_The Borgia Tower in the Vatican._
DUKE CESARE DE VALENTINOIS DELLA ROMAGNA _is facing the_ LORD
JULIUS II.
_In the prison with him are_ MONSIGNORE GASPARE TORELLA, MESSER
AGAPITO DA AMALIA, _the_ LORD CARDINAL GIOVANNI VERA OF SAN
BALBINE, _and some Spanish Cardinals_.
JULIUS.
Your Castellan has hanged my messenger.
CESARE.
Faithful!
JULIUS.
You promised
Cesena should surrender.
CESARE.
Ha, it knows
The false word of command; it will not answer
Its lord in treason to himself, controlled
By force and the malignity of Fate.
JULIUS.
Spawn of a harlot, if you brave the Church,
Reserving her possessions, you descend
Into the Mola’s deepest cells to perish
Of darkness and the phantoms through the dark
Your serpent eyes will follow. This same hour
You will descend in night unless you render
The watchword of your castles. Render it!
CESARE.
[_Retreating as if from a blow._
Your promise! You instated me; I gave you
My Spanish votes for the Vicariate
Of my Romagnole cities. I am still
Your Gonfalonier; and you press me thus ...
Fool, I believed your pledge!
JULIUS.
--To hand
Our Papal fiefs and lordships to the Wolf?
We gave you but your own and your own life.
Cur of the Devil!
And you can speak of oath or pledge! How simple
Such plea from you! Could Sinigaglia hear!
I’ll not be tricked. Dog in a doublet, villain!
Unbosom!
[_He strikes his staff on the ground and grasps_ CESARE’S _vest_.
CESARE.
[_Suddenly slipping down to_ JULIUS’ _feet_.
Holiness,
Secure your castles from the grasp of Venice!
While they are ruled by me, impregnable
They stand about the country; they remain
The castles of the Church. But publish me
A traitor to these walls my sword has won,
The strongholds lapse to Venice. For a Pope
I won them, let me hold them for a Pope--
[_With a faint smile._
Under the shadow of your wings.
JULIUS.
The watchword!
CESARE.
Let me hold them in their strength
For Rome, the Church!
JULIUS.
Your watchword!
CESARE.
[_Rising with flame in his eyes._
It will storm my heart ... I cannot.
JULIUS.
Then you have chosen
A lifetime in the dens your victims haunt.
Mule! And the Guard is waiting ...
Son of Hell!
[_He makes a sign to summon the_ PAPAL GUARD.
CESARE.
[_With a wide gesture._] Freedom!
JULIUS.
... Speak out,
Or write your watchword, and Lord Santa Croce
Shall wait with you at Naples, till I hear
Cesena makes submission: then you pass
Free, where you will.
_The_ PAPAL GUARD _enters_.
CESARE.
My freedom!
AGAPITO.
Excellence, dear lord,
As you have pity on our love, unbury
The word that makes you free.
CESARE.
Agapito!
You are as I....
[_In a whisper._] Write it. [AGAPITO _turns to the desk_.
O my Cesena,
A word to soil you!--Overthrown,
Forli, Cesena, and my guardian Rocca,
Proof against every hazard, save your lord’s
Betrayal of your honour! Fallen--O fallen!
The walls--the walls before me!
[JULIUS _has moved to the table to receive the writing_. CESARE
_throws himself prone on his conch and does not move_.
_A_ CHAMBERLAIN _enters_.
CHAMBERLAIN.
Holiness,
Messer Buonarotti, waits command.
He brings a drawing of ten Victories
Niched in your monument.
JULIUS.
Ah, the winged Victories,
Each triumphing above a subject province,
Disarmed beneath her feet. How terribly
This chafing Florentine achieves my future!
Ten times a victor, yet no war declared:
The Church triumphant--ay, since militant!
AGAPITO.
[_As the pen falls from his hand and he gives the writing to_
JULIUS.
All that my lord can do
Is done: if still the fortresses maintain
Their loyalty to their effective Duke,
He takes no fault and he demands his freedom.
JULIUS.
