_Hu._ I have heard thee.
Thou tellest me nought but what I know. The duke
Hath been with me: his purpose to renew
His suit hath my support. ’Tis very honourable—
It shall be welcome. Though thy words to him 1500
Betrayed reluctance, that makes yet no reason
To shun him. He will presently be here:
Stay and receive him.
_Con._ O, if I do not dream,
Heaven help me now!
_Hu._ Constance, I pray, be sober.
I am sorry for thee: but what seems thy grief
Will be thy comfort, when thou learn’st the cause
Which presses me to urge it.
_Con._ What lies behind?
What misery? Say!
_Hu._ Manuel, whom late we trusted,
Hath turned against me. He hath joined the rebels.
_Con._ Who dares to slander him? 1510
_Hu._ Fact makes no room
For slander. The devil himself could not invent
A tale to blacken him. First to the court
He hath writ of me in secret, in the sense
That I have stirred the king’s men to rebellion
By my misrule; and all the while at home
He feeds the mischief, and most treacherously
Favours the rebels, so to magnify
The blame on me he charges.
_Con._ The crime’s too great.
If this be all I breathe again. The time 1519
When thou wilt prove this ’twill away like smoke.
Not till ’tis proved question our marriage, father.
_Hu._ The question now with him is not of marriage,
But of his head.
_Con._ Shame, shame! if these be words,
What is their sense?
_Hu._ To-morrow, or to-day,
I shall have proof.
_Con._ I knew ’twas all unproven.
Who brought this lie, and propped it with the promise
To make it true?
_Hu._ Go, girl, I hear the duke.
He must not see thee thus.
_Con._ So far is well.
I gladly go.—Dear father!
_Hu._ Go take thy grief
Where thou canst comfort it. This Manuel 1530
Hath not deceived thee more than me, and me
Would have more grossly wronged.
_Con._ Alas! alas! [_Exit._
_Hu._ The proof will be to search his house, and so
Both knaves are caught at once. Now to that end
Lest he get wind of it I have bid him hither,
And shall detain him till ’tis done.
_Enter Philip._
Your grace,
I have stayed for you.
_PHILIP._
’Tis well. I bring conviction.
Palicio lies in Manuel’s house. His room
Is locked and darkened: save for that, and orders
That none shall enter, there is no precaution. 1540
_Hu._ The abominable Pharisee!
_Ph._ Now Margaret hath been hurried from the house
On plea of health: I bear a letter from her
To Constance.
_Hu._ Give’t me.
_Ph._ Pardon, your excellence;
I promised I would see it in Constance’s hands.
_Hu._ My hands are hers: a daughter cannot read
Letters her father may not. Nay, the more
Such right’s resented, more’s the need to use it.—
And from a traitor’s house!
_Ph._ (_giving_). Your privilege, sir,
Invades my honour. 1550
_Hu._ Tut, tut, tut, ’tis mine: [_Takes it._
Be not so squeamish. [_Reads._
_I can write all’s well.
Yet, as thou lovest Manuel, breathe no word
Of aught I saw. I go from home to-day;
Will see thee when returned._—Why, this is nothing.
_Ph._ Taken alone ’twere nothing; but there’s nothing
Could better fit our knowledge; nay it adds
To what we know. I see that Margaret flies
From the discovery that she hath made herself;
And fears for Manuel. I grieve but for her.
His enmity to you precludes all pity. 1560
I have come to see his papers, which contain
Charges against your excellence, prepared
With such unfriendly skill, that to discredit them,
Should ever they reach court, would cost far more
Than any price or pains you now might spend
In their suppression.
_Hu._ O, the double-faced
Pretentious Greek! But in this other matter
We have him. I’ll charge the deed to his face. He’ll not
Deny it. The embassy delayed last night
May sail this evening, and with them aboard 1570
Shall Manuel fare to the king with his accusers.
We shall at least be rid of him. I will call him.
[_Rings a bell._
Thou hast done me a good service.
_Ph._ Shall I remain?
_Hu._ I beg you. The cursed villain!
_Enter Servant._
I await
The chief justiciary. Shew him hither. [_Exit servt._
_Ph._ (_aside_). I shall not face him well. He must not guess
My part in this: say he be proved a traitor,
And I abhor all such as undermine
The fabric of the throne,—yet have I shared
His guilt at heart, both in my wish to find it 1580
And from my profit in it! ’Twould seem less foul
To steal a man’s fair earnings than to glean
The waste of his crime. I’ll stand and take what comes.
