I will never see her.
moranzone
What will you do?
guido
After that I have laid the dagger there,
Get hence to-night from Padua.
moranzone
And then?
guido
I will take service with the Doge at Venice,
And bid him pack me straightway to the wars,
And there I will, being now sick of life,
Throw that poor life against some desperate spear.
[A groan from the Duke’s chamber again.]
Did you not hear a voice?
·91· moranzone
I always hear,
From the dim confines of some sepulchre,
A voice that cries for vengeance. We waste time,
It will be morning soon; are you resolved
You will not kill the Duke?
guido
I am resolved.
moranzone
O wretched father, lying unavenged.
guido
More wretched, were thy son a murderer.
moranzone
Why, what is life?
guido
I do not know, my lord,
I did not give it, and I dare not take it.
moranzone
I do not thank God often; but I think
I thank him now that I have got no son!
And you, what bastard blood flows in your veins
·92· That when you have your enemy in your grasp
You let him go! I would that I had left you
With the dull hinds that reared you.
guido
Better perhaps
That you had done so! May be better still
I’d not been born to this distressful world.
moranzone
Farewell!
guido
Farewell! Some day, Lord Moranzone,
You will understand my vengeance.
moranzone
Never, boy.
[Gets out of window and exit by rope ladder.]
guido
Father, I think thou knowest my resolve,
And with this nobler vengeance art content.
Father, I think in letting this man live
That I am doing what thou wouldst have done.
Father, I know not if a human voice
Can pierce the iron gateway of the dead,
·93· Or if the dead are set in ignorance
Of what we do, or do not, for their sakes.
And yet I feel a presence in the air,
There is a shadow standing at my side,
And ghostly kisses seem to touch my lips,
And leave them holier. [Kneels down.]
O father, if ’tis thou,
Canst thou not burst through the decrees of death,
And if corporeal semblance show thyself,
That I may touch thy hand!
No, there is nothing. [Rises.]
’Tis the night that cheats us with its phantoms,
And, like a puppet-master, makes us think
That things are real which are not. It grows late.
Now must I to my business.
[Pulls out a letter from his doublet and reads it.]
When he wakes,
And sees this letter, and the dagger with it,
Will he not have some loathing for his life,
Repent, perchance, and lead a better life,
Or will he mock because a young man spared
His natural enemy? I do not care.
·94· Father, it is thy bidding that I do,
Thy bidding, and the bidding of my love
Which teaches me to know thee as thou art.
[Ascends staircase stealthily, and just as he reaches out his hand to draw back the curtain the Duchess appears all in white. Guido starts back.]
duchess
Guido! what do you here so late?
guido
O white and spotless angel of my life,
Sure thou hast come from Heaven with a message
That mercy is more noble than revenge?
duchess
There is no barrier between us now.
guido
None, love, nor shall be.
duchess
I