[_With a burst of laughter, as he reads the watchword._
The forts must yield:
If they resist our sovereign voice they ruin
Themselves and their usurper. [_Pointing to_ CESARE.
He is lost.
AGAPITO.
Then let me further write.
[_Turning to the others with the paper_ JULIUS _has returned_.
Be witnesses, you, you....
Now countersign my words! His liberty
Derives but from his castellans--that conquers!
They will ride forth beneath his banneroles,
Crying their _Duca, Duca!_
JULIUS.
They shall dislodge, cast down
His scutcheon on the ground and hoist the Keys.
[_Exit with the_ PAPAL GUARD.
[LORD CARDINAL VERA _approaches_ CESARE’S _couch, then shakes his
head and joins the others_.
VERA.
It is too sore! When he was but my scholar,
As if the son of a great potentate
He breathed to rule, his glance made heritage.
TORELLA.
This pestilential fever
Has worked down to the scath, the sunken rock,
His taint of blood: he is involved, uncertain;
The level brain has sprung at accident,
And scattered loose the logic of his dreams--
Broken and lost.
BONAFEDE.
Had he but drawn his army
Clear of this Rome and leapt on Pisa, had he
Refused to sell his votes he had been saved.
CESARE.
[_Suddenly lifting his head._]
You were throwing dice.... Continue! Play the game.
[_Silently two_ SPANISH GENTLEMEN _seat themselves near his couch
and play. He turns on his elbow and watches them, passing his ball
of perfume from hand to hand_.
AGAPITO.
[_In a murmur to_ TORELLA.
For hours, long hours, impassible he fixes
His eyes upon the board, as if the secret
Of Destiny were secret of a Sphinx
He could divine by watching.
CESARE.
[_Still fixed on the game, but speaking to all._] Without doubt
Our fortune is unchained against us, friends:
But there are chances--let us reckon them!
My captain Scipione is of ours
Till death; he joins me in my liberty.
The bankers guard three hundred thousand ducats
At Genoa and at Florence: from such nurture
Springs a live army. Volpe and Michelotto
Refuse for any bribe to quit my service.
I do not even accuse my fate, still less
The ingratitude of men, for I have found
In all, save one I trusted, loyalty.
Bring me my poignard with the little mirror--
That peasant’s hand ruffled my chemisette....
[_The poignard being brought, he looks in its glass at his
tear-stained face._
What ruin! Damage!
... And yet my enemies are frightened, Vera.
These giants of power still fear a fettered man,
Ill, shaking in a tertian, and with life
Itself unwarranted from hour to hour.
Stir up the hearth and spread the juniper’s
Cloud of ripe resin....
_Enter_ MESSER NICCOLO MACCHIAVELLI.
Messer Niccolo!
[_He gives his hand._
Why are you come? You scarcely fear me now.
Welcome!
MACCHIAVELLI.
Your Excellence, to bid farewell.
To-morrow I depart.
CESARE.
Why are you come?...
Ah, I am cheap! All use me as the poor
Burn forest--_ecco_!
No diplomacy!
Why should you bid farewell to me you ruined,
Delaying your safe-conduct to my troops?
You triumph?
MACCHIAVELLI.
I am curious, Excellence!
And I must watch you, if I will or not.
CESARE.
A prodigy, a monster!
MACCHIAVELLI.
[_With vibrating voice._] No, but a Prince
Unequalled.
CESARE.
[_Springing up._] You behold? Have you the eyes--
Keen, cutting crystals that have shot out joy
To see me totter?
Messer Niccolo,
If we are comprehended, we are greater
Than Fate or any chance. I am a prince.
Set down my kingdom that shall ever be
While dreams are portents. Oh, set down
The perfect scheming of the miracle!
Each part of action in my brain was solved,
And flowed on to its end. You recognised,
When, in the greatness of effective truth,
Last year I awed Romagna, and exacted
Sharp vengeance on my injurers, my kingdom
Was as the genesis of stars? With fire
Of primal force I founded it, secure
Against all future shocks, save this assault
Of sickness unto death at the steep moment
When death struck down my father.