_Enter Manuel._
_MANUEL._
My service to your excellence.
_Hu._ Ay, well.
’Tis of thy service I would speak. Attend me.
Thou art an honest man; in all Palermo
No name so fair as thine. There’s none would dream
That thou at any press wouldst blink the right
In thine own interest: now for these three years
Thou hast done justice honour, holding up 1590
Her majesty for worship: we ourselves
Have strained or waived opinion oftentimes
In trust of thee. ’Twas not then at first hearing
We took the tale which strong concurrent proofs
Now make me charge thee with. Know that ’tis said
That thou hast given a refuge in thy house
To John Palicio. Deny’t, I pray thee.
_Man_. ’Tis true, your excellence.
_Hu._ Then first I bid thee
Return him into custody.
_Man._ Last night
He left me without warning. 1600
_Hu._ Gone! Then, by heaven!
Thou’rt doubly guilty.
_Man._ I admit my guilt
Upon the point of negligence: for the rest
I beg your excellence will hear my plea.
Palicio is my kinsman: he was driven
Without his purpose, nor with my connivance,
To shelter in my house. The claim of nature
Withstood the challenge of my royal duty
Suspended now in the interregnum ...
_Hu._ Enough!
Thou dost admit the act: ’tis downright treason.
I’ll hear no answer. Though thou wouldst deny
My authority, thou shalt not doubt my power. 1611
Thou art my prisoner. To-night the embassy
Will sail for Spain. Thou goest with them to plead
Thy cause before the king.
_Man._ I shall be ready, sire.
_Hu._ Thou wilt be here detained until thy house
Is searched: which done thou wilt go home, and there
Resign thy keys. Knowing thy doings, sir,
I treat thee as I find thee. We are enemies.
_Man._ I pray your excellence, for your daughter’s sake ... 1619
_Hu._ My daughter! could I wed her to a traitor,
Would she herself consent?
_Enter LIVIO with the book, and BLASCO._
_Man._ Call me not traitor,
Ere I be proved one.
_Hu._ (_to Bl._). Ho! call in the guard. [_Exit Blasco._
(_To Liv._) What bring you, son? [_Talks with him._
_Man._ (_to Ph._). Philip, before I go;—
Thou see’st my case. Fate would look black upon me,
Left I no friend to speak for me: but thee
I trust. Tell Constance what thou knowest; the rest
Margaret can tell you. Add thereto assurance
Both of my innocence and speedy acquittal.
_Re-enter Blasco with Guards._
One word and I am gone. Beware of Blasco.
He bears two faces. See he be not trusted 1630
With aught of moment.
_Hu._ (_to officer of guard_). The chief justiciary is your prisoner
On charge of treason. Guard him in the palace
Till you hear more.
_Man._ (_to Ph._). Stand my friend, and God aid thee.
[_Exit guarded._
_Ph._ (_aside_). And so I may. I am not yet stepped so far
That I must push my purpose, where it wounds
Such ample trust.
_Hu._ Philip, see here.
_Ph._ What, sire?
_Hu._ From some most friendly hand we have full tidings
Of all the rebels; where they may be seized
This very night.
_Ph._ (_to Liv._). You bring it?
_Liv._ They are betrayed 1640
By some one of themselves.
_Hu._ ’Twill end the matter.
_Ph._ How came you by it?
_Liv._ A woman brought it me,
Who said ’twas thrust into her hands by one
She knew not, who escaped. She hath since confessed
That ’twas a maid of Manuel’s.
_Bl._ Look you, tho’,
How close this follows the discovery
Of Manuel’s treason. It must be that some,
On whom he used constraint, smelling his fall
Return to loyalty.
_Hu._ Most like. Now, Livio,
Seize them to-night. See thou observe in all 1650
The dispositions which I have shewn thee. Stay,
There’s first a vacancy to fill: I make thee
Justiciary in Manuel’s place: in thine
I will take Blasco for my secretary.
Meanwhile I lend him thee: thou wilt have need
Of his experience.
_Liv._ I thank thee, father.
_Bl._ And I, your excellence.
_Hu._ Now to your work.
And then to Manuel’s house, and take possession
Of all thy office gives thee.
