Well, well, God keep murder from us, I say, as long as we are alive.
[Enter LORD MORANZONE hurriedly.]
MORANZONE
Is the Duke dead?
SECOND CITIZEN
He has a knife in his heart, which they say is not healthy for any man.
MORANZONE
Who is accused of having killed him?
SECOND CITIZEN
Why, the prisoner, sir.
MORANZONE
But who is the prisoner?
SECOND CITIZEN
Why, he that is accused of the Duke’s murder.
MORANZONE
I mean, what is his name?
SECOND CITIZEN
Faith, the same which his godfathers gave him: what else should it be?
TIPSTAFF
Guido Ferranti is his name, my lord.
MORANZONE
I almost knew thine answer ere you gave it.
[Aside.]
Yet it is strange he should have killed the Duke,
Seeing he left me in such different mood.
It is most likely when he saw the man,
This devil who had sold his father’s life,
That passion from their seat within his heart
Thrust all his boyish theories of love,
And in their place set vengeance; yet I marvel
That he escaped not.
[Turning again to the crowd.]
How was he taken? Tell me.
THIRD CITIZEN
Marry, sir, he was taken by the heels.
MORANZONE
But who seized him?
THIRD CITIZEN
Why, those that did lay hold of him.
MORANZONE
How was the alarm given?
THIRD CITIZEN
That I cannot tell you, sir.
MISTRESS LUCY
It was the Duchess herself who pointed him out.
MORANZONE
[aside]
The Duchess! There is something strange in this.
MISTRESS LUCY
Ay! And the dagger was in his hand - the Duchess’s own dagger.
MORANZONE
What did you say?
MISTRESS LUCY
Why, marry, that it was with the Duchess’s dagger that the Duke was killed.
MORANZONE
[aside]
There is some mystery about this: I cannot understand it.
SECOND CITIZEN
They be very long a-coming,
FIRST CITIZEN
I warrant they will come soon enough for the prisoner.
TIPSTAFF
Silence in the Court!
FIRST CITIZEN
Thou dost break silence in bidding us keep it, Master Tipstaff.
[Enter the LORD JUSTICE and the other Judges.]
SECOND CITIZEN
Who is he in scarlet? Is he the headsman?
THIRD CITIZEN
Nay, he is the Lord Justice.
[Enter GUIDO guarded.]
SECOND CITIZEN
There be the prisoner surely.
THIRD CITIZEN
He looks honest.
FIRST CITIZEN That be his villany: knaves nowadays do look so honest that honest folk are forced to look like knaves so as to be different.
[Enter the Headman, who takes his stand behind GUIDO.]
SECOND CITIZEN
Yon be the headsman then! O Lord! Is the axe sharp, think you?
FIRST CITIZEN
Ay! sharper than thy wits are; but the edge is not towards him, mark you.
SECOND CITIZEN
[scratching his neck]
I’ faith, I like it not so near.
FIRST CITIZEN
Tut, thou need’st not be afraid; they never cut the heads of common folk: they do but hang us.
[Trumpets outside.]
THIRD CITIZEN
What are the trumpets for? Is the trial over?
FIRST CITIZEN
Nay, ‘tis for the Duchess.
[Enter the DUCHESS in black velvet; her train of flowered black velvet is carried by two pages in violet; with her is the CARDINAL in scarlet, and the gentlemen of the Court in black; she takes her seat on the throne above the Judges, who rise and take their caps off as she enters; the CARDINAL sits next to her a little lower; the Courtiers group themselves about the throne.]
SECOND CITIZEN
O poor lady, how pale she is! Will she sit there?
FIRST CITIZEN
Ay! she is in the Duke’s place now.
SECOND CITIZEN
