Loredano And Barbarigo
Lor. Where is the prisoner?
Bar.Reposing from
The Question.
Lor.The hour's past—fixed yesterday
For the resumption of his trial.—Let us
Rejoin our colleagues in the council, and
Urge his recall.
Bar.Nay, let him profit by
A few brief minutes for his tortured limbs;
He was o'erwrought by the Question yesterday,
And may die under it if now repeated.[at][37][122]
Lor. Well?
Bar.I yield not to you in love of justice,
Or hate of the ambitious Foscari,
Father and son, and all their noxious race;
But the poor wretch has suffered beyond Nature's
Most stoical endurance.
Lor.Without owning
His crime?
Bar.Perhaps without committing any.
But he avowed the letter to the Duke
Of Milan, and his sufferings half atone for
Such weakness.
Lor.We shall see.
Bar.You, Loredano,
Pursue hereditary hate too far.
Lor. How far?
Bar.To extermination.
Lor.When they are
Extinct, you may say this.—Let's in to council.
Bar. Yet pause—the number of our colleagues is not
Complete yet; two are wanting ere we can
Proceed.
Lor.And the chief judge, the Doge?
Bar.No—he,
With more than Roman fortitude, is ever
First at the board in this unhappy process
Against his last and only son.[38]
Lor.True—true—
His last.[123]
Bar. Will nothing move you?
Lor.Feels he, think you?
Bar. He shows it not.
Lor.I have marked that—the wretch!
Bar. But yesterday, I hear, on his return
To the ducal chambers, as he passed the threshold
The old man fainted.
Lor.It begins to work, then.
Bar. The work is half your own.
Lor.And should be all mine—
My father and my uncle are no more.
Bar. I have read their epitaph, which says they died
By poison.[39]
Lor.When the Doge declared that he
Should never deem himself a sovereign till
The death of Peter Loredano, both
The brothers sickened shortly:—he is Sovereign.
Bar. A wretched one.
Lor.What should they be who make
Orphans?
Bar. But did the Doge make you so?
Lor.Yes.
Bar. What solid proofs?
Lor.When Princes set themselves
To work in secret, proofs and process are[124]
Alike made difficult; but I have such
Of the first, as shall make the second needless.
Bar. But you will move by law?
Lor.By all the laws
Which he would leave us.
Bar.They are such in this
Our state as render retribution easier
Than 'mongst remoter nations. Is it true
That you have written in your books of commerce,
(The wealthy practice of our highest nobles)
"Doge Foscari, my debtor for the deaths
Of Marco and Pietro Loredano,
My sire and uncle?"[40]
Lor.It is written thus.
Bar. And will you leave it unerased?
Lor.Till balanced.
Bar. And how?
[Two Senators pass over the stage, as in their way to "the Hall of the Council of Ten."
Lor. Where is the prisoner?
Bar.Reposing from
The Question.
Lor.The hour's past—fixed yesterday
For the resumption of his trial.—Let us
Rejoin our colleagues in the council, and
Urge his recall.
Bar.Nay, let him profit by
A few brief minutes for his tortured limbs;
He was o'erwrought by the Question yesterday,
And may die under it if now repeated.[at][37][122]
Lor. Well?
Bar.I yield not to you in love of justice,
Or hate of the ambitious Foscari,
Father and son, and all their noxious race;
But the poor wretch has suffered beyond Nature's
Most stoical endurance.
Lor.Without owning
His crime?
Bar.Perhaps without committing any.
But he avowed the letter to the Duke
Of Milan, and his sufferings half atone for
Such weakness.
Lor.We shall see.
Bar.You, Loredano,
Pursue hereditary hate too far.
Lor. How far?
Bar.To extermination.
Lor.When they are
Extinct, you may say this.—Let's in to council.
Bar. Yet pause—the number of our colleagues is not
Complete yet; two are wanting ere we can
Proceed.
Lor.And the chief judge, the Doge?
Bar.No—he,
With more than Roman fortitude, is ever
First at the board in this unhappy process
Against his last and only son.[38]
Lor.True—true—
His last.[123]
Bar. Will nothing move you?
Lor.Feels he, think you?
Bar. He shows it not.
Lor.I have marked that—the wretch!
Bar. But yesterday, I hear, on his return
To the ducal chambers, as he passed the threshold
The old man fainted.
Lor.It begins to work, then.
Bar. The work is half your own.
Lor.And should be all mine—
My father and my uncle are no more.
Bar. I have read their epitaph, which says they died
By poison.[39]
Lor.When the Doge declared that he
Should never deem himself a sovereign till
The death of Peter Loredano, both
The brothers sickened shortly:—he is Sovereign.
Bar. A wretched one.
Lor.What should they be who make
Orphans?
Bar. But did the Doge make you so?
Lor.Yes.
Bar. What solid proofs?
Lor.When Princes set themselves
To work in secret, proofs and process are[124]
Alike made difficult; but I have such
Of the first, as shall make the second needless.
Bar. But you will move by law?
Lor.By all the laws
Which he would leave us.
Bar.They are such in this
Our state as render retribution easier
Than 'mongst remoter nations. Is it true
That you have written in your books of commerce,
(The wealthy practice of our highest nobles)
"Doge Foscari, my debtor for the deaths
Of Marco and Pietro Loredano,
My sire and uncle?"[40]
Lor.It is written thus.
Bar. And will you leave it unerased?
Lor.Till balanced.
Bar. And how?
[Two Senators pass over the stage, as in their way to "the Hall of the Council of Ten."
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