... Yet it crumbles
It grows a shadow round me. Macchiavelli,
Restore it, by the word embody it;
Let it not perish! I shall ever wonder
That such perfection fell to nothingness
In its astute, swift likelihood. O Fortune!
The gulf.... [_Breaking off with a gesture of menace._
You start for Florence?
MACCHIAVELLI.
Ay, for Florence,
To-morrow morning, close upon the dawn.
CESARE.
Take back to Florence this: if I but capture
Occasion once again, I sign a treaty,
Even if I needs must sign it with the Devil,
Gather my treasure, play my last resources,
Assemble all my friends, and, once at Pisa,
Use every power of my extremity
To render Florence evil, hour for hour
Of her despite....
[_With a low laugh._] You think me slipping down
Into my tomb.... Ah, Messer Niccolo,
If I were you, this Cesar who is nothing
Would be contemptible. You ought to crush me,
You ought to make your mirth that I am flat:
It is my law that you fulfil; and justice
Is linked so with my judgment, even my passion
Conceives cold rage alone, or utter scorn
Of those who cannot end me. I look often
With still eyes on my end.
Farewell, farewell! You listen,
And all your face is speaking to my words.
We love each other, my best enemy.
Farewell.
All I have been is with you. Fortune
Out of her giddy air will arbitrate
Between my past and future.
[_He gives his hand again._ MACCHIAVELLI _quickly stoops and kisses
it_.
MACCHIAVELLI.
Prince!
ACT VI
SCENE I
_Three years later._
_A small Tower-prison of the Castle of La Mota del Medina in
Spain._
_Against one wall, hung with a canvas, four or five gyr-falcons sit
leashed on a perch._
DON CESARE BORGIA _leans out of the narrow window, watching the
pitch of his gyr-falcon. The_ GOVERNOR DON PEDRO DE TAPIA _and a
squire_, JUANITO GRASICA, _stand behind him_.
CESARE.
She rows the air, she towers ... now makes her point,
Now waits--she waits up the free air.
Magnificent!... A kite that she would vanquish....
Quarry--and she upon her tower ... free to drink blood.
[_He looks back and laughs._
Ha! Like a loosened thunderbolt she stoops!...
Could you but see! Amazing!
Who-whoop! She flies too hard ... who-whoop!--and cannot hold:
’Tis death, but so impetuous in the dealing
Her quarry is struck down. [_Turning again._
Señor Don Pedro,
My vehement gyr-falcon loses me
Her quarry in your ditch....
DON PEDRO.
It shall be sought.
CESARE.
No, leave it--that were tame!
[_With a profound sigh he holds out the lure to which at last the
falcon comes; then he gives the bird to_ JUANITO, _who ties her on
the screen-perch_.
Is the sun setting?--Vespers from the Church
Of San Lorenzo!
[_To_ DON PEDRO.] We are gratified
By this long visit, for the course of things
Is brought by you in current to our eyrie,
Clear up from life upon your voice.
We may not
Detain you longer.
DON PEDRO.
But I exult, Don Cesar
De Borjà, in the converse of a man
Who held the crown of Mars in Italy.
There is lifting of the heart and joy of blood
When you recount....
CESARE.
Don Pedro,
My chaplain will confess me presently;
The soul must reach that vein.
DON PEDRO.
Forgive! No further moment!
Adieu. [_Exit._
CESARE.
[_With a snarling yawn, like a caged animal’s._
Begone!--He wearied me a year.
When will his servant, black Magona, bring us
The coil of rope?
JUANITO.
At sunset, Excellence.
CESARE.
Now the king-star
Is falling down below the rocks--and blue
As a sea-deep is the hollow we must tempt;
It is blue: one venturing bird
Makes it gigantic with a little shake,
An arietta.... We must drop down lower
Than the bird’s song--it is not from the ground.
Look, my Juanito!
Aside I hitch my shoulders through this narrow
And windy crevice of the barbican.
I am as agile and as thin as you,
I feel as young--
Case-hardened from that pestilence, a tower
Among my race; strong as La Mota;
A creature that but needs to touch the earth
To be Antaeus and invincible.
