The Admiral, his brother, say as much.

Your Highness may remember them; they both

Died suddenly.1

Doge.

And if they did so, better

So die than live on lingeringly in pain.

210

Lor. No doubt: yet most men like to live their days

That you repeat the word emphatically?

Lor. So far from strange, that never was there death In my mind half so natural as theirs.

Think you not so?

Doge.

What should I think of mortals?

I understand you;

Lor. That they have mortal foes.
Doge.

Your sires were mine, and you are heir in all things. 220
Lor. You best know if I should be so.
Doge.
I do.
Your fathers were my foes, and I have heard
Foul rumours were abroad; I have also read
Their epitaph, attributing their deaths
To poison. 'Tis perhaps as true as most
Inscriptions upon tombs, and yet no less
A fable.

Lor. Who dares say so?

Doge.

I

'Tis true

Your fathers were mine enemies, as bitter
As their son e'er can be, and I no less
Was theirs; but I was openly their foe:
I never worked by plot in Council, nor
Cabal in commonwealth, nor secret means
Of practice against life by steel or drug.
The proof is your existence.

Lor.

I fear not.

230

Doge. You have no cause, being what I am; but

were I

That you would have me thought, you long ere now

VOL. V.

1. [Vide ante, p. 123.]

L

Were past the sense of fear. Hate on; I care not.

Lor. I never yet knew that a noble's life In Venice had to dread a Doge's frown,

That is, by open means.

But I, good Signor,

Doge.
Am, or at least was, more than a mere duke,

In blood, in mind, in means; and that they know
Who dreaded to elect me, and have since
Striven all they dare to weigh me down: be sure,
Before or since that period, had I held you
At so much price as to require your absence,
A word of mine had set such spirits to work

As would have made you nothing. But in all things
I have observed the strictest reverence;

240

Not for the laws alone, for those you have strained (I do not speak of you but as a single

250

Voice of the many) somewhat beyond what

I could enforce for my authority,

Were I disposed to brawl; but, as I said,

I have observed with veneration, like

A priest's for the High Altar, even unto
The sacrifice of my own blood and quiet,
Safety, and all save honour, the decrees,

The health, the pride, and welfare of the State.
And now, sir, to your business.

Lor.

'Tis decreed,

260

That, without further repetition of
The Question, or continuance of the trial,

Which only tends to show how stubborn guilt is,
("The Ten," dispensing with the stricter law
Which still prescribes the Question till a full
Confession, and the prisoner partly having
Avowed his crime in not denying that
The letter to the Duke of Milan's his),

James Foscari return to banishment,

And sail in the same galley which conveyed him.

270

Mar. Thank God! At least they will not drag him

more

Before that horrible tribunal. Would he

But think so, to my mind the happiest doom,

Not he alone, but all who dwell here, could

Desire, were to escape from such a land.

Doge. That is not a Venetian thought, my daughter.

Mar. No, 'twas too human.

May I share his exile?

Lor. Of this "the Ten" said nothing.

Mar.

That were too human, also. But it was not

Inhibited ?

So I thought!

Lor.

It was not named.

Mar. (to the Doge).

Then, father,

280

[To LOREDANO.

Surely you can obtain or grant me thus much :

And you, sir, not oppose my prayer to be

Permitted to accompany my husband.
Doge. I will endeavour.

Mar.

Lor.

And you, Signor?

Lady!

In what a presence you pronounce these things?
Mar. A Prince's and his subject's.

Lor.

Mar.

Subject!

Oh !

290

It galls you :-well, you are his equal, as

You think; but that you are not, nor would be,
Were he a peasant :-well, then, you're a Prince,
A princely noble; and what then am I?

Lor. The offspring of a noble house.
Mar.

And wedded

To one as noble. What, or whose, then, is
The presence that should silence my free thoughts?
Lor. The presence of your husband's Judges.
Doge.

The deference due even to the lightest word
That falls from those who rule in Venice.

And

Mar.

Keep

Those maxims for your mass of scared mechanics,
Your merchants, your Dalmatian and Greek slaves,
Your tributaries, your dumb citizens,

300

And masked nobility, your sbirri, and

310

Your spies, your galley and your other slaves,
To whom your midnight carryings off and drownings,
Your dungeons next the palace roofs, or under
The water's level; 1 your mysterious meetings,
And unknown dooms, and sudden executions,
Your "Bridge of Sighs," your strangling chamber, and
Your torturing instruments, have made ye seem
The beings of another and worse world!
Keep such for them: I fear ye not. I know ye;
Have known and proved your worst, in the infernal
Process of my poor husband! Treat me as
Ye treated him :-you did so, in so dealing
With him. Then what have I to fear from you,
Even if I were of fearful nature, which

I trust I am not?

Doge.

You hear, she speaks wildly. Mar. Not wisely, yet not wildly.

Lor.

Lady! words

320

Uttered within these walls I bear no further

Than to the threshold, saving such as pass
Between the Duke and me on the State's service.
Doge! have you aught in answer?

Doge.

Something from

The Doge; it may be also from a parent.
Lor. My mission here is to the Doge.

Doge.

Then say

The Doge will choose his own ambassador,
Or state in person what is meet; and for
The father-

Lor.

I kiss the hands of the illustrious Lady,
And bow me to the Duke.

Mar.

I remember mine.-Farewell !

[Exit LOREDANO.

Are you content?

330

And that's a mystery.

Doge. I am what you behold.
Mar.

Doge. All things are so to mortals; who can read them Save he who made? or, if they can, the few

i. Keep this for them

—.—[MS. M.]

1. [For the Pozzi and Piombi, see Marino Faliero, act i. sc. 2, Poetical Works, 1901, iv. 363, note 2.]

And gifted spirits, who have studied long

That loathsome volume-man, and pored upon

Those black and bloody leaves, his heart and brain,"
But learn a magic which recoils upon

The adept who pursues it: all the sins
We find in others, Nature made our own;
All our advantages are those of Fortune;
Birth, wealth, health, beauty, are her accidents,
And when we cry out against Fate, 'twere well
We should remember Fortune can take nought
Save what she gave the rest was nakedness,
And lusts, and appetites, and vanities,
The universal heritage, to battle

iii.

With as we may, and least in humblest stations,"
Where Hunger swallows all in one low want,
And the original ordinance, that man

340

Must sweat for his poor pittance, keeps all passions 350
Aloof, save fear of famine! All is low,

And false, and hollow-clay from first to last,
The Prince's urn no less than potter's vessel.
Our Fame is in men's breath, our lives upon
Less than their breath; our durance upon days,iv
Our days on seasons; our whole being on
Something which is not us /1-So, we are slaves,
The greatest as the meanest-nothing rests
Upon our will; the will itself no less.
Depends upon a straw than on a storm;

360

And when we think we lead, we are most led,2

i. The blackest leaf, his heart, and blankest, his brain.—[MS. M.]

ii. and best in humblest stations.-[MS. M.]

iii. Where hunger swallows all-where ever was

The monarch who could bear a three days' fast ?—[MS. M.]

iv. Their disposition .~[MS. M.]

V.

the will itself dependent

Upon a storm, a straw, and both alike
Leading to death -.—[MS. M.]

1. [It would seem that Byron's "not ourselves" by no means "made for " righteousness.]

2. [Compare

"The boldest steer but where their ports invite."

Childe Harold, Canto III. stanza lxx. lines 7-9; and Canto IV. stanza xxxiv., Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 260, 353, and 74, note 1.]