to strike at such a prey, Till nobler game is quarried: his offence Was a mere ebullition of the vice, The general corruption generated By the foul Aristocracy: he could not-- He dared not in more honourable days Have risked it. I have merged all private wrath Against him in the thought of our great purpose. A slave insults me--I require his punishment From his proud master's hands; if he refuse it, The offence grows his, and let him answer it.

Cal. Yet, as the immediate cause of the alliance Which consecrates our undertaking more, I owe him such deep gratitude, that fain I would repay him as he merits; may I?

Doge. You would but lop the hand, and I the head; You would but smite the scholar, I the master; You would but punish Steno, I the Senate. I cannot pause on individual hate, In the absorbing, sweeping, whole revenge, Which, like the sheeted fire from Heaven, must blast Without distinction, as it fell of yore, Where the Dead Sea hath quenched two Cities' ashes.

I. Ber. Away, then, to your posts! I but remain A moment to accompany the Doge To our late place of tryst, to see no spies Have been upon the scout, and thence I hasten To where my allotted band is under arms.

Cal. Farewell, then,--until dawn!

I. Ber. Success go with you!

Consp. We will not fail--Away! My Lord, farewell!

[The Conspirators salute the DOGE and ISRAEL BERTUCCIO, and retire, headed by PHILIP CALENDARO. The DOGE and ISRAEL BERTUCCIO remain.

I. Ber. We have them in the toil--it cannot fail! Now thou'rt indeed a Sovereign, and wilt make A name immortal greater than the greatest: Free citizens have struck at Kings ere now; Cæsars have fallen, and even patrician hands Have crushed dictators, as the popular steel Has reached patricians: but, until this hour, What Prince has plotted for his people's freedom? Or risked a life to liberate his subjects? For ever, and for ever, they conspire Against the people, to abuse their hands To chains, but laid aside to carry weapons Against the fellow nations, so that yoke On yoke, and slavery and death may whet, Not glut, the never-gorged Leviathan! Now, my Lord, to our enterprise;--'tis great, And greater the reward; why stand you rapt? A moment back, and you were all impatience!

Doge. And is it then decided! must they die?

I. Ber. Who?

Doge. My own friends by blood and courtesy, And many deeds and days--the Senators?

I. Ber. You passed their sentence, and it is a just one.

Doge. Aye, so it seems, and so it is to you; You are a patriot, a plebeian Gracchus-- The rebel's oracle, the people's tribune-- I blame you not--you act in your vocation; They smote you, and oppressed you, and despised you; So they have me: but you ne'er spake with them; You never broke their bread, nor shared their salt; You never had their wine-cup at your lips: You grew not up with them, nor laughed, nor wept, Nor held a revel in their company; Ne'er smiled to see them smile, nor claimed their smile In social interchange for yours, nor trusted Nor wore them in your heart of hearts, as I have: These hairs of mine are grey, and so are theirs, The elders of the Council: I remember When all our locks were like the raven's wing, As we went forth to take our prey around The isles wrung from the false Mahometan; And can I see them dabbled o'er with blood? Each stab to them will seem my suicide.

I. Ber. Doge! Doge! this vacillation is unworthy A child; if you are not in second childhood, Call back your nerves to your own purpose, nor Thus shame yourself and me. By Heavens! I'd rather Forego even now, or fail in our intent, Than see the man I venerate subside From high resolves into such shallow weakness! You have seen blood in battle, shed it, both Your own and that of others; can you shrink then From a few drops from veins of hoary vampires, Who but give back what they have drained from millions?

Doge. Bear with me! Step by step, and blow on blow, I will divide with you; think not I waver: Ah! no; it is the certainty of all Which I must do doth make me tremble thus. But let these last and lingering thoughts have way, To which you only and the night are conscious, And both regardless; when the Hour arrives, 'Tis mine to sound the knell, and strike the blow, Which shall unpeople many palaces, And hew the highest genealogic trees Down to the earth, strewed with their bleeding fruit, And crush their blossoms into barrenness: This will I--must I--have I sworn to do, Nor aught can turn me from my destiny; But still I quiver to behold what I Must be, and think what I have been! Bear with me.

I. Ber. Re-man your breast; I feel no such remorse, I understand it not: why should you change? You acted, and you act, on your free will.

Doge. Aye, there it is--you feel not, nor do I, Else I should stab thee on the spot, to save A thousand lives--and killing, do no murder; You feel not--you go to this butcher-work As if these high-born men were steers for shambles: When all is over, you'll be free and merry, And calmly wash those hands incarnadine; But I, outgoing thee and all thy fellows In this surpassing massacre, shall be, Shall see and feel--oh God! oh God! 'tis true, And thou dost well to answer that it was "My own free will and act," and yet you err, For I will do this! Doubt not--fear not; I Will be your most unmerciful accomplice! And yet I act no more on my free will, Nor my own feelings--both compel me back; But there is Hell within me and around, And like the Demon who believes and trembles Must I abhor and do. Away! away! Get thee unto thy fellows, I will hie me To gather the retainers of our house. Doubt not, St. Mark's great bell shall wake all Venice, Except her slaughtered Senate: ere the Sun Be broad upon the Adriatic there Shall be a voice of weeping, which shall drown The roar of waters in the cry of blood! I am resolved--come on.

I. Ber. With all my soul! Keep a firm rein upon these bursts of passion; Remember what these men have dealt to thee, And that this sacrifice will be succeeded By ages of prosperity and freedom To this unshackled city: a true tyrant Would have depopulated empires, nor Have felt the strange compunction which hath wrung you To punish a few traitors to the people. Trust me, such were a pity more misplaced Than the late mercy of the state to Steno.

Doge. Man, thou hast struck upon the chord which jars All nature from my heart. Hence to our task! [Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.--Palazzo of the Patrician LIONI. LIONI laying aside the mask and cloak which the Venetian Nobles wore in public, attended by a Domestic.

Lioni. I will to rest, right weary of this revel, The gayest we have held for many moons, And yet--I know not why--it cheered me not; There came a heaviness across my heart, Which, in the lightest movement of the dance, Though eye to eye, and hand in hand united Even with the Lady of my Love, oppressed me, And through my spirit chilled my blood, until A damp like Death rose o'er my brow; I strove To laugh the thought away, but 'twould not be; Through all the music ringing in my ears A knell was sounding as distinct and clear, Though low and far, as e'er the Adrian wave Rose o'er the City's murmur in the night, Dashing against the outward Lido's bulwark: So that I left the festival before It reached its zenith, and will woo my pillow For thoughts more tranquil, or forgetfulness. Antonio, take my mask and cloak, and light The lamp within my chamber.

Ant. Yes, my Lord: Command you no refreshment?

Lioni. Nought, save sleep, Which will not be commanded. Let me hope it, [Exit ANTONIO. Though my breast feels too anxious; I will try Whether the air will calm my spirits: 'tis A goodly night; the cloudy wind which blew From the Levant hath crept into its cave, And the broad Moon hath brightened. What a stillness! [Goes to an open lattice. And what a contrast with the scene I left, Where the tall torches' glare, and silver lamps' More pallid gleam along the tapestried walls, Spread over the reluctant gloom which haunts Those vast and dimly-latticed galleries A dazzling mass of artificial light, Which showed all things, but nothing as they were. There Age essaying to recall the past, After long striving for the hues of Youth At the sad labour of the toilet, and Full many a glance at the too faithful mirror, Pranked forth in all the pride of ornament, Forgot itself, and trusting to the falsehood Of the indulgent beams, which show, yet hide, Believed itself forgotten, and was fooled. There Youth, which needed not, nor thought of such Vain adjuncts, lavished its true bloom, and health, And bridal beauty, in the unwholesome press Of flushed and crowded wassailers, and wasted Its hours of rest in dreaming this was pleasure, And so shall waste them till the sunrise streams On sallow cheeks and sunken eyes, which should not Have worn this aspect yet for many a year. The music, and the banquet, and the wine, The garlands, the rose odours, and the flowers, The sparkling eyes, and flashing ornaments, The white arms and the raven hair, the braids And bracelets; swanlike bosoms, and the necklace, An India in itself, yet dazzling not The eye like what it circled; the thin robes, Floating like light clouds 'twixt our gaze and heaven; The many-twinkling feet so small and sylphlike, Suggesting the more secret symmetry Of the fair forms which terminate so well-- All the delusion of the dizzy scene, Its false and true enchantments--Art and Nature, Which swam before my giddy eyes, that drank The sight of beauty as the parched pilgrim's On Arab sands the false mirage, which offers A lucid lake to his eluded thirst, Are gone. Around me are the stars and waters-- Worlds mirrored in the Ocean, goodlier sight Than torches glared back by a gaudy glass; And the great Element, which is to space What Ocean is to Earth, spreads its blue depths, Softened with the first breathings of the spring; The high Moon sails upon her beauteous way, Serenely smoothing o'er the lofty walls Of those tall piles and sea-girt palaces, Whose porphyry pillars, and whose costly fronts, Fraught with the Orient spoil of many marbles, Like altars ranged along the broad canal, Seem each a trophy of some mighty deed Reared up from out the waters, scarce less strangely Than those more massy and mysterious giants Of architecture, those Titanian fabrics, Which point in Egypt's plains to times that have No other record. All is gentle: nought Stirs rudely; but, congenial with the night, Whatever walks is gliding like a spirit. The tinklings of some vigilant guitars Of sleepless lovers to a wakeful mistress, And cautious opening of the casement, showing That he is not unheard; while her young hand, Fair as the moonlight of which it seems part, So delicately white, it trembles in The act of opening the forbidden lattice, To let in love through music, makes his heart Thrill like his lyre-strings at the sight; the dash Phosphoric of the oar, or rapid twinkle Of the far lights of skimming gondolas, And the responsive voices of the choir Of boatmen answering back with verse for verse; Some dusky shadow checkering the Rialto; Some glimmering palace roof, or tapering spire, Are all the sights and sounds which here pervade The ocean-born and earth-commanding City-- How sweet and soothing is this hour of calm! I thank thee, Night! for thou hast chased away Those horrid bodements which, amidst the throng, I could not dissipate: and with the blessing Of thy benign and quiet influence, Now will I to my couch, although to rest Is almost wronging such a night as this,---- [A knocking is heard from without. Hark! what is that? or who at such a moment?