You shall descend first--death for you or freedom.
Then welcome death or freedom! Could I, Juan,
Leave you behind--
We who sailed out together, desolate,
And for three years have tasted unenjoyed
Sleep, and the vigil that has been our lives?
We do not on a peradventure part:
You have the lighter bones, the cord will bear you
Down to the grass so featly, it will signal
Its eagerness to me.... Juanito,
How full a man you come from these three years!
Will everything be changed as you?
JUANITO.
Oh, no!
Those who have loved you cannot love you more;
They cannot grow in that. Her Excellence
Your sister will be happy
Beyond the last hope of her weariness
At the free news.
CESARE.
Lucrezia! I can watch her--
How at Ferrara all her life goes by;
How, from her sun-red towers, across the plain
She is looking out, and cannot see the prison
That stifles me: her eyes as they look out
Turn Amor into stone.
When will the rope be brought?
How soon? This Garcia de Magona will not
Betray me as Gonsalvo at the last?
JUANITO.
Garcia is safe; he burns to furnish you.
CESARE.
How wider
The steepness stretches, the tranquillity!
What does it promise? It is Fortune’s Pit,
That gapes in Spain, that swallowed me awhile
In Rome and Naples, and then cast me out
Alive upon this pinnacle. And now....
The world will be my chess-board, I survey
Until occasion hail me. There is Louis
Of France would set his horse to tread with mine;
The Emperor hates as Pope the Rovere;
Gonzaga lord of Mantua will espouse
My fellowship, Ferrara is fraternal;
My brother of Navarre; to whom I fly,
Strangely accordant....
[_He gazes out in concentrated reverie. A key is turned softly at
the door_; GARCIA DE MAGONA _enters, bringing ropes_.
JUANITO.
[_In a whisper to himself._] But my lord is rapt!
How still the Spanish boy,
His black hair shining and his ears with edges
Of the clear ruddiness of pomegranates,
The light of sunset is so shed on him.
[_He waits till_ GARCIA _has locked the door on the inside, then
steals towards him._
GARCIA.
Be swift!
Hush, lay them in the chest beneath your clothes.
They are good--they will be faithful to the Duke....
Christ grant his other means be safe as these!
Will he not turn?
Though of a different race,
This lord, who is so reverend and so dreadful,
Is homely and most courteous to the poor.
I would not have you trouble him.
JUANITO.
Garcia, I dare not
Utter your coming since he misses it.
With widely-open nostrils and great eyes,
He hangs above the gulf.
GARCIA.
Tell him, Juanito,
One night when he is out of Spain in safety,
I went to San Lorenzo, for his sake,
To pray the Saints would bear him in their hands.
Cover the rope!
A trumpet will be blown
Down in the fosse, when Don Rodrigo’s men
Are ready with the horses. All my life
Is in to-night if he is saved. Farewell! [_Exit._
[JUANITO _hides the rope and sits on the chest in the last red of
the sunset, singing to himself_.
“Gentil Signore,
Cesare Borgia, figlio del Pastore.”
CESARE.
[_As if waking._] Why, that is what they sing at my Cesena,
’Mid the snow-marbled Apennine. My shepherds
Hailed me the Shepherd’s son--their simpleness
Could so attune the distant Vatican
With their cool valleys ... and I cannot laugh.
JUANITO.
I have the rope: soon you will hear a call
Hummed up upon a trumpet.
CESARE.
O royal Italy!
O my Romagna ... but I cannot breathe!
The sun is fallen, the air of the abyss
Blows like blue fields of waving flax. Look down!
The little stream Zapadiel disappears,
And the wild brushwood and the flock of goats;
Even the East has faded....
Did you tell me
They play up from the fosse a trumpet-note
When the horses wait? Once more to touch a bridle,
Once more astride to feel the rocking flanks!
Ha, ha! And then my sudden apparition,
As if I were the devil. Hark, a sound!
Listen! [_He trembles all over._
A snake-note darting up ... a bugle!
JUANITO.
No, no, no!
The bleating of a goat.
CESARE.
