EMILIA. But not above the reach of any seduction.--Violence!
violence! who cannot defy violence? What is called violence
is nothing; seduction is the true violence.--I have blood,
father; blood as youthful and warm as anybody's. My senses
are senses.--I can warrant nothing. I am sure of nothing. I
know Grimaldi's house. It is the house of pleasure. An hour
there, under my mother's eyes--and there arose in my soul so
much tumult as the strictest exercises of religion could
hardly quiet in weeks.--Religion! And what religion?--To
escape nothing worse, thousands sprang into the water and
are saints.--Give me that dagger, father, give it to me....
EMILIA. Once indeed there was a father who, to save his
daughter from shame, drove into her heart whatever steel he
could quickest find--gave life to her for the second time.
But all such deeds are of the past! Of such fathers there
are no more!