Enter ANTONIO.

Ant. My Lord, a man without, on urgent business, Implores to be admitted.

Lioni. Is he a stranger?

Ant. His face is muffled in his cloak, but both His voice and gestures seem familiar to me; I craved his name, but this he seemed reluctant To trust, save to yourself; most earnestly He sues to be permitted to approach you.

Lioni. 'Tis a strange hour, and a suspicious bearing! And yet there is slight peril: 'tis not in Their houses noble men are struck at; still, Although I know not that I have a foe In Venice, 'twill be wise to use some caution. Admit him, and retire; but call up quickly Some of thy fellows, who may wait without.-- Who can this man be?-- [Exit ANTONIO, and returns with BERTRAM muffled.

Ber. My good Lord Lioni, I have no time to lose, nor thou,--dismiss This menial hence; I would be private with you.

Lioni. It seems the voice of Bertram--Go, Antonio. [Exit ANTONIO. Now, stranger, what would you at such an hour?

Ber. (discovering himself). A boon, my noble patron; you have granted Many to your poor client, Bertram; add This one, and make him happy.

Lioni. Thou hast known me From boyhood, ever ready to assist thee In all fair objects of advancement, which Beseem one of thy station; I would promise Ere thy request was heard, but that the hour, Thy bearing, and this strange and hurried mode Of suing, gives me to suspect this visit Hath some mysterious import--but say on-- What has occurred, some rash and sudden broil?-- A cup too much, a scuffle, and a stab? Mere things of every day; so that thou hast not Spilt noble blood, I guarantee thy safety; But then thou must withdraw, for angry friends And relatives, in the first burst of vengeance, Are things in Venice deadlier than the laws.

Ber. My Lord, I thank you; but----

Lioni. But what? You have not Raised a rash hand against one of our order? If so--withdraw and fly--and own it not; I would not slay--but then I must not save thee! He who has shed patrician blood----

Ber. I come To save patrician blood, and not to shed it! And thereunto I must be speedy, for Each minute lost may lose a life; since Time Has changed his slow scythe for the two-edged sword, And is about to take, instead of sand, The dust from sepulchres to fill his hour-glass!-- Go not thou forth to-morrow!

Lioni. Wherefore not?-- What means this menace?

Ber. Do not seek its meaning, But do as I implore thee;--stir not forth, Whate'er be stirring; though the roar of crowds-- The cry of women, and the shrieks of babes-- The groans of men--the clash of arms--the sound Of rolling drum, shrill trump, and hollow bell, Peal in one wide alarum l--Go not forth, Until the Tocsin's silent, nor even then Till I return!

Lioni. Again, what does this mean?

Ber. Again, I tell thee, ask not; but by all Thou holdest dear on earth or Heaven--by all The Souls of thy great fathers, and thy hope To emulate them, and to leave behind Descendants worthy both of them and thee-- By all thou hast of blessed in hope or memory-- By all thou hast to fear here or hereafter-- By all the good deeds thou hast done to me, Good I would now repay with greater good, Remain within--trust to thy household gods, And to my word for safety, if thou dost, As I now counsel--but if not, thou art lost!

Lioni. I am indeed already lost in wonder; Surely thou ravest! what have I to dread? Who are my foes? or if there be such, why Art thou leagued with them?--thou! or, if so leagued, Why comest thou to tell me at this hour, And not before?

Ber. I cannot answer this. Wilt thou go forth despite of this true warning?

Lioni. I was not born to shrink from idle threats, The cause of which I know not: at the hour Of council, be it soon or late, I shall not Be found among the absent.

Ber. Say not so! Once more, art thou determined to go forth?

Lioni. I am. Nor is there aught which shall impede me!

Ber. Then, Heaven have mercy on thy soul!--Farewell! [Going.

Lioni. Stay--there is more in this than my own safety Which makes me call thee back; we must not part thus: Bertram, I have known thee long.

Ber. From childhood, Signor, You have been my protector: in the days Of reckless infancy, when rank forgets, Or, rather, is not yet taught to remember Its cold prerogative, we played together; Our sports, our smiles, our tears, were mingled oft; My father was your father's client, I His son's scarce less than foster-brother; years Saw us together--happy, heart-full hours! Oh God! the difference 'twixt those hours and this!

Lioni. Bertram, 'tis thou who hast forgotten them.

Ber. Nor now, nor ever; whatsoe'er betide, I would have saved you: when to Manhood's growth We sprung, and you, devoted to the state, As suits your station, the more humble Bertram Was left unto the labours of the humble, Still you forsook me not; and if my fortunes Have not been towering, 'twas no fault of him Who ofttimes rescued and supported me, When struggling with the tides of Circumstance, Which bear away the weaker: noble blood Ne'er mantled in a nobler heart than thine Has proved to me, the poor plebeian Bertram. Would that thy fellow Senators were like thee!

Lioni. Why, what hast thou to say against the Senate?

Ber. Nothing.

Lioni. I know that there are angry spirits And turbulent mutterers of stifled treason, Who lurk in narrow places, and walk out Muffled to whisper curses to the night; Disbanded soldiers, discontented ruffians, And desperate libertines who brawl in taverns; Thou herdest not with such: 'tis true, of late I have lost sight of thee, but thou wert wont To lead a temperate life, and break thy bread With honest mates, and bear a cheerful aspect. What hath come to thee? in thy hollow eye And hueless cheek, and thine unquiet motions, Sorrow and Shame and Conscience seem at war To waste thee.

Ber. Rather Shame and Sorrow light On the accurséd tyranny which rides The very air in Venice, and makes men Madden as in the last hours of the plague Which sweeps the soul deliriously from life!

Lioni. Some villains have been tampering with thee, Bertram; This is not thy old language, nor own thoughts; Some wretch has made thee drunk with disaffection: But thou must not be lost so; thou wert good And kind, and art not fit for such base acts As Vice and Villany would put thee to: Confess--confide in me--thou know'st my nature. What is it thou and thine are bound to do, Which should prevent thy friend, the only son Of him who was a friend unto thy father, So that our good-will is a heritage We should bequeath to our posterity Such as ourselves received it, or augmented; I say, what is it thou must do, that I Should deem thee dangerous, and keep the house Like a sick girl?

Ber. Nay, question me no further: I must be gone.----

Lioni. And I be murdered!--say, Was it not thus thou said'st, my gentle Bertram?

Ber. Who talks of murder? what said I of murder? Tis false! I did not utter such a word.

Lioni. Thou didst not; but from out thy wolfish eye, So changed from what I knew it, there glares forth The gladiator. If my life's thine object, Take it--I am unarmed,--and then away! I would not hold my breath on such a tenure As the capricious mercy of such things As thou and those who have set thee to thy task-work.

Ber. Sooner than spill thy blood, I peril mine; Sooner than harm a hair of thine, I place In jeopardy a thousand heads, and some As noble, nay, even nobler than thine own.

Lioni. Aye, is it even so? Excuse me, Bertram; I am not worthy to be singled out From such exalted hecatombs--who are they That are in danger, and that make the danger?