How closely darkening
The shadows favour us ... and there are rumours
The wind takes from the ground of horses’ hoofs....
[_A trumpet is lightly blown._
Fortune, my war-cry once again!
[JUANITO _rushes for the rope_.] _Aut Cesar_,
_Aut nihil!_ But to-day I take the plunge,
I dare the pit, the downfall.
[_To_ JUANITO.] Knot it here more firmly,
Round this crenelle--steady! It must not jag....
Now my light ball, I throw you to the breezes,
Ding-dangle--thus!
[_He lets_ JUANITO _down_.] Your odds, Juanito,
Against the wheel of Fortune!
... He keeps hold--
O boy! the rope is taut. It holds....
This cumbers me. [_Throwing off his cloak._
Our Lord God, in His infinite clemency,
And for His greater glory against Fate’s
Vicissitudes....
A jerk!--the final die is cast!
Cesar--or nothing!
[_He climbs down the rope into the ravine, as voices are heard on
the stairs. The door opens and_ DON PEDRO _rushes in with
soldiers_.
DON PEDRO.
What horn-call was that?
Gone, gone! Our peril,
Our loss! I reel ... He shall not so escape.
Death, or our re-possession of him!
Down,
Traitor, blasphemer, down! Down!
[_He cuts the rope, motioning some of the soldiers to descend._
[_After awhile._
Guards, are you there?
A VOICE.
[_Just heard from below._
They dragged him to their horses--all are fled.
SCENE II
_The Camp of the_ KING OF NAVARRE _at Viana. A March tempest is
blowing._
_Enter_ MESSER AGAPITO _meeting_ JUANITO GRASICA _in front of a
tent that beats in the wind. Their torches are almost
extinguished._
AGAPITO.
Juanito, have they drawn in the posts?
JUANITO.
All are retired to shelter, Secretary.
These Navarrais received my lord’s command
With manifest bewilderment.
AGAPITO.
Our Captain
Has ever saved his troops fatigue and tempest:
These men are rude in habit, and the lashing
Of mountain-storms familiar. O my lad,
We are not now in Italy.
JUANITO.
Ah, would we were!
Señor Agapito, we have one breath:
Our lives are for his use. What are your tidings?
AGAPITO.
His every hope miscarries--everywhere
Hostility, abandon or suspicion:
The Pope has drawn his treasure from the banks,
Dried up the fountain of his polity,
The means of gathering troops, the hope of calling
His ancient captains to his side.
JUANITO.
O Señor,
That letter from the King of France, withdrawing
All revenues and honour from our lord,
Joining his Dukedom and his French domains
To Dauphiné and Berry, as they were
Before the royal gift--did you consider ...
Yes, but I see you did ... his look that day?
It was a face of hell; and ever since
His eyes throw flame out.
AGAPITO.
Think! He has engrossed
The world’s resources from his earliest years,
Marshal, as San Michele, of God’s hosts,
And born Vicegerent.... Think! He now has nothing
But his invincible, rejected sword.
A pauper, and a hireling to his brother--
This Navarrais, this kinglet--yet with sweep,
A great glance on a little verge, he conquers
These rebels of Viana and their chief
Louis de Beaumont, that the petty realm
Being consolidate and set between
His foes of France and Spain, he may have option
To hold o’er each the sword of Damocles.
The brain that wrought at Sinigaglia once
Works still among barbarians. But his lips,
Like famished wolf-fangs, and his thwarted youth,
His darkened joy in freedom!--I have wept ...
Go in, go in!
JUANITO.
Such clouds of wind discharge,
I do not feel the rain.
[KING DON JUAN OF NAVARRE _and_ DUKE CESARE DE VALENTINOIS DELLA
ROMAGNA _advance towards the tent with torch-bearers_.
DON JUAN.
Our confidence
Is strict in your direction--not a word
From us to the great Captain, to the Son
Of War: our trust is blind.
You show distress
At this rude blowing, and your velvet cloak
Might well have been afloat upon a river.
Good night; good sleep, my brother César. Scarcely
In Italy the air rolls thus.
CESARE.
