But it must be to-night.
guido
To-night it shall be.
duchess
Oh, thank God for that!
guido
So I can live; life never seemed so sweet
As at this moment.
·165· duchess
Do not tarry, Guido,
There is my cloak: the horse is at the bridge,
The second bridge below the ferry house:
Why do you tarry? Can your ears not hear
This dreadful bell, whose every ringing stroke
Robs one brief minute from your boyish life.
Go quickly.
guido
Ay! he will come soon enough.
duchess
Who?
guido [calmly]
Why, the headsman.
duchess
No, no.
guido
Only he
Can bring me out of Padua.
duchess
You dare not!
You dare not burden my o’erburdened soul
With two dead men! I think one is enough.
·166· For when I stand before God, face to face,
I would not have you, with a scarlet thread
Around your white throat, coming up behind
To say I did it.
guido
Madam, I wait.
duchess
No, no, you cannot: you do not understand,
I have less power in Padua to-night
Than any common woman; they will kill you.
I saw the scaffold as I crossed the square,
Already the low rabble throng about it
With fearful jests, and horrid merriment,
As though it were a morris-dancer’s platform,
And not Death’s sable throne. O Guido, Guido,
You must escape!
guido
Madam, I tarry here.
duchess
Guido, you shall not: it would be a thing
So terrible that the amazed stars
Would fall from heaven, and the palsied moon
Be in her sphere eclipsed, and the great sun
·167· Refuse to shine upon the unjust earth
Which saw thee die.
guido
Be sure I shall not stir.
duchess [wringing her hands]
Is one sin not enough, but must it breed
A second sin more horrible again
Than was the one that bare it? O God, God,
Seal up sin’s teeming womb, and make it barren,
I will not have more blood upon my hand
Than I have now.
guido [seizing her hand]
What! am I fallen so low
That I may not have leave to die for you?
duchess [tearing her hand away]
Die for me?—no, my life is a vile thing,
Thrown to the miry highways of this world;
You shall not die for me, you shall not, Guido;
I am a guilty woman.
guido
Guilty?—let those
Who know what a thing temptation is,
·168· Let those who have not walked as we have done,
In the red fire of passion, those whose lives
Are dull and colourless, in a word let those,
If any such there be, who have not loved,
Cast stones against you. As for me——
duchess
Alas!
guido [falling at her feet]
You are my lady, and you are my love!
O hair of gold, O crimson lips, O face
Made for the luring and the love of man!
Incarnate image of pure loveliness!
Worshipping thee I do forget the past,
Worshipping thee my soul comes close to thine,
Worshipping thee I seem to be a god,
And though they give my body to the block,
Yet is my love eternal!
[Duchess puts her hands over her face: Guido draws them down.]
Sweet, lift up
The trailing curtains that overhang your eyes
That