Ber. Venice, and all that she inherits, are Divided like a house against itself, And so will perish ere to-morrow's twilight!

Lioni. More mysteries, and awful ones! But now, Or thou, or I, or both, it may be, are Upon the verge of ruin; speak once out, And thou art safe and glorious: for 'tis more Glorious to save than slay, and slay i' the dark too-- Fie, Bertram! that was not a craft for thee! How would it look to see upon a spear The head of him whose heart was open to thee! Borne by thy hand before the shuddering people? And such may be my doom; for here I swear, Whate'er the peril or the penalty Of thy denunciation, I go forth, Unless thou dost detail the cause, and show The consequence of all which led thee here!

Ber. Is there no way to save thee? minutes fly, And thou art lost!--thou! my sole benefactor, The only being who was constant to me Through every change. Yet, make me not a traitor! Let me save thee--but spare my honour!

Lioni. Where Can lie the honour in a league of murder? And who are traitors save unto the State?

Ber. A league is still a compact, and more binding In honest hearts when words must stand for law; And in my mind, there is no traitor like He whose domestic treason plants the poniard Within the breast which trusted to his truth. Lioni. And who will strike the steel to mine?

Ber. Not I; I could have wound my soul up to all things Save this. Thou must not die! and think how dear Thy life is, when I risk so many lives, Nay, more, the Life of lives, the liberty Of future generations, not to be The assassin thou miscall'st me:--once, once more I do adjure thee, pass not o'er thy threshold!

Lioni. It is in vain--this moment I go forth.

Ber. Then perish Venice rather than my friend! I will disclose--ensnare--betray--destroy-- Oh, what a villain I become for thee!

Lioni. Say, rather thy friend's saviour and the State's!-- Speak--pause not--all rewards, all pledges for Thy safety and thy welfare; wealth such as The State accords her worthiest servants; nay, Nobility itself I guarantee thee, So that thou art sincere and penitent.

Ber. I have thought again: it must not be--I love thee-- Thou knowest it--that I stand here is the proof, Not least though last; but having done my duty By thee, I now must do it by my country! Farewell--we meet no more in life!--farewell!

Lioni. What, ho!--Antonio--Pedro--to the door! See that none pass--arrest this man!----

Enter ANTONIO and other armed Domestics, who seize BERTRAM.

Lioni (continues). Take care He hath no harm; bring me my sword and cloak, And man the gondola with four oars--quick-- [Exit ANTONIO. We will unto Giovanni Gradenigo's, And send for Marc Cornaro:--fear not, Bertram; This needful violence is for thy safety, No less than for the general weal.

Ber. Where wouldst thou Bear me a prisoner?

Lioni. Firstly to "the Ten;" Next to the Doge.

Ber. To the Doge?

Lioni. Assuredly: Is he not Chief of the State?

Ber. Perhaps at sunrise--

Lioni. What mean you?--but we'll know anon.

Ber. Art sure?

Lioni. Sure as all gentle means can make; and if They fail, you know "the Ten" and their tribunal, And that St. Mark's has dungeons, and the dungeons A rack.

Ber. Apply it then before the dawn Now hastening into heaven.--One more such word, And you shall perish piecemeal, by the death You think to doom to me.

Re-enter ANTONIO.

Ant. The bark is ready, My Lord, and all prepared.

Lioni. Look to the prisoner. Bertram, I'll reason with thee as we go To the Magnifico's, sage Gradenigo. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.--The Ducal Palace--The Doge's Apartment.

The DOGE and his Nephew BERTUCCIO FALIERO.

Doge. Are all the people of our house in muster?

Ber. F. They are arrayed, and eager for the signal, Within our palace precincts at San Polo: I come for your last orders.

Doge. It had been As well had there been time to have got together, From my own fief, Val di Marino, more Of our retainers--but it is too late.

Ber. F. Methinks, my Lord,'tis better as it is: A sudden swelling of our retinue Had waked suspicion; and, though fierce and trusty, The vassals of that district are too rude And quick in quarrel to have long maintained The secret discipline we need for such A service, till our foes are dealt upon.

Doge. True; but when once the signal has been given, These are the men for such an enterprise; These city slaves have all their private bias, Their prejudice against or for this noble, Which may induce them to o'erdo or spare Where mercy may be madness; the fierce peasants, Serfs of my county of Val di Marino, Would do the bidding of their lord without Distinguishing for love or hate his foes; Alike to them Marcello or Cornaro, A Gradenigo or a Foscari; They are not used to start at those vain names, Nor bow the knee before a civic Senate; A chief in armour is their Suzerain, And not a thing in robes.

Ber. F. We are enough; And for the dispositions of our clients Against the Senate I will answer.

Doge. Well, The die is thrown; but for a warlike service, Done in the field, commend me to my peasants: They made the sun shine through the host of Huns When sallow burghers slunk back to their tents, And cowered to hear their own victorious trumpet. If there be small resistance, you will find These Citizens all Lions, like their Standard; But if there's much to do, you'll wish, with me, A band of iron rustics at our backs.

Ber. Thus thinking, I must marvel you resolve To strike the blow so suddenly.

Doge. Such blows Must be struck suddenly or never. When I had o'ermastered the weak false remorse Which yearned about my heart, too fondly yielding A moment to the feelings of old days, I was most fain to strike; and, firstly, that I might not yield again to such emotions; And, secondly, because of all these men, Save Israel and Philip Calendaro, I know not well the courage or the faith: To-day might find 'mongst them a traitor to us, As yesterday a thousand to the Senate; But once in, with their hilts hot in their hands, They must on for their own sakes; one stroke struck, And the mere instinct of the first-born Cain, Which ever lurks somewhere in human hearts, Though Circumstance may keep it in abeyance, Will urge the rest on like to wolves; the sight Of blood to crowds begets the thirst of more, As the first wine-cup leads to the long revel; And you will find a harder task to quell Than urge them when they have commenced, but till That moment, a mere voice, a straw, a shadow, Are capable of turning them aside.-- How goes the night?

Ber. F. Almost upon the dawn.

Doge. Then it is time to strike upon the bell. Are the men posted?

Ber. F. By this time they are; But they have orders not to strike, until They have command from you through me in person.

Doge. 'Tis well.--Will the morn never put to rest These stars which twinkle yet o'er all the heavens? I am settled and bound up, and being so, The very effort which it cost me to Resolve to cleanse this Commonwealth with fire, Now leaves my mind more steady. I have wept, And trembled at the thought of this dread duty; But now I have put down all idle passion, And look the growing tempest in the face, As doth the pilot of an Admiral Galley: Yet (wouldst thou think it, kinsman?) it hath been A greater struggle to me, than when nations Beheld their fate merged in the approaching fight, Where I was leader of a phalanx, where Thousands were sure to perish--Yes, to spill The rank polluted current from the veins Of a few bloated despots needed more To steel me to a purpose such as made Timoleon immortal, than to face The toils and dangers of a life of war.

Ber. F. It gladdens me to see your former wisdom Subdue the furies which so wrung you ere You were decided.

Doge. It was ever thus With me; the hour of agitation came In the first glimmerings of a purpose, when Passion had too much room to sway; but in The hour of action I have stood as calm As were the dead who lay around me: this They knew who made me what I am, and trusted To the subduing power which I preserved Over my mood, when its first burst was spent. But they were not aware that there are things Which make revenge a virtue by reflection, And not an impulse of mere anger; though The laws sleep, Justice wakes, and injured souls Oft do a public right with private wrong, And justify their deeds unto themselves.-- Methinks the day breaks--is it not so? look, Thine eyes are clear with youth;--the air puts on A morning freshness, and, at least to me, The sea looks greyer through the lattice.

Ber. F. True, The morn is dappling in the sky.

Doge. Away then! See that they strike without delay, and with The first toll from St. Mark's, march on the palace With all our House's strength; here I will meet you; The Sixteen and their companies will move In separate columns at the self-same moment: Be sure you post yourself at the great Gate: I would not trust "the Ten" except to us-- The rest, the rabble of patricians, may Glut the more careless swords of those leagued with us. Remember that the cry is still "Saint Mark! The Genoese are come--ho! to the rescue! Saint Mark and Liberty!"--Now--now to action!

Ber. F. Farewell then, noble Uncle! we will meet In freedom and true sovereignty, or never!

Doge. Come hither, my Bertuccio--one embrace; Speed, for the day grows broader; send me soon A messenger to tell me how all goes When you rejoin our troops, and then sound--sound The storm-bell from St. Mark's! [Exit BERTUCCIO FALIERO.

