The Jewel Merchants | Page 8

to serve it, and
obsequiously assists the DUKE to descend. The DUKE then comes
well forward, in smiling meditation, and hands first his gloves, then his
scarlet cloak (which you now perceive to be lined with ermine and
sable in four stripes) to GUIDO, who takes them as a servant would
attend his master._
_The removal of this cloak reveals the DUKE to be clad in a scarlet
satin doublet, which has a high military collar and sleeves puffed with
black. His tights also are of scarlet, and he wears shining soft black
riding-boots. Jewels glisten at his neck. About his middle, too, there is

a metallic gleaming, for he is equipped with a noticeably long sword
and a dagger. Such is the personage who now addresses himself more
explicitly to GRACIOSA._
THE DUKE (_Sitting upon the bench, very much at his ease while the
others stand uncomfortably before him._) Yes, madonna, I suspect that
Eglamore here cares greatly for the fact that you are Balthazar Valori's
daughter, and cousin to the late Marquis of Cibo.
GRACIOSA (_Just in bewilderment._) Eglamore!
THE DUKE For Cibo left many kinsmen. These still resent the
circumstance that the matching of his wits against Eglamore's wits
earned for Cibo an unpleasantly public death-bed. So they pursue their
feud against Eglamore with vexatious industry. And Eglamore goes
about in hourly apprehension of another falling beam, another
knife-thrust in the back, or another plate of poison.
GRACIOSA (_She comprehends now._) Eglamore!
THE DUKE (_Who is pleased alike by Eglamore's neat plan and by his
own cleverness in unriddling it._) But if rich Eglamore should make a
stolen match with you, your father--good thrifty man!--could be
appeased without much trouble. Your cousins, those very angry but
penniless Valori, would not stay over-obdurate to a kinsman who had at
his disposal so many pensions and public offices. Honor would permit
a truce with their new cousin Eglamore, a truce very profitable to
everybody.
GRACIOSA He said they must be bought somehow!
THE DUKE Yes, Eglamore could bind them all to his interest within
ten days. All could be bought at a stroke by marrying you. And
Eglamore would be rid of the necessity of sleeping in chain-armor.
Have I not unraveled the scheme correctly, Eglamore?
GUIDO (_Smiling and deferential._) Your highness was never lacking
in penetration.
_GRACIOSA, at this, turns puzzled from one man to the other._
GRACIOSA Are you--?
THE DUKE I am Alessandro de Medici, madonna.
GRACIOSA The Duke!
THE DUKE A sadly neglected prince, who wondered over the frequent
absences of his chief counselor, and secretly set spies upon him.
Eglamore here will attest as much--(_As GRACIOSA draws away from

GUIDO_)--or if you cannot believe Eglamore any longer in anything, I
shall have other witnesses within the half-hour. Yes, my twenty
cut-throats are fetching back for me a brace of nuns from the convent
yonder. I can imagine that, just now, my cut-throats will be in your
opinion more trustworthy witnesses than is poor Eglamore. And my
stout knaves will presently assure you that I am the Duke.
GUIDO (_Suavely._) It happens that not a moment ago we were
admiring your highness' portrait.
GRACIOSA And so you are Count Eglamore. That is very strange. So
it was the hand of Eglamore (_rubbing her hands as if to clean them_)
that I touched just now. I thought it was the hand of my friend Guido.
But I forget. There is no Guido. You are Eglamore. It is strange you
should have been capable of so much wickedness, for to me you seem
only a smirking and harmless lackey.
_The DUKE is watching as if at a play. He is aesthetically pleased by
the girl's anguish. GUIDO winces. As GRACIOSA begins again to
speak, they turn facing her, so that to the audience the faces of both
men are invisible._
GRACIOSA And it was you who detected--so you said--the Marquis of
Cibo's conspiracy. Tebaldeo was my cousin, Count Eglamore. I loved
him. We were reared together. We used to play here in this garden. I
remember how Tebaldeo once fetched me a wren's nest from that
maple yonder. I stood just here. I was weeping, because I was afraid he
would fall. If he had fallen, if he had been killed then, it would have
been the luckier for him. They say that he conspired. I do not know. I
only know that by your orders, Count Eglamore, my playmate
Tebaldeo was fastened to a cross, like that (_pointing to the shrine_). I
know that his arms and legs were each broken in two places with an
iron bar. I know that this cross was then set upon a pivot, so that it
turned slowly. I know that my dear Tebaldeo died very slowly in the
sunlit marketplace, while