The Duke of Gandia | Page 4

felt As joy feels fear and withers? I am not Afraid: methinks I am very fear itself.
Enter an Officer of the household
OFFICER
His holiness be gracious towards me.
ALEXANDER
Speak. Thy face is death's: let death upon thy lips Live.
OFFICER
Sire, the humblest hireling knave in Rome - A waterman that plies his craft all night - Craves audience even of thee.
ALEXANDER
A Roman?
OFFICER
Nay. Some outlander--some Greek--they call the knave George the Slavonian.
ALEXANDER
They?
OFFICER
The fisherfolk On Tiber.
ALEXANDER
Bid him in: bid God himself Come in with doom upon me. [Exit Officer. Hear'st thou, child - Daughter?
LUCREZIA
What horror hangs on thee?
ALEXANDER
Abide, And thou shalt know as I know.
Enter GIORGIO SCHIAVONE
Speak. I say, Speak. What thou art I know: and what I am Thou knowest--and yet thou knowest not.
GIORGIO
Holiest sire, Last night I kept my boat on Tiber--Sire, The thing I saw was nothing of my deed - It shook me out of sleep to see it--Lord, Have mercy: look not so upon me.
ALEXANDER
Dog, Speak, while thy tongue is thine.
GIORGIO
Two men came down And peered along the water-side: and two Came after--men whose eyes raked all the night, Searching the shore--I lay beneath my boat - Beside it on the darkling side--and saw. Then came a horseman--Sire, his horse was white - The moonshine made his mane like dull white fire - And on his crupper heavily hung a corpse, Arms held from swaying on this side, legs on that, I know not which on either--but the men Held fast that held: and hard on Tiber side They swung the crupper towards the water--sharp And swift as man may steer a horse--and caught And slung their dead into the stream: and he Drifted, and caught the moon across his face That shone like life against it: and the chief Till then sat silent as the moon at watch, And then bade hurl stones on the drifting dead And sink him out of sight; and seeing this done, Rode thence, and they strode after.
ALEXANDER
Man, and thou - Thou?
GIORGIO
Sire, I set my heart again to sleep: I turned and slept under my boatside.
ALEXANDER
Man - Dog--devil, if this be truth, and if my fear Lie not--how hadst thou heart to hold thy peace? How comes it that the warders of the shore Knew not of thee, while yet the crime was hot, What crime had made night hell?
GIORGIO
A thousand times I have seen such sights, but never till this hour Seen him who cared to hear of them.
ALEXANDER
Till now, Never. He looks in God's mute face and mine, And says it. God be good to me! But God Will not--or is not. Where is then thy dead, Devil, called of God from hell to smite--to scourge - Me?
GIORGIO
Sire, at hand I left him.
ALEXANDER
Stir not. Bid Thy fellows bring my dead before me. [Exit Officer. Nay, But mine it is not yet--it may not be Mine--while it may not be, it is not. Child, It shall not be thy brother. Pray no prayer. Prayer never yet brought profit. Be not pale. Fear strikes more deep into the fearful heart The wound it heals not.
Enter Officers with the body of FRANCESCO
What is he they bring? O God! Thou livest! And my child is dead! [Falls.

SCENE IV

The Vatican
ALEXANDER and CAESAR
ALEXANDER
Thou hast done this deed.
CAESAR
Thou hast said it.
ALEXANDER
Dost thou think To live, and look upon me?
CAESAR
Some while yet.
ALEXANDER
I would there were a God--that he might hear.
CAESAR
'Tis pity there should be--for thy sake--none.
ALEXANDER
Wilt thou slay me?
CAESAR
Why?
ALEXANDER
Am not I thy sire?
CAESAR
And Christendom's to boot.
ALEXANDER
I pray thee, man, Slay me.
CAESAR
And then myself? Thou art crazed, but I Sane.
ALEXANDER
Art thou very flesh and blood?
CAESAR
They say, Thine.
ALEXANDER
If the heaven stand still and smite thee not, There is no God indeed.
CAESAR
Nor thou nor I Know.
ALEXANDER
I could pray to God that God might be, Were I but mad. Thou sayest I am mad: thou liest: I do not pray.
CAESAR
Most holiest father, no. Thy brain is not so sick yet. Thou and God Friends? Man, how long would God have let thee live - Thee?
ALEXANDER
Long enough he hath kept me, to behold His face as fire--if his it be--and earth As hell--and thee, begotten of my loins, Satan.
CAESAR
The firstfruits of thy fatherhood Were something less than Satan. Man of God, Vaunt not thyself.
ALEXANDER
I would I had died in the womb.
CAESAR
Thou shalt do better, dying in Peter's chair: Thou shalt die famous.
ALEXANDER
Ay: no screen from that, No shelter, no forgetfulness on earth. We shall be famed for ever. Hell and night, Cover me!
CAESAR
Hast thou heard that prayers are heard? Or hast thou known earth, for a man's cry's sake, Cleave, and devour him?
ALEXANDER
I have done this thing. Thou hast not done it: thy deed is none of thine: Upon my hand, upon my head, the blood Rests.
CAESAR
Wilt thou sleep the worse for this next year?
ALEXANDER
I will not live a seven days' space beyond This.
CAESAR
Thou hast