Doge (solus). He is gone, And on each footstep moves a life. 'Tis done. Now the destroying Angel hovers o'er Venice, and pauses ere he pours the vial, Even as the eagle overlooks his prey, And for a moment, poised in middle air, Suspends the motion of his mighty wings, Then swoops with his unerring beak. Thou Day! That slowly walk'st the waters! march--march on-- I would not smite i' the dark, but rather see That no stroke errs. And you, ye blue sea waves! I have seen you dyed ere now, and deeply too, With Genoese, Saracen, and Hunnish gore, While that of Venice flowed too, but victorious: Now thou must wear an unmixed crimson; no Barbaric blood can reconcile us now Unto that horrible incarnadine, But friend or foe will roll in civic slaughter. And have I lived to fourscore years for this? I, who was named Preserver of the City? I, at whose name the million's caps were flung Into the air, and cries from tens of thousands Rose up, imploring Heaven to send me blessings, And fame, and length of days--to see this day? But this day, black within the calendar, Shall be succeeded by a bright millennium. Doge Dandolo survived to ninety summers To vanquish empires, and refuse their crown; I will resign a crown, and make the State Renew its freedom--but oh! by what means? The noble end must justify them. What Are a few drops of human blood? 'tis false, The blood of tyrants is not human; they, Like to incarnate Molochs, feed on ours, Until 'tis time to give them to the tombs Which they have made so populous.--Oh World! Oh Men! what are ye, and our best designs, That we must work by crime to punish crime? And slay as if Death had but this one gate, When a few years would make the sword superfluous? And I, upon the verge of th' unknown realm, Yet send so many heralds on before me?-- I must not ponder this. [A pause. Hark! was there not A murmur as of distant voices, and The tramp of feet in martial unison? What phantoms even of sound our wishes raise! It cannot be--the signal hath not rung-- Why pauses it? My nephew's messenger Should be upon his way to me, and he Himself perhaps even now draws grating back Upon its ponderous hinge the steep tower portal, Where swings the sullen huge oracular bell, Which never knells but for a princely death, Or for a state in peril, pealing forth Tremendous bodements; let it do its office, And be this peal its awfullest and last Sound till the strong tower rock!--What! silent still? I would go forth, but that my post is here, To be the centre of re-union to The oft discordant elements which form Leagues of this nature, and to keep compact The wavering of the weak, in case of conflict; For if they should do battle,'twill be here, Within the palace, that the strife will thicken: Then here must be my station, as becomes The master-mover.--Hark! he comes--he comes, My nephew, brave Bertuccio's messenger.-- What tidings? Is he marching? hath he sped? They here!-all's lost-yet will I make an effort.

Enter a SIGNOR OF THE NIGHT, with Guards, etc., etc.

Sig. Doge, I arrest thee of high treason!

Doge. Me! Thy Prince, of treason?--Who are they that dare Cloak their own treason under such an order?

Sig. (showing his order). Behold my order from the assembled Ten.

Doge. And where are they, and why assembled? no Such Council can be lawful, till the Prince Preside there, and that duty's mine: on thine I charge thee, give me way, or marshal me To the Council chamber.

Sig. Duke! it may not be: Nor are they in the wonted Hall of Council, But sitting in the convent of Saint Saviour's.

Doge. You dare to disobey me, then?

Sig. I serve The State, and needs must serve it faithfully; My warrant is the will of those who rule it.

Doge. And till that warrant has my signature It is illegal, and, as now applied, Rebellious. Hast thou weighed well thy life's worth, That thus you dare assume a lawless function?

Sig. 'Tis not my office to reply, but act-- I am placed here as guard upon thy person, And not as judge to hear or to decide.

Doge (aside). I must gain time. So that the storm-bell sound, All may be well yet. Kinsman, speed--speed--speed!-- Our fate is trembling in the balance, and Woe to the vanquished! be they Prince and people, Or slaves and Senate-- [The great bell of St. Mark's tolls. Lo! it sounds--it tolls!

Doge (aloud). Hark, Signor of the Night! and you, ye hirelings, Who wield your mercenary staves in fear, It is your knell.--Swell on, thou lusty peal! Now, knaves, what ransom for your lives?

Sig. Confusion! Stand to your arms, and guard the door--all's lost Unless that fearful bell be silenced soon. The officer hath missed his path or purpose, Or met some unforeseen and hideous obstacle, Anselmo, with thy company proceed Straight to the tower; the rest remain with me. [Exit part of the Guard.

Doge. Wretch! if thou wouldst have thy vile life, implore it; It is not now a lease of sixty seconds. Aye, send thy miserable ruffians forth; They never shall return.

Sig. So let it be! They die then in their duty, as will I.

Doge. Fool! the high eagle flies at nobler game Than thou and thy base myrmidons,--live on, So thou provok'st not peril by resistance, And learn (if souls so much obscured can bear To gaze upon the sunbeams) to be free.

Sig. And learn thou to be captive. It hath ceased, [The bell ceases to toll. The traitorous signal, which was to have set The bloodhound mob on their patrician prey-- The knell hath rung, but it is not the Senate's!

Doge (after a pause). All's silent, and all's lost!

Sig. Now, Doge, denounce me As rebel slave of a revolted Council! Have I not done my duty?

Doge. Peace, thou thing! Thou hast done a worthy deed, and earned the price Of blood, and they who use thee will reward thee. But thou wert sent to watch, and not to prate, As thou said'st even now--then do thine office, But let it be in silence, as behoves thee, Since, though thy prisoner, I am thy Prince.

Sig. I did not mean to fail in the respect Due to your rank: in this I shall obey you.

Doge (aside). There now is nothing left me save to die; And yet how near success! I would have fallen, And proudly, in the hour of triumph, but To miss it thus!----

Enter other SIGNORS OF THE NIGHT, with BERTUCCIO FALIERO prisoner.

2nd Sig. We took him in the act Of issuing from the tower, where, at his order, As delegated from the Doge, the signal Had thus begun to sound.

1st Sig. Are all the passes Which lead up to the palace well secured?

2nd Sig. They are--besides, it matters not; the Chiefs Are all in chains, and some even now on trial-- Their followers are dispersed, and many taken.

Ber. F. Uncle!

Doge. It is in vain to war with Fortune; The glory hath departed from our house.

Ber. F. Who would have deemed it?--Ah! one moment sooner!

Doge. That moment would have changed the face of ages; This gives us to Eternity--We'll meet it As men whose triumph is not in success, But who can make their own minds all in all, Equal to every fortune. Droop not,'tis But a brief passage--I would go alone, Yet if they send us, as 'tis like, together, Let us go worthy of our sires and selves.

Ber. F. I shall not shame you, Uncle.

1st Sig. Lords, our orders Are to keep guard on both in separate chambers, Until the Council call ye to your trial.

Doge. Our trial! will they keep their mockery up Even to the last? but let them deal upon us, As we had dealt on them, but with less pomp. 'Tis but a game of mutual homicides, Who have cast lots for the first death, and they Have won with false dice.--Who hath been our Judas?

1st Sig. I am not warranted to answer that.

Ber. F. I'll answer for thee--'tis a certain Bertram, Even now deposing to the secret Giunta.

Doge. Bertram, the Bergamask! With what vile tools We operate to slay or save! This creature, Black with a double treason, now will earn Rewards and honours, and be stamped in story With the geese in the Capitol, which gabbled Till Rome awoke, and had an annual triumph, While Manlius, who hurled down the Gauls, was cast From the Tarpeian.

1st Sig. He aspired to treason, And sought to rule the State.

Doge. He saved the State, And sought but to reform what he revived-- But this is idle--Come, sirs, do your work.

1st Sig. Noble Bertuccio, we must now remove you Into an inner chamber.

Ber. F. Farewell, Uncle! If we shall meet again in life I know not, But they perhaps will let our ashes mingle.

Doge. Yes, and our spirits, which shall yet go forth, And do what our frail clay, thus clogged, hath failed in! They cannot quench the memory of those Who would have hurled them from their guilty thrones, And such examples will find heirs, though distant.

ACT V.

SCENE 1.--The Hall of the Council of Ten assembled with the additional Senators, who, on the Trials of the Conspirators for the Treason of MARINO FALIERO, composed what was called the Giunta,--Guards, Officers, etc., etc. ISRAEL BERTUCCIO and PHILIP CALENDARO as Prisoners. BERTRAM, LIONI, and Witnesses, etc.

The Chief of the Ten, BENINTENDE.