Good-night,
Don Juan. Such a fan exasperates,
Entering all senses.
[_They shake hands._ DON JUAN _goes out_. CESARE _motions his
torch-bearer to withdraw_.
Come, Juanito;
Unarm me. To your tent, Agapito;
You will have rheum to-morrow. [_Exit_ AGAPITO.
God!--the stroke
Of wing this tempest has: there is no shield.
Lift up the tent-skirt, Juan.
[_They go in, and the sound is heard of armour flung on the floor.
Then_ CESARE’S _voice is heard_.
[_Within._] Take a cloak,
A dry one from the press, and bear this message
Back to Don Juan; I forgot.
Look round!
See that my stallion
Is dry, and, fresh-caparisoned, waits ready
In the next tent.
[JUANITO _comes from the tent and passes into the night_.
The tramp, the cavalcade
Of these cursed whirlwinds, of the secret legions--
The hauntings of an army I shall never
Command--
[_His voice rises._] shall never summon. I am void;
I cannot buy the forces that I love;
I cannot as a Suzerain compel ...
I have no place, no rank, no furniture.
This march, this freight of cannon--all were mine;
I struck them on the air, cried _Halt_ or _On_ ...
My patrimony! Deep where dreams outspread,
A phantom army, Cesar’s army, rambles
Ungeneralled.
O fury of the night!
This France that has rejected me, this Spain
That bound me hand and foot, this Papacy
That locks me from Romagna with its keys,
From all my captains and my army calling
Across the Alps--I have one lust, one cry
For blood within me....
Ha, to plunge my sword
In vengeance to the heart of France, the throat
Of Spain, the entrails of the Vatican!
To murder countries--not the flesh and blood
Of just a man here, there, but states and kingdoms--
Draw out their life! Has not all checking life
Flowed forth in darkness to my sovereignty?
If I have lost the land that I could rule,
And if my army is a host of winds,
I still can thirst for blood.... I have my sword,
And, sword in hand, the last breath that I breathe
Will be a breath of appetite and hate.
I have my sword--
[_He sweeps back the tent-skirts, and stands face to the storm, the
torch behind him._
O shifting elements,
Chaos is on me--I am not of Chaos!
I could ride forth
A single horseman riding forth to conquer
The day, the night; I could confine these winds
Had I the watchword.... Beaten back, destroyed!
--Close in!
[_He wraps the folds of the tent together. There is no sound in the
tent._
A SENTRY’S VOICE.
Who passes? _Pampeluna!_ Do you hear?
I give you _Pampeluna_!...
[_In a whisper._] No, _Saint Jaques_!
Then it must be the wind.
A SUDDEN GREAT CRY.
Beaumont, a Beaumont!
ALARUM FROM ANOTHER POST.
The enemy! Ho, ho! The enemy!
Awake, wake!
ANOTHER CRY CLOSE AT HAND.
Beaumont!
CESARE’S VOICE.
[_Within._] _Duca!_ Blood of God!
What is their war-cry? _Beaumont?_
[_He throws open the doors of the tent, struggling into his
armour._ JUANITO _rushes up_.
Ambushed by Fate! Juanito, the torch
Is falling: light another. Do you see,
I cannot find the buckles.... I must ride....
Fetch out my horse.... The corselet--that will serve.
[JUANITO _goes for the horse_.
CRIES RENEWED.
Beaumont, a Beaumont!
CESARE.
[_Snatching up his sword._] Curse the renegades!
What is my war-cry? [_He comes out of the tent bareheaded._
It confuses me....
The tramp, the tramp! Ah, if I led an army!
Ah, I could lead--on, on!
[_The horse is brought._
JUANITO.
_With one look at his master, as he mounts._
Unarmed!
[_He runs into the tent._
CESARE.
[_Laughing._] Unarmed!... The sweep, the rush, the hungry onset
Sweep me along, cry round ... the engines crash!
Banners of Hell, my banners on the wind!
JUANITO.
[_Running out of the tent._] Stay--your _celada_!
CESARE.
Fling it! _Duca!_ On!
