I must speak with

Count Cenci; doth he sleep?

   Lucretia (in a hurried and confused manner). I think he sleeps;

5Yet wake him not, I pray, spare me awhile,

He is a wicked and a wrathful man;

Should he be roused out of his sleep to-night,

Which is, I know, a hell of angry dreams,

It were not well; indeed it were not well.

10Wait till day break … (Aside.) O, I am deadly sick!

   Savella. I grieve thus to distress you, but the Count

Must answer charges of the gravest import,

And suddenly; such my commission is.

   Lucretia (with increased agitation).

I dare not rouse him: I know none who dare …

15’Twere perilous; … you might as safely waken

A serpent; or a corpse in which some fiend

Were laid to sleep.

Savella.  Lady, my moments here

Are counted. I must rouse him from his sleep,

Since none else dare.

   Lucretia (aside). O, terror! O, despair!

20(To BERNARDO) Bernardo, conduct you the Lord Legate to

Your father’s chamber.  [Exeunt SAVELLA and BERNARDO.

[Enter BEATRICE.

   Beatrice.   ’Tis a messenger

Come to arrest the culprit who now stands

Before the throne of unappealable God.

Both Earth and Heaven, consenting arbiters,

25Acquit our deed.

   Lucretia.   Oh, agony of fear!

Would that he yet might live! Even now I heard

The Legate’s followers whisper as they passed

They had a warrant for his instant death.

All was prepared by unforbidden means

30Which we must pay so dearly, having done.

Even now they search the tower, and find the body;

Now they suspect the truth; now they consult

Before they come to tax us with the fact;

O, horrible, ’tis all discovered!

   Beatrice.    Mother,

35What is done wisely, is done well. Be bold

As thou art just. ’Tis like a truant child

To fear that others know what thou hast done,

Even from thine own strong consciousness, and thus

Write on unsteady eyes and altered cheeks

40All thou wouldst hide. Be faithful to thyself,

And fear no other witness but thy fear.

For if, as cannot be, some circumstance

Should rise in accusation, we can blind

Suspicion with such cheap astonishment,

45Or overbear it with such guiltless pride,

As murderers cannot feign. The deed is done,

And what may follow now regards not me.

I am as universal as the light;

Free as the earth-surrounding air; as firm

50As the world’s centre. Consequence, to me,

Is as the wind which strikes the solid rock

But shakes it not.      [A cry within and tumult.

   Voices.   Murder! Murder! Murder!

[Enter BERNARDO and SAVELLA.

   Savella (to his followers).

Go, search the castle round; sound the alarm;

Look to the