_Venoni._ (_exasperated beyond bounds_) And still dare you ask? inhuman!
still dare you ask-- what is your crime? oh, monstrous hypocrisy! oh, guilt beyond belief! she is dead! and still dare you ask-- in what have you offended?
Enter father _Anastasio_ and father _Nicolo_.
_Ana._ Tis in vain that--
_Pri._ Silence! (_with calm dignity_) hear me, Venoni! tis plain that your senses are disordered, and I therefore listen to these insults without resentment: these insults which I have so little deserved from you. But I know well that your injustice proceeds not from your heart; and when this paroxysm of delirium is past--
_Venoni._ Delirium? no, no! do not hope it! excess of misery-- desire of vengeance have restored my reason: I feel but too well, both for myself and you, that my senses are right again, and tremble thou to hear they are so! I see you now in your true colours, in all the horrors of your atrocious guilt! your hour is arrived; your cup is full; and the abyss already yawns beneath your feet, which within an hour shall bury you in its womb for ever! farewell! (_going_)
_Pri._ Yet stay, Venoni! you must not-- you shall not leave me thus.
What means this talk of guilt, of vengeance? declare at once what troubles you! I boldly challenge an immediate explanation.
_Venoni._ (_furious_) What? you brave me? ha! read! read, then, monster!
(_gives him the letter, which he received from father Michael: but immediately afterwards, becoming aware of his imprudence, he endeavours to regain it_) merciful heavens, what have I done!
_Pri._ (_after examining the letter turns to the monks, and says in a calm decided tone_) Every thing is discovered-- we are betrayed.
_Jer._ How? how?
_Ana._ What must be done? we are lost!
_Jer._ But one moment is still ours.
_Ni._ There is but one chance of escape--
_Pri._ Silence! (_during these speeches he seems to have been collecting his thoughts; he advances to Venoni, and says in a firm decided tone_) those words, in which you threatened my destruction, a.s.sured your own-- (_in a voice of thunder_) die! die, and be our dangerous secret buried for ever in your grave! (_to Jeronymo_) unclose the chapel door and raise the secret stone.
_Jeronymo_ enters the chapel.
_Pri._ Seize him!
_Venoni._ (_who during the above speeches has remained in silent consternation, on being seized by father Anastasio, &c. bursts out into the most pa.s.sionate exclamations_) What, barbarians! do you dare?--
_Pri._ Bear him to the chapel!
_Venoni._ (_struggling_) Inhuman monsters! the vengeance of heaven-- my friends-- my cries-- help-- save me!
_Pri._ Stifle his shrieks! away with him! (_the monks surround him-- a handkerchief is thrown over his face, and he sinks into their arms exhausted-- the scene drops, as they are conveying him towards the chapel, the prior being the last who follows, pointing to him with a look of triumphant vengeance_)
_End of Act. II._
ACT III.
SCENE I-- _A dungeon with a concealed door on one side, a tomb on the other, and a gallery above-- a grated door in the back._
_Lod._ (_with an iron bar in one hand and lamp in the other, comes feebly from the concealed door_) My efforts are unavailing! wretched, wretched Lodovico, the hopes of escape, which thou hast so long indulged, must at length be abandoned forever! in vain has the labour of twenty years forced me a pa.s.sage from my own cell into this adjoining dungeon: in vain has my persevering vigilance at length succeeded in discovering yonder private door, whose artful concealment during whole years eluded my inquiries-- the upper portal-- its ma.s.sive bars-- its inflexible locks: increasing age-- increasing weakness. Farewell, hope!
I will make the attempt no more, (_he throws down the iron bar_) Oh, faint-- faint! my efforts have quite exhausted me-- now, even were the means of flight mine, weakness would forbid-- I will regain my own cell, sink on my couch of straw, pardon my enemies, and expire! let me see!
yes! twas about this spot that I made the opening, and these stones removed--
_Pri._ (_above_) For a few moments wait above: you, Jeronymo, precede me with the torch.
_Lod._ Heavens! tis the prior! twenty years have elapsed since I heard it; but too well do I remember that dreadful voice, which p.r.o.nounced on me the sentence of separation from the world forever. What business-- perhaps, my death-- alas, alas! I fear it! wretched as my existence is, frail as is the fibre by which I am attached to life, still the moment is awful, which must sever it for ever; whither shall I turn-- how avoid-- I dare not regain my prison-- this cell too will doubtless be searched-- (_a light flashes across the gallery_) he comes!
tis to this very dungeon that his steps are addrest-- where then, oh, where shall I drag my fainting limbs-- ha! perhaps, that secret pa.s.sage may be unknown even to the prior-- perhaps it may awhile conceal-- it must be tried-- see, see! he is here! away, away!
[Exit, and closes the door after him.
Enter the _prior_ and _Jeronymo_, with torches.
_Pri._ I tell you this dungeon is impenetrable: in vain will our enemies seek its entrance.
_Jer._ But still the viceroy"s suspicions aided by his authority.
Besides, is not father Michael fled?
_Pri._ Father Michael! absurd! and how then, is it in his power to betray us? we reposed in him no confidence; he has never been initiated into our mysteries, and can have no possible reason for suspecting even the existence of this dungeon.
_Jer._ Yet still I cannot but fear--
_Pri._ Your fears are groundless-- I am aware that Venoni will be inquired after; but how plausible will be the answer? "he has escaped from us in the night, and whither delirium may have led the wanderer, we are ignorant." Say that the viceroy insists that Venoni is still within these walls! we have no objection to his searching through the whole monastery, perfectly secure that his search must be of no avail. Tis already midnight. Place the lamp upon yonder tomb; place too that dagger near it, the only mercy which my hatred can allow him;-- then when despair shall reach its height, when he feels that hope is lost to him, and that existence is a curse, then if he has courage let him grasp that weapon, and thank the clemency of Clestino. Come! all is prepared!
Enter _Anastasio_ and _Nicolo_, with _Venoni_, whom they throw upon the floor.
_Pri._ Object of everlasting hate! object of never to be sated vengeance, lie thou there! live to feel the pangs of dying with every moment of the day, that day whose light thou never shalt behold again.
Follow me!
[Exeunt prior, &c.
_Lodovico_ appears at the private door.
_Lod._ They are gone; their victim remains-- oh, let but his escape be effected through my aid, and then how soon this old weak frame ceases to feel, I care not! (_he descends_)
_Venoni._ Where am I? have they left me? the mist which obscures my sight allows me to distinguish nothing; the objects which surround me seem all confused; a thousand wild distorted images distract my brain-- I must give way.
_Lod._ Alas, poor youth! on the ground? I"ll hasten to pour upon his wounded heart the balm of consolation-- yet hold! may they not return!
yet a few moments--
_Venoni._ (_rising_) The clouds disperse. I am alone-- they are gone-- doubtless are gone for ever! what? and shall then the barbarian triumph? shall then Josepha die unavenged? she must, she must! then farewell, liberty; farewell hope! despair, despair! ha, what glitters-- a dagger? a tomb? doubtless designed for me-- tis there that all sorrows terminate! tis there, that I shall dread no more the treachery and crimes of man, his perfidious friendship, his dissembled spite, his infernal thirst for vengeance! ha, and if all this indeed be so-- why not this instant seize a blessing within my grasp? why not at once defeat the malice of my jailors? it shall be so, and thus-- (_going to stab himself, when Lodovico arrests his arm_)
_Lod._ Hold, hold! ungrateful!
_Venoni._ Ha! a stranger?
_Lod._ Short-sighted mortal! blush to have attempted that impious act!