[_He dashes out of the courtyard. His escort has gathered and waits
stupidly the word of command._
JUANITO.
He gave us no command. His horse has stumbled.
Curses across the wind--
CESARE’S VOICE.
[_Suddenly distinct, though far away._] On, _Duca_, on!
JUANITO.
He flies down the Solana in the wind.
Mount, mount! God’s Love! But we must follow him.
SCENE III
_The_ ABBESS’ _room at the Convent of Corpus Domini at Ferrara. At
the back there is a little shrine and a crucifix._
_The_ LORD CARDINAL IPPOLITO D’ESTE _converses with_ MESSER
CRISTOFERO.
CRISTOFERO.
It will not be her death; she has such safety
As quiet pinions give to birds in storm.
IPPOLITO.
I dared not tell her till her husband wrote:
His letter trembles in my hand....
CRISTOFERO.
For days
She has been pacing, fasting, full of terrors
Worse far than any term! The air has quickened
To prophet’s divination--noise and silence
Was in it of great woe.
She comes.... God’s mercy!
_Enter_ DUCHESS LUCREZIA BORGIA D’ESTE, _in the dress of a penitent, her
hair unbound_.
LUCREZIA.
He is dead, Ippolito!
IPPOLITO.
Read--from your husband.
LUCREZIA.
Tell me ... the parchment rocks.... You see
My hands, my eyes are helpless; but my soul
Is firmer. Tell me....
CRISTOFERO.
He is dead, Madonna!
LUCREZIA.
God told me--and I only hear it now!
Cesare!--and so far, so far....
Oh, tell me,
Save me in nothing: I shall lose all refuge
Of credence if you do not make me sure
As death that he is dead.
IPPOLITO.
The letter----
LUCREZIA.
Some voice to tell me!
IPPOLITO.
[_To_ CRISTOFERO.] Call Juanito. [_Exit_ CRISTOFERO.
Sister, if you would learn, the King Don Juan
Has sent the faithful squire whose feet have followed
Your soldier to his grave.
LUCREZIA.
Whose feet have followed,
Among the foreigners....
IPPOLITO.
O Light of Arms!
His wife, his sister will lament for him,
As round the dead Achilles wept Cassandra,
And wept Polyxena,
That in the world none lived redoubtable
As he who everywhere brought peace or war.
He drew his doom as lightnings ever strike
The mountain-heights Acroceraunian,
While lesser mountains stretch along, unflamed.
We leave him to God’s judgment, in the glory
And terror of those strokes.
_Re-enter_ CRISTOFERO _with_ JUANITO GRASICA.
LUCREZIA.
By your own eyes,
By your own lips, vow you will tell me truth.
[JUANITO _lays his forehead on her hand_.
Where?
JUANITO.
At Viana in Navarre.
LUCREZIA.
Viana!...
It is as distant as the grave.
JUANITO.
He challenged
The outposts of the Count of Lérin....
LUCREZIA.
That
Is nothing now--foregone! Speak but of him;
The moment, my extremity.
JUANITO.
We lost him;
His horse affrighted galloped on the blast;
He disappeared beneath us where the lea
Broke to ravine: we heard the hoofs beneath us,
And cries of fierce pursuit ... but all was darkness.
[_He weeps bitterly._
LUCREZIA.
Yes, weep, weep--it is well!
Now speak of him.
JUANITO.
Dawn found me tangled by the night, and crying
In the alien, stone wilderness, a captive.
They brought his arms,
His sparkling arms; they questioned of the Prince
Who wore them.
LUCREZIA.
But the moment....
JUANITO.
Of a sudden
The foe retreated, leaving me: I reached
The rough-hewn gorge....
[_Near to her and in a changed voice._
He lay there, naked
He lay....
[LUCREZIA _folds her arms over her breast as with a close embrace_.
--his face under the sky: his wounds
A hero’s--twenty-three; across his loins
A bloodied stone, his life-blood round the rocks,
His hair a weft of red. How beautiful,
And wild and out of memory was his face!
The great wind swept him and the sun rose up ...
LUCREZIA.
They buried him?