Ben. There now rests, after such conviction of Their manifold and manifest offences, But to pronounce on these obdurate men The sentence of the Law:--a grievous task To those who hear, and those who speak. Alas! That it should fall to me! and that my days Of office should be stigmatised through all The years of coming time, as bearing record To this most foul and complicated treason Against a just and free state, known to all The earth as being the Christian bulwark 'gainst The Saracen and the schismatic Greek, The savage Hun, and not less barbarous Frank; A City which has opened India's wealth To Europe; the last Roman refuge from O'erwhelming Attila; the Ocean's Queen; Proud Genoa's prouder rival! 'Tis to sap The throne of such a City, these lost men Have risked and forfeited their worthless lives-- So let them die the death.

I. Ber. We are prepared; Your racks have done that for us. Let us die.

Ben. If ye have that to say which would obtain Abatement of your punishment, the Giunta Will hear you; if you have aught to confess, Now is your time,--perhaps it may avail ye.

I. Ber. We stand to hear, and not to speak.

Ben. Your crimes Are fully proved by your accomplices, And all which Circumstance can add to aid them; Yet we would hear from your own lips complete Avowal of your treason: on the verge Of that dread gulf which none repass, the truth Alone can profit you on earth or Heaven-- Say, then, what was your motive?

I. Ber. Justice!

Ben. What Your object?

I. Ber. Freedom!

Ben. You are brief, sir.

I. Ber. So my life grows: I Was bred a soldier, not a senator.

Ben. Perhaps you think by this blunt brevity To brave your judges to postpone the sentence?

I. Ber. Do you be brief as I am, and believe me, I shall prefer that mercy to your pardon.

Ben. Is this your sole reply to the Tribunal?

I. Ber. Go, ask your racks what they have wrung from us, Or place us there again; we have still some blood left, And some slight sense of pain in these wrenched limbs: But this ye dare not do; for if we die there-- And you have left us little life to spend Upon your engines, gorged with pangs already-- Ye lose the public spectacle, with which You would appal your slaves to further slavery! Groans are not words, nor agony assent, Nor affirmation Truth, if Nature's sense Should overcome the soul into a lie, For a short respite--must we bear or die?

Ben. Say, who were your accomplices?

I. Ber. The Senate.

Ben. What do you mean?

I. Ber. Ask of the suffering people, Whom your patrician crimes have driven to crime.

Ben. You know the Doge?

I. Ber. I served with him at Zara In the field, when you were pleading here your way To present office; we exposed our lives, While you but hazarded the lives of others, Alike by accusation or defence; And for the rest, all Venice knows her Doge, Through his great actions, and the Senate's insults.

Ben. You have held conference with him?

I. Ber. I am weary-- Even wearier of your questions than your tortures: I pray you pass to judgment.

Ben. It is coming. And you, too, Philip Calendaro, what Have you to say why you should not be doomed?

Cal. I never was a man of many words, And now have few left worth the utterance.

Ben. A further application of yon engine May change your tone.

Cal. Most true, it will do so; A former application did so; but It will not change my words, or, if it did--

Ben. What then?

Cal. Will my avowal on yon rack Stand good in law?

Ben. Assuredly.

Cal. Whoe'er The culprit be whom I accuse of treason?

Ben. Without doubt, he will be brought up to trial.

Cal. And on this testimony would he perish?

Ben. So your confession be detailed and full, He will stand here in peril of his life.

Cal. Then look well to thy proud self, President! For by the Eternity which yawns before me, I swear that thou, and only thou, shall be The traitor I denounce upon that rack, If I be stretched there for the second time.

One of the Giunta. Lord President,'twere best proceed to judgment; There is no more to be drawn from these men.

Ben. Unhappy men! prepare for instant death. The nature of your crime--our law--and peril The State now stands in, leave not an hour's respite. Guards! lead them forth, and upon the balcony Of the red columns, where, on festal Thursday, The Doge stands to behold the chase of bulls, Let them be justified: and leave exposed Their wavering relics, in the place of judgment, To the full view of the assembled people! And Heaven have mercy on their souls!

The Giunta. Amen!

I. Ber. Signors, farewell! we shall not all again Meet in one place.

Ben. And lest they should essay To stir up the distracted multitude-- Guards! let their mouths be gagged even in the act Of execution. Lead them hence!

Cal. What! must we Not even say farewell to some fond friend, Nor leave a last word with our confessor?

Ben. A priest is waiting in the antechamber; But, for your friends, such interviews would be Painful to them, and useless all to you.

Cal. I knew that we were gagged in life; at least All those who had not heart to risk their lives Upon their open thoughts; but still I deemed That in the last few moments, the same idle Freedom of speech accorded to the dying, Would not now be denied to us; but since----

I. Ber. Even let them have their way, brave Calendaro! What matter a few syllables? let's die Without the slightest show of favour from them; So shall our blood more readily arise To Heaven against them, and more testify To their atrocities, than could a volume Spoken or written of our dying words! They tremble at our voices--nay, they dread Our very silence--let them live in fear! Leave them unto their thoughts, and let us now Address our own above!--Lead on; we are ready.

Cal. Israel, hadst thou but hearkened unto me It had not now been thus; and yon pale villain, The coward Bertram, would----

I. Ber. Peace, Calendaro! What brooks it now to ponder upon this?

Bert. Alas! I fain you died in peace with me: I did not seek this task; 'twas forced upon me: Say, you forgive me, though I never can Retrieve my own forgiveness--frown not thus!

I. Ber. I die and pardon thee!

Cal. (spitting at him). I die and scorn thee! [Exeunt ISRAEL BERTUCCIO and PHILIP CALENDARO, Guards, etc.

Ben. Now that these criminals have been disposed of, 'Tis time that we proceed to pass our sentence Upon the greatest traitor upon record In any annals, the Doge Faliero! The proofs and process are complete; the time And crime require a quick procedure: shall He now be called in to receive the award?

The Giunta. Aye, aye.

Ben. Avogadori, order that the Doge Be brought before the Council.

One of the Giunta. And the rest, When shall they be brought up?

Ben. When all the Chiefs Have been disposed of. Some have fled to Chiozza; But there are thousands in pursuit of them, And such precaution ta'en on terra firma, As well as in the islands, that we hope None will escape to utter in strange lands His libellous tale of treasons 'gainst the Senate.

Enter the DOGE as Prisoner, with Guards, etc., etc.

Ben. Doge--for such still you are, and by the law Must be considered, till the hour shall come When you must doff the Ducal Bonnet from That head, which could not wear a crown more noble Than Empires can confer, in quiet honour, But it must plot to overthrow your peers, Who made you what you are, and quench in blood A City's glory--we have laid already Before you in your chamber at full length, By the Avogadori, all the proofs Which have appeared against you; and more ample Ne'er reared their sanguinary shadows to Confront a traitor. What have you to say In your defence?

Doge. What shall I say to ye, Since my defence must be your condemnation? You are at once offenders and accusers, Judges and Executioners!--Proceed Upon your power.

Ben. Your chief accomplices Having confessed, there is no hope for you.

Doge. And who be they?

Ben. In number many; but The first now stands before you in the court, Bertram of Bergamo,--would you question him?

Doge (looking at him contemptuously). No.

Ben. And two others, Israel Bertuccio, And Philip Calendaro, have admitted Their fellowship in treason with the Doge!

Doge. And where are they?

Ben. Gone to their place, and now Answering to Heaven for what they did on earth.

Doge. Ah! the plebeian Brutus, is he gone? And the quick Cassius of the arsenal?-- How did they meet their doom?

Ben. Think of your own: It is approaching. You decline to plead, then?

Doge. I cannot plead to my inferiors, nor Can recognise your legal power to try me. Show me the law!

Ben. On great emergencies, The law must be remodelled or amended: Our fathers had not fixed the punishment Of such a crime, as on the old Roman tables The sentence against parricide was left In pure forgetfulness; they could not render That penal, which had neither name nor thought In their great bosoms; who would have foreseen That Nature could be filed to such a crime As sons 'gainst sires, and princes 'gainst their realms? Your sin hath made us make a law which will Become a precedent 'gainst such haught traitors, As would with treason mount to tyranny; Not even contented with a sceptre, till They can convert it to a two-edged sword! Was not the place of Doge sufficient for ye? What's nobler than the signory of Venice?