[_Exeunt Livio and Blasco._
_Hu._ (_to Ph._). Thy matter next:
I will fetch Constance.
_Ph._ Not now, I pray, not now! 1660
_Hu._ Nay, wherefore wait? This business shall be settled
In a few words. I’ll bring her to thee straight.
[_Exit._
_Ph._ I pray you. Nay, he is gone. I must stand to it.
I play to win; and now the stakes are mine;
Unless against myself for friendship’s claim
I should uphold my rival. And he’s guilty.
The papers were his own: them he confessed,
And only deepened treason by the excuse
Of kinship with the rebel. And then his servants
Cognizant.—On the other hand his confidence 1670
Staggering the evidence: his trust in me
To comfort Constance. How should Margaret know
More than the facts, or I deny the facts,
Should I plead for him? And yet against the facts
The man himself: his soul revealed to me;
And my persuasion of him. O, he has fallen
To the popular side. Moreover, his acquittal
Were Hugo’s ruin. I cannot help him: nay,
Not though I would; and Fate, which thrusts him down,
Is kind to me.
_Re-enter Hugo with Constance._
_Hu._ Constance, see here the duke: 1680
He hath asked your hand of me: and I most happy
In such a match have granted it.
_Con._ I am here
Fooled by a promise of evil, but not this.
This is not Manuel’s treason. First of that:
Where’s the pretended proof?
_Hu._ He hath confessed it.
_Con._ This tale convicts itself. Treason is close,
And doth not bare the breast. Though here the man
Ye wrong were likelier to confess such crime
Than once be guilty of it.
_Hu._ He both is guilty
And hath confessed.
_Con._ To what hath he confessed? 1690
What deed that hatred thus can magnify?
_Hu._ ’Twas he contrived Palicio’s late escape;
And being detected and charged by me therewith,
He hath here this hour confessed it. Since which time
One of his household hath been traced in league
With the conspirators.
_Con._ I believe it not.
Would he speak for you, he were here to speak.
_Hu._ But if at least he hath gone out from the palace
Under strict guard, and sails to-night for Spain?
_Con._ He is gone? 1700
_Hu._ He is gone.
_Con._ Under constraint?
_Hu._ Most certain,
And charged with treason.
_Con._ (_turning to Ph._). Now, Philip, I bid thee speak.
_Ph._ Ay, Constance, it is true, but ...
_Con._ Ay? thou too.
Ay and but: falsest falsehood, seeking grace
In shame. I knew devilry lurked about
When I came hither. I’ll go. I’ll not believe.
I shall know truth at last. [_Going._
_Hu._ Nay, Constance, stay.
Philip will answer thee. Thou questionest him;
Hear him with patience. I shall leave thee with him.
Thou hast been a duteous daughter hitherto,
Recover my good grace ere I return. 1710
(_To Ph._) ’Twas an omission, duke, I gave no order
To seize the villain’s servants. I’ll go do it.
Use thy occasion. [_Exit._
_Ph._ Constance, I beg thy favour.
_Con._ I stay, your grace,—why should I go? My father
Hath bid me hear thee: and ’tis nought to me.
Say what thou wouldst: speak on, nor be officious
To suit thy meaning to me, for there’s nothing
I can believe or doubt.
_Ph._ O, Constance, think not
That could I end thy sorrow by denial
Of what thou hast heard, I would not. All is true.
My kindest office is to unmask the ill 1721
That this ill hath prevented, and to show thee
A balance of good. There lies ’gainst Manuel
Far more than we have charged and he confessed:
He loves thee, thinkest thou?—He hath used his place
To plot against thy father. I here have papers
In which thyself mayst see what accusation
He hath writ in secret. They are addressed to Spain,
And would have been presented ...
_Con._ ’Tis his writing.
Whence was this filched? 1730
_Ph._ He gave them me himself.
_Con._ O, a most open foe. Did he enjoin thee
To bear them to my father?
_Ph._ Nor have I done so.
_Con._ Then this, duke, yet remains for thee to do.
Take them at once. I know not what they mean:
But if ’tis secret it may be betrayed.
Do it, I pray thee, do it. [_Exit._
_Ph._ And I could wince
At such reproach, had I dissembled further
Than loyalty may deign, grappling with treason.
Her anger springs but of that nobleness 1739
Which makes her love worth winning; and in the end
It shall be mine again. [_Exit._