JUANITO.
Beside the lectern of St. Mary’s church
Within Viana, and the pomp was great,
For he had thought to bind a crown on once:
They gave him kingly honours.
LUCREZIA.
Oh, pray for him,
That he may rest in peace! There must be peace.
Great, agitated Spirit! Oh, let prayers,
Reverend Ippolito, let prayers be said
In every church, at every altar-stone,
By all the quiet lips that wait on God.
Leave me.... The prayers, the prayers, dear Cardinal,
That he may rest in everlasting peace!
Cristofero and the poor Squire--all go.
All pray for us.
[_They leave her and she kneels before the crucifix of the little
shrine._
Cesare, O my eagle!...
The stony tract!...
I am but for thy use
To pray thee into peace, to win a crown
Even now for thee, where the vast Majesty
Gives each his destined aim made bright by prayers.
_Maria_, aid! It is his heritage.
Spare him and aid me! Every day, at night,
On through the years while I must see the sun
Who have lost my sun fallen in that dire west--
On to the silence of the hour of death,
Let me not cease my voice! It is my love
Sole to him, as I am. O Cesare,
My body evermore, till sepulture,
Shall bind the hair-shirt to its flesh as barbs,
Never forgetful how thou wert cast forth
Stripped to the sky, with nothing in the world
To plead to God with but thy valiant blood,
Thy regal front below Him.
I could almost
Swoon into prayer, but for the intercession
Of the great, peaceful companies on earth,
And bowing through the heavens and round God’s Throne.
[_She sinks into a still ecstasy. Silently_ SUOR LUCIA _enters and
kneels beside her_.
SCENE IV
_The Château of La Motte-Feuilly in France._
_A balcony hung with black--below it are forest-trees, some in full
leaf, others creeping into green. Solemn masses of wild hyacinths
clump up against the castle walls._
_The_ DUCHESS CHARLOTTE DE VALENTINOIS _in deep black stands in the
balcony, a purple purse laid beside her_.
CHARLOTTE.
My sables
Hang heavy on the spring; and I myself
Have known a bliss struck cold, a pleasure
So terrible ... he, who attracts such joy
And overcomes such hate,
Is puissant as an infinite lost god....
The leaves
Are very soft and green and masterful....
The peasant-folk approach, the humble poor
They say he gave his voice in softness to
Who brought old kings to murmur round his urn,
Rebellious that it held him.
[_Some_ PEASANTS _come through the trees_.
O good people,
Pray for Lord César--for his soul!
[_She gives alms from the purple purse and they pass out._
They pray,
They will go home and pray:
I love to watch them homeward, simple folk,
With hunger I can feed.
[_She leans forward, supporting her arms on the balcony._
I cannot pray: my _Aves_
And all the beads of all my rosary,
Would be for access to him, for his favour.
They will pray,
And bring him peace far from me. But to me
It is the many leaves bring peace, the forest,
The wrapping and the murmur of the wind;
For when I wake at night, wake in my forest,
I am glad to wake: I hear the accusation
Of the great Kings they carved about his tomb,
Who pass around it, weeping--Saul and David
And Solomon, the Scripture Kings, all lost
And wandering as ghosts and desolate,
With cry to the four royal winds, to Heaven,
And to the swerving roll of the great forest,
That César has no crown....
[_A_ NURSE _passes under the balcony leading a young child_.
... No crown, no race--I have not borne a son.
[_She bows her face over her arms._
There is not any
Among the Kings gold-browed as this. Oh, peace!
But lift it in your hands--’tis Gideon’s fleece
This forthright weft of silky blond. And many
Dumb animals lurk at the eyelids’ crease,
Under the eyes--a serpent that from fenny
Marish finds sluice; a lion when in den he
Deviseth rage; an ox beneath the trees:
Yea, and an eagle droopeth for its prey,
A malign eagle, in the slack, dull gaze.
But on the lips what panting savagery,
The fang of the wolf on winter forest-ways!
Yet is the face soft, lonely, over all
A honied mystery that must appal.
Elogia virorum illustrium, 1551.
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BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
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