Doge. The signory of Venice! You betrayed me-- You--you, who sit there, traitors as ye are! From my equality with you in birth, And my superiority in action, You drew me from my honourable toils In distant lands--on flood, in field, in cities-- You singled me out like a victim to Stand crowned, but bound and helpless, at the altar Where you alone could minister. I knew not, I sought not, wished not, dreamed not the election, Which reached me first at Rome, and I obeyed; But found on my arrival, that, besides The jealous vigilance which always led you To mock and mar your Sovereign's best intents, You had, even in the interregnum of My journey to the capital, curtailed And mutilated the few privileges Yet left the Duke: all this I bore, and would Have borne, until my very hearth was stained By the pollution of your ribaldry, And he, the ribald, whom I see amongst you-- Fit judge in such tribunal!----

Ben. (interrupting him). Michel Steno Is here in virtue of his office, as One of the Forty; "the Ten" having craved A Giunta of patricians from the Senate To aid our judgment in a trial arduous And novel as the present: he was set Free from the penalty pronounced upon him, Because the Doge, who should protect the law, Seeking to abrogate all law, can claim No punishment of others by the statutes Which he himself denies and violates!

Doge. His punishment! I rather see him there, Where he now sits, to glut him with my death, Than in the mockery of castigation, Which your foul, outward, juggling show of justice Decreed as sentence! Base as was his crime, 'Twas purity compared with your protection.

Ben. And can it be, that the great Doge of Venice, With three parts of a century of years And honours on his head, could thus allow His fury, like an angry boy's, to master All Feeling, Wisdom, Faith and Fear, on such A provocation as a young man's petulance?

Doge. A spark creates the flame--'tis the last drop Which makes the cup run o'er, and mine was full Already: you oppressed the Prince and people; I would have freed both, and have failed in both: The price of such success would have been glory, Vengeance, and victory, and such a name As would have made Venetian history Rival to that of Greece and Syracuse When they were freed, and flourished ages after, And mine to Gelon and to Thrasybulus: Failing, I know the penalty of failure Is present infamy and death--the future Will judge, when Venice is no more, or free; Till then, the truth is in abeyance. Pause not; I would have shown no mercy, and I seek none; My life was staked upon a mighty hazard, And being lost, take what I would have taken! I would have stood alone amidst your tombs: Now you may flock round mine, and trample on it, As you have done upon my heart while living.

Ben. You do confess then, and admit the justice Of our Tribunal?

Doge. I confess to have failed; Fortune is female: from my youth her favours Were not withheld, the fault was mine to hope Her former smiles again at this late hour.

Ben. You do not then in aught arraign our equity?

Doge. Noble Venetians! stir me not with questions. I am resigned to the worst; but in me still Have something of the blood of brighter days, And am not over-patient. Pray you, spare me Further interrogation, which boots nothing, Except to turn a trial to debate. I shall but answer that which will offend you, And please your enemies--a host already; 'Tis true, these sullen walls should yield no echo: But walls have ears--nay, more, they have tongues; and if There were no other way for Truth to o'erleap them, You who condemn me, you who fear and slay me, Yet could not bear in silence to your graves What you would hear from me of Good or Evil; The secret were too mighty for your souls: Then let it sleep in mine, unless you court A danger which would double that you escape. Such my defence would be, had I full scope To make it famous; for true words are things, And dying men's are things which long outlive, And oftentimes avenge them; bury mine, If ye would fain survive me: take this counsel, And though too oft ye make me live in wrath, Let me die calmly; you may grant me this; I deny nothing--defend nothing--nothing I ask of you, but silence for myself, And sentence from the Court!

Ben. This full admission Spares us the harsh necessity of ordering The torture to elicit the whole truth.

Doge. The torture! you have put me there already, Daily since I was Doge; but if you will Add the corporeal rack, you may: these limbs Will yield with age to crushing iron; but There's that within my heart shall strain your engines.

Enter an OFFICER.

Officer. Noble Venetians! Duchess Faliero Requests admission to the Giunta's presence.

Ben. Say, Conscript Fathers, shall she be admitted?

One of the Giunta. She may have revelations of importance Unto the state, to justify compliance With her request.

Ben. Is this the general will?

All. It is.

Doge. Oh, admirable laws of Venice! Which would admit the wife, in the full hope That she might testify against the husband. What glory to the chaste Venetian dames! But such blasphemers 'gainst all Honour, as Sit here, do well to act in their vocation. Now, villain Steno! if this woman fail, I'll pardon thee thy lie, and thy escape, And my own violent death, and thy vile life.

The DUCHESS enters.

Ben. Lady! this just Tribunal has resolved, Though the request be strange, to grant it, and Whatever be its purport, to accord A patient hearing with the due respect Which fits your ancestry, your rank, and virtues: But you turn pale--ho! there, look to the Lady! Place a chair instantly.

Ang. A moment's faintness-- 'Tis past; I pray you pardon me,--I sit not In presence of my Prince and of my husband, While he is on his feet.

Ben. Your pleasure, Lady?

Ang. Strange rumours, but most true, if all I hear And see be sooth, have reached me, and I come To know the worst, even at the worst; forgive The abruptness of my entrance and my bearing. Is it--I cannot speak--I cannot shape The question--but you answer it ere spoken, With eyes averted, and with gloomy brows-- Oh God! this is the silence of the grave!

Ben. (after a pause). Spare us, and spare thyself the repetition Of our most awful, but inexorable Duty to Heaven and man!

Ang. Yet speak; I cannot-- I cannot--no--even now believe these things. Is he condemned?

Ben. Alas!

Ang. And was he guilty?

Ben. Lady! the natural distraction of Thy thoughts at such a moment makes the question Merit forgiveness; else a doubt like this Against a just and paramount tribunal Were deep offence. But question even the Doge, And if he can deny the proofs, believe him Guiltless as thy own bosom.

Ang. Is it so? My Lord, my Sovereign, my poor father's friend, The mighty in the field, the sage in Council, Unsay the words of this man!--thou art silent!

Ben. He hath already owned to his own guilt, Nor, as thou see'st, doth he deny it now.

Ang. Aye, but he must not die! Spare his few years, Which Grief and Shame will soon cut down to days! One day of baffled crime must not efface Near sixteen lustres crowned with brave acts.

Ben. His doom must be fulfilled without remission Of time or penalty--'tis a decree.

Ang. He hath been guilty, but there may be mercy.

Ben. Not in this case with justice.

Ang. Alas! Signor, He who is only just is cruel; who Upon the earth would live were all judged justly?

Ben. His punishment is safety to the State.

Ang. He was a subject, and hath served the State; He was your General, and hath saved the State; He is your Sovereign, and hath ruled the State.

One of the Council. He is a traitor, and betrayed the State.

Ang. And, but for him, there now had been no State To save or to destroy; and you, who sit There to pronounce the death of your deliverer, Had now been groaning at a Moslem oar, Or digging in the Hunnish mines in fetters!

One of the Council. No, Lady, there are others who would die Rather than breathe in slavery!

Ang. If there are so Within these walls, thou art not of the number: The truly brave are generous to the fallen!-- Is there no hope?

Ben. Lady, it cannot be.

Ang. (turning to the Doge). Then die, Faliero! since it must be so; But with the spirit of my father's friend. Thou hast been guilty of a great offence, Half cancelled by the harshness of these men. I would have sued to them, have prayed to them. Have begged as famished mendicants for bread, Have wept as they will cry unto their God For mercy, and be answered as they answer,-- Had it been fitting for thy name or mine, And if the cruelty in their cold eyes Had not announced the heartless wrath within. Then, as a Prince, address thee to thy doom!

Doge. I have lived too long not to know how to die! Thy suing to these men were but the bleating Of the lamb to the butcher, or the cry Of seamen to the surge: I would not take A life eternal, granted at the hands Of wretches, from whose monstrous villanies I sought to free the groaning nations!

Michel Steno. Doge, A word with thee, and with this noble lady, Whom I have grievously offended. Would Sorrow, or shame, or penance on my part, Could cancel the inexorable past! But since that cannot be, as Christians let us Say farewell, and in peace: with full contrition I crave, not pardon, but compassion from you, And give, however weak, my prayers for both.

