'Thou say'st it--_thou?_--Judas?--Who made me so?--Show me my thirty
pieces--Judas? Ay; and what for wages?--Thy tool and catspaw--I see it
all at last--thine and Ludovic's--bled, and my carcass thrown to
swine!--Judas? Why, I might have been Judas to some purpose with the
Duke--a made man by now. And all for thee foregone; and in the end by
thee betrayed. I asked nothing--gave all for nothing--ass--goose--cried
quack and quack, as told--decoy to these fine fowl, and, being used, my
neck wrung with the rest. Now----'
She put up a hand peremptorily. The fury simmered down on his lips.
'You presume, fellow,' she said. '_I_ betray _thee_?'
She raised her brows, amazed. Too stupendous an instance of
condescension, indeed.
He slunk down on his knees before her, cringing and praying.
'No, Madonna, no! I spake out of my great madness.'
'Answer me,' she said disdainfully, 'out of thy little reason. What
wouldst thou of me?'
He lifted his shaking hands.
'Sanctuary, sanctuary. Let me hide here.'
He crawled to her, pawing like a beaten dog.
'Sanctuary,' he reiterated brokenly. 'You owe it me--that at least.
I've bided, bided--and ye made no sign--yielded all for guerdon of a
sweet word, the whiles I thought thyself and Ludovic were stalking that
conspiracy to cut it off betimes. God's death! Not you. And now I know
the reason. Now comes the reckoning, and I'm left to face it as I will.
God's death!' His panic mastered him again. 'What of my substance have
I changed for nothing! There was Bona's ring--I might have lived ten
year on't. And I parted with it--for what? O, you're a serpent,
mistress! You worm your way--and get it too. What! Bona may bide a
little, and Simonetta? They're but the bleeding trunk. The head's
lopped while I talk.'
His voice rose to a screech--broke--and he grovelled before her.
'Mercy, Madonna. Spare me to be thy slave. All comes thy way--love,
and revenge, and power. The boy's dead--the Duke's to die----'
He had roused her at last, and in a flash. She sprang to her feet,
white, hardly breathing.
'The boy?' she hissed; 'what boy?'