_Man._ May I speak with thee?
_Ros._ With pleasure.
_Man._ Stand we aside.
Hast thou forgotten me?
_Ros._ Nay, for I think
I have never seen thee ... or I ask thy pardon.
_Man._ Now thou shouldst know me well.
_Ros._ Thy voice I think
I do remember.
_Man._ (_discovering_). Do you know me now?
_Ros._ Manuel! Thank God!
_Man._ Is it a good disguise?
_Ros._ Metamorphosis ... if indeed ’tis thou,
In such a husk. Then thou’rt nót drowned!
_Man._ Indeed,
There was a time when I had some fear to be;
But how came you to know it?
_Ros._ Of the ships 2040
One returned home with news that thine was sunk.
Was not that true?
_Man._ Ay, ay,
_Ros._ How didst thou ’scape?
_Man._ I took my only chance, leapt overboard
And swam to the enemy. By heavenly fortune
The ship that ran us down was Raymond’s, he
Who served so long with us. I had left my foes
To find old friends: and when the fight was o’er,
I told him in what hapless case I stood,
And promising to hold myself no less
His prisoner, and surrender to his master 2050
At Naples if need were, I bade him land me
By night at Cefaledi; there arrived,
By the good sailor friars I was clad
In the disguise you see, and came in speed
To look to matters here.
_Ros._ There is great need.
_Man._ Ay, my affairs with Constance?
_Ros._ I grieve to tell
Constance is lying ill.
_Man._ She is in your hands?
_Ros._ Ay.
_Man._ Doth she doubt of me?
_Ros._ At your committal
A fever must have seized her. Then your death,
Which should have been concealed, was urged upon her, 2060
In countenance of duke Philip’s suit ...
_Man._ How? Philip!
_Ros._ Did you not guess?
_Man._ Is’t possible?
_Ros._ At that
Her mind gave way: ’tis question of her life.
_Man._ I bring the medicine to work her cure.
Is’t not enough?
_Ros._ I trust so.
_Man._ And I think it.
How blind I have been! I trusted Philip, and he
Was playing against me. Time will right me, Rosso,
In this as in the other. Patience. And what
Of your affairs ...
_Ros._ How mine?
_Man._ Your love affairs.
_Ros._ My love affairs?
_Man._ Ay,—Margaret.
_Ros._ Margaret? 2070
_Man._ Can I be wrong? Her head was turned the day
She brought you to Palicio.
_Ros._ O, Manuel,
This makes it sure.
_Man._ Yes, and I’m glad of it.
_Ros._ Nay, nay: pray hear me. On the very day
Palicio left your house, she went, ’twas said,
To Monreale: there she hath not been seen.
Was’t to Palicio?
_Man._ Now, please God, thou’rt wrong.
Say, where is he?
_Ros._ Stranger than all, he has made
Surrender of himself to Livio,
Our new justiciary, and awaits his death 2080
In Hugo’s dungeon.
_Man._ How! And Margaret?
_Ros._ She hath now this morn returned, full of distraction
As well might be, but firm beyond her wont.
She is in the palace, where she nurses Constance
With the cool skill of one that hath his stake
Ventured elsewhere ...
_Mar._ Good God! Now if thou’rt right,
Rosso, this matter needs me more than the other.
Thank heaven I am here. Constance is in thy hands:
Thou hast her cure. Yet use it with discretion,
Knowing my hazard. I shall visit at once 2090
The archbishop; he will stand my friend, and give me
Commission in the habit of a priest
To see Palicio. Nay, there’s not a moment
To lose. Thou mayst contrive that Constance too
Should send for me; maybe I thus might see her.
Farewell. I go, yet must I take a name;
Let it be Thomas, father Thomas. To-night
Can I rest at thy house?
_Ros._ I pray you will.
_Man._ An hour hence couldst thou meet me there?
_Ros._ I will.
God speed you.
_Man._ O, Rosso, Rosso, I fear thou’rt right ...
[_Exit._
_Ros._ Ay, ay. I’m right. Alas for Manuel. 2101
’Tis almost pity he is escaped from death.
I would tell Constance, but her throbbing brain
Hath no interpreter, and in her ear
All words are meaningless, or mean alike
Something insane, which in her eager dreaming
Steals the world’s place. I have no power to tell.
[_Exit._