Ang. Sage Benintende, now chief Judge of Venice, I speak to thee in answer to yon Signor. Inform the ribald Steno, that his words Ne'er weighed in mind with Loredano's daughter, Further than to create a moment's pity For such as he is: would that others had Despised him as I pity! I prefer My honour to a thousand lives, could such Be multiplied in mine, but would not have A single life of others lost for that Which nothing human can impugn--the sense Of Virtue, looking not to what is called A good name for reward, but to itself. To me the scorner's words were as the wind Unto the rock: but as there are--alas! Spirits more sensitive, on which such things Light as the Whirlwind on the waters; souls To whom Dishonour's shadow is a substance More terrible than Death, here and hereafter; Men whose vice is to start at Vice's scoffing, And who, though proof against all blandishments Of pleasure, and all pangs of Pain, are feeble When the proud name on which they pinnacled Their hopes is breathed on, jealous as the eagle Of her high aiery; let what we now Behold, and feel, and suffer, be a lesson To wretches how they tamper in their spleen With beings of a higher order. Insects Have made the lion mad ere now; a shaft I' the heel o'erthrew the bravest of the brave; A wife's Dishonour was the bane of Troy; A wife's Dishonour unkinged Rome for ever; An injured husband brought the Gauls to Clusium, And thence to Rome, which perished for a time; An obscene gesture cost Caligula His life, while Earth yet bore his cruelties; A virgin's wrong made Spain a Moorish province; And Steno's lie, couched in two worthless lines, Hath decimated Venice, put in peril A Senate which hath stood eight hundred years, Discrowned a Prince, cut off his crownless head, And forged new fetters for a groaning people! Let the poor wretch, like to the courtesan Who fired Persepolis, be proud of this, If it so please him--'twere a pride fit for him! But let him not insult the last hours of Him, who, whate'er he now is, was a Hero, By the intrusion of his very prayers; Nothing of good can come from such a source, Nor would we aught with him, nor now, nor ever: We leave him to himself, that lowest depth Of human baseness. Pardon is for men, And not for reptiles--we have none for Steno, And no resentment: things like him must sting, And higher beings suffer; 'tis the charter Of Life. The man who dies by the adder's fang May have the crawler crushed, but feels no anger: 'Twas the worm's nature; and some men are worms In soul, more than the living things of tombs.

Doge (to Ben.). Signor! complete that which you deem your duty.

Ben. Before we can proceed upon that duty, We would request the Princess to withdraw; 'Twill move her too much to be witness to it.

Ang. I know it will, and yet I must endure it, For 'tis a part of mine--I will not quit, Except by force, my husband's side--Proceed! Nay, fear not either shriek, or sigh, or tear; Though my heart burst, it shall be silent.--Speak! I have that within which shall o'ermaster all.

Ben. Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice, Count of Val di Marino, Senator, And some time General of the Fleet and Army, Noble Venetian, many times and oft Intrusted by the state with high employments, Even to the highest, listen to the sentence. Convict by many witnesses and proofs, And by thine own confession, of the guilt Of Treachery and Treason, yet unheard of Until this trial--the decree is Death-- Thy goods are confiscate unto the State, Thy name is razed from out her records, save Upon a public day of thanksgiving For this our most miraculous deliverance, When thou art noted in our calendars With earthquakes, pestilence, and foreign foes, And the great Enemy of man, as subject Of grateful masses for Heaven's grace in snatching Our lives and country from thy wickedness. The place wherein as Doge thou shouldst be painted With thine illustrious predecessors, is To be left vacant, with a death-black veil Flung over these dim words engraved beneath,-- "This place is of Marino Faliero, Decapitated for his crimes."

Doge. "His crimes!" But let it be so:--it will be in vain. The veil which blackens o'er this blighted name, And hides, or seems to hide, these lineaments, Shall draw more gazers than the thousand portraits Which glitter round it in their pictured trappings-- Your delegated slaves--the people's tyrants! "Decapitated for his crimes!"--What crimes? Were it not better to record the facts, So that the contemplator might approve, Or at the least learn whence the crimes arose? When the beholder knows a Doge conspired, Let him be told the cause--it is your history.

Ben. Time must reply to that; our sons will judge Their fathers' judgment, which I now pronounce. As Doge, clad in the ducal robes and Cap, Thou shalt be led hence to the Giants' Staircase, Where thou and all our Princes are invested; And there, the Ducal Crown being first resumed Upon the spot where it was first assumed, Thy head shall be struck off; and Heaven have mercy Upon thy soul!

Doge. Is this the Giunta's sentence?

Ben. It is.

Doge. I can endure it.--And the time?

Ben. Must be immediate.--Make thy peace with God: Within an hour thou must be in His presence.

Doge. I am already; and my blood will rise To Heaven before the souls of those who shed it. Are all my lands confiscated?

Ben. They are; And goods, and jewels, and all kind of treasure, Except two thousand ducats--these dispose of.

Doge. That's harsh.--I would have fain reserved the lands Near to Treviso, which I hold by investment From Laurence the Count-bishop of Ceneda, In fief perpetual to myself and heirs, To portion them (leaving my city spoil, My palace and my treasures, to your forfeit) Between my consort and my kinsmen.

Ben. These Lie under the state's ban--their Chief, thy nephew, In peril of his own life; but the Council Postpones his trial for the present. If Thou will'st a state unto thy widowed Princess, Fear not, for we will do her justice.

Ang. Signors, I share not in your spoil! From henceforth, know I am devoted unto God alone, And take my refuge in the cloister.

Doge. Come! The hour may be a hard one, but 'twill end. Have I aught else to undergo save Death?

Ben. You have nought to do, except confess and die. The priest is robed, the scimitar is bare, And both await without.--But, above all, Think not to speak unto the people; they Are now by thousands swarming at the gates, But these are closed: the Ten, the Avogadori, The Giunta, and the chief men of the Forty, Alone will be beholders of thy doom, And they are ready to attend the Doge.

Doge. The Doge!

Ben. Yes, Doge, thou hast lived and thou shalt die A Sovereign; till the moment which precedes The separation of that head and trunk, That ducal crown and head shall be united. Thou hast forgot thy dignity in deigning To plot with petty traitors; not so we, Who in the very punishment acknowledge The Prince. Thy vile accomplices have died The dog's death, and the wolf's; but them shall fall As falls the lion by the hunters, girt By those who feel a proud compassion for thee, And mourn even the inevitable death Provoked by thy wild wrath, and regal fierceness. Now we remit thee to thy preparation: Let it be brief, and we ourselves will be Thy guides unto the place where first we were United to thee as thy subjects, and Thy Senate; and must now be parted from thee As such for ever, on the self-same spot. Guards! form the Doge's escort to his chamber. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.--The Doge's Apartment.

The DOGE as Prisoner, and the DUCHESS attending him.

Doge. Now, that the priest is gone, 'twere useless all To linger out the miserable minutes; But one pang more, the pang of parting from thee, And I will leave the few last grains of sand, Which yet remain of the accorded hour, Still falling--I have done with Time.

Ang. Alas! And I have been the cause, the unconscious cause; And for this funeral marriage, this black union, Which thou, compliant with my father's wish, Didst promise at his death, thou hast sealed thine own.

Doge. Not so: there was that in my spirit ever Which shaped out for itself some great reverse; The marvel is, it came not until now-- And yet it was foretold me.

Ang. How foretold you?

Doge. Long years ago--so long, they are a doubt In memory, and yet they live in annals: When I was in my youth, and served the Senate And Signory as Podesta and Captain Of the town of Treviso, on a day Of festival, the sluggish Bishop who Conveyed the Host aroused my rash young anger, By strange delay, and arrogant reply To my reproof: I raised my hand and smote him, Until he reeled beneath his holy burthen; And as he rose from earth again, he raised His tremulous hands in pious wrath towards Heaven. Thence pointing to the Host, which had fallen from him, He turned to me, and said, "The Hour will come When he thou hast o'erthrown shall overthrow thee: The Glory shall depart from out thy house, The Wisdom shall be shaken from thy soul, And in thy best maturity of Mind A madness of the heart shall seize upon thee; Passion shall tear thee when all passions cease In other men, or mellow into virtues; And Majesty which decks all other heads, Shall crown to leave thee headless; honours shall But prove to thee the heralds of Destruction, And hoary hairs of Shame, and both of Death, But not such death as fits an agéd man." Thus saying, he passed on.--That Hour is come.

Ang. And with this warning couldst thou not have striven To avert the fatal moment, and atone, By penitence, for that which thou hadst done?

Doge. I own the words went to my heart, so much That I remembered them amid the maze Of Life, as if they formed a spectral voice, Which shook me in a supernatural dream; And I repented; but 'twas not for me To pull in resolution: what must be I could not change, and would not fear.--Nay more, Thou can'st not have forgot, what all remember, That on my day of landing here as Doge, On my return from Rome, a mist of such Unwonted density went on before The Bucentaur, like the columnar cloud Which ushered Israel out of Egypt, till The pilot was misled, and disembarked us Between the Pillars of Saint Mark's, where 'tis The custom of the state to put to death Its criminals, instead of touching at The Riva della Paglia, as the wont is,-- So that all Venice shuddered at the omen.

Ang. Ah! little boots it now to recollect Such things.

Doge. And yet I find a comfort in The thought, that these things are the work of Fate; For I would rather yield to Gods than men, Or cling to any creed of destiny, Rather than deem these mortals, most of whom I know to be as worthless as the dust, And weak as worthless, more than instruments Of an o'er-ruling Power; they in themselves Were all incapable--they could not be Vistors of him who oft had conquered for them.

Ang. Employ the minutes left in aspirations Of a more healing nature, and in peace Even with these wretches take thy flight to Heaven.

Doge. I am at peace: the peace of certainty That a sure Hour will come, when their sons' sons, And this proud city, and these azure waters, And all which makes them eminent and bright, Shall be a desolation and a curse, A hissing and a scoff unto the nations, A Carthage, and a Tyre, an Ocean Babel.

Ang. Speak not thus now: the surge of Passion still Sweeps o'er thee to the last; thou dost deceive Thyself, and canst not injure them--be calmer.

Doge. I stand within Eternity, and see Into Eternity, and I behold-- Aye, palpable as I see thy sweet face For the last time--the days which I denounce Unto all time against these wave-girt walls, And they who are indwellers.

Guard (coming forward). Doge of Venice, The Ten are in attendance on your Highness.

Doge. Then farewell, Angiolina!--one embrace-- Forgive the old man who hath been to thee A fond but fatal husband--love my memory-- I would not ask so much for me still living, But thou canst judge of me more kindly now, Seeing my evil feelings are at rest. Besides, of all the fruit of these long years, Glory, and Wealth, and Power, and Fame, and Name, Which generally leave some flowers to bloom Even o'er the grave, I have nothing left, not even A little love, or friendship, or esteem, No, not enough to extract an epitaph From ostentatious kinsmen; in one hour I have uprooted all my former life, And outlived everything, except thy heart, The pure, the good, the gentle, which will oft With unimpaired but not a clamorous grief Still keep----Thou turn'st so pale!--Alas! she faints, She has no breath, no pulse!--Guards! lend your aid-- I cannot leave her thus, and yet 'tis better, Since every lifeless moment spares a pang. When she shakes off this temporary death, I shall be with the Eternal.--Call her women-- One look!--how cold her hand!--as cold as mine Shall be ere she recovers.--Gently tend her, And take my last thanks--I am ready now.

[The Attendants of ANGIOLINA enter, and surround their Mistress, who has fainted.--Exeunt the DOGE, Guards, etc., etc.

SCENE III.--The Court of the Ducal Palace; the outer gates are shut against the people.--The DOGE enters in his ducal robes, in procession with the COUNCIL OF TEN and other Patricians, attended by the Guards, till they arrive at the top of the "Giants' Staircase (where the Doges took the oaths); the the Executioner is stationed there with his sword.--On arriving, a CHIEF OF THE TEN takes off the ducal cap from the Doge's head.

Doge. So now the Doge is nothing, and at last I am again Marino Faliero: 'Tis well to be so, though but for a moment, Here was I crowned, and here, bear witness, Heaven! With how much more contentment I resign That shining mockery, the ducal bauble, Than I received the fatal ornament.

One of the Ten. Thou tremblest, Faliero!

Doge. 'Tis with age, then.

Ben. Faliero! hast thou aught further to commend, Compatible with justice, to the Senate?

Doge. I would commend my nephew to their mercy, My consort to their justice; for methinks My death, and such a death, might settle all Between the State and me.

Ben. They shall be cared for; Even notwithstanding thine unheard-of crime.

Doge. Unheard of! aye, there's not a history But shows a thousand crowned conspirators Against the people; but to set them free, One Sovereign only died, and one is dying.

Ben. And who were they who fell in such a cause?

Doge. The King of Sparta, and the Doge of Venice-- Agis and Faliero!

Ben. Hast thou more To utter or to do?

Doge. May I speak?

Ben. Thou may'st; But recollect the people are without, Beyond the compass of the human voice.

Doge. I speak to Time and to Eternity, Of which I grow a portion, not to man. Ye Elements! in which to be resolved I hasten, let my voice be as a Spirit Upon you! Ye blue waves! which bore my banner. Ye winds! which fluttered o'er as if you loved it, And filled my swelling sails as they were wafted To many a triumph! Thou, my native earth, Which I have bled for! and thou, foreign earth, Which drank this willing blood from many a wound! Ye stones, in which my gore will not sink, but Reek up to Heaven! Ye skies, which will receive it! Thou Sun! which shinest on these things, and Thou! Who kindlest and who quenchest suns!--Attest! I am not innocent--but are these guiltless? I perish, but not unavenged; far ages Float up from the abyss of Time to be, And show these eyes, before they close, the doom Of this proud City, and I leave my curse On her and hers for ever!----Yes, the hours Are silently engendering of the day, When she, who built 'gainst Attila a bulwark, Shall yield, and bloodlessly and basely yield, Unto a bastard Attila, without Shedding so much blood in her last defence, As these old veins, oft drained in shielding her, Shall pour in sacrifice.--She shall be bought And sold, and be an appanage to those Who shall despise her!--She shall stoop to be A province for an Empire, petty town In lieu of Capital, with slaves for senates, Beggars for nobles, panders for a people! Then when the Hebrew's in thy palaces, The Hun in thy high places, and the Greek Walks o'er thy mart, and smiles on it for his; When thy patricians beg their bitter bread In narrow streets, and in their shameful need Make their nobility a plea for pity; Then, when the few who still retain a wreck Of their great fathers' heritage shall fawn Round a barbarian Vice of Kings' Vice-gerent, Even in the Palace where they swayed as Sovereigns, Even in the Palace where they slew their Sovereign, Proud of some name they have disgraced, or sprung From an adulteress boastful of her guilt With some large gondolier or foreign soldier, Shall bear about their bastardy in triumph To the third spurious generation;--when Thy sons are in the lowest scale of being, Slaves turned o'er to the vanquished by the victors, Despised by cowards for greater cowardice, And scorned even by the vicious for such vices As in the monstrous grasp of their conception Defy all codes to image or to name them; Then, when of Cyprus, now thy subject kingdom, All thine inheritance shall be her shame Entailed on thy less virtuous daughters, grown A wider proverb for worse prostitution;-- When all the ills of conquered states shall cling thee, Vice without splendour, Sin without relief Even from the gloss of Love to smooth it o'er, But in its stead, coarse lusts of habitude, Prurient yet passionless, cold studied lewdness, Depraving Nature's frailty to an art;-- When these and more are heavy on thee, when Smiles without mirth, and pastimes without Pleasure, Youth without Honour, Age without respect, Meanness and Weakness, and a sense of woe 'Gainst which thou wilt not strive, and dar'st not murmur, Have made thee last and worst of peopled deserts, Then, in the last gasp of thine agony, Amidst thy many murders, think of mine! Thou den of drunkards with the blood of Princes! Gehenna of the waters! thou Sea-Sodom! Thus I devote thee to the Infernal Gods! Thee and thy serpent seed! [Here the DOGE turns and addresses the Executioner. Slave, do thine office! Strike as I struck the foe! Strike as I would Have struck those tyrants! Strike deep as my curse! Strike--and but once!

[The DOGE throws himself upon his knees, and as the Executioner raises his sword the scene closes.

SCENE IV.--The Piazza and Piazzetta of St. Mark's.-- The people in crowds gathered round the grated gates of the Ducal Palace, which are shut.

First Citizen. I have gained the Gate, and can discern the Ten, Robed in their gowns of state, ranged round the Doge.

Second Cit. I cannot reach thee with mine utmost effort. How is it? let us hear at least, since sight Is thus prohibited unto the people, Except the occupiers of those bars.

First Cit. One has approached the Doge, and now they strip The ducal bonnet from his head--and now He raises his keen eyes to Heaven; I see Them glitter, and his lips move--Hush! hush!--no, 'Twas but a murmur--Curse upon the distance! His words are inarticulate, but the voice Swells up like muttered thunder; would we could But gather a sole sentence!

Second Cit. Hush! we perhaps may catch the sound.

First Cit. 'Tis vain. I cannot hear him.--How his hoary hair Streams on the wind like foam upon the wave! Now--now--he kneels--and now they form a circle Round him, and all is hidden--but I see The lifted sword in air----Ah! hark! it falls!

[The people murmur.

Third Cit. Then they have murdered him who would have freed us.

Fourth Cit. He was a kind man to the commons ever.

Fifth Cit. Wisely they did to keep their portals barred. Would we had known the work they were preparing Ere we were summoned here--we would have brought Weapons, and forced them!

Sixth Cit. Are you sure he's dead?

First Cit. I saw the sword fall--Lo! what have we here?

Enter on the Balcony of the Palace which fronts St. Mark's Place a CHIEF OF THE TEN, with a bloody sword. He waves it thrice before the People, and exclaims,

"Justice hath dealt upon the mighty Traitor!"

[The gates are opened; the populace rush in towards the "Giants' Staircase," where the execution has taken place The foremost of them exclaims to those behind,

"The gory head rolls down the Giants' Steps!" [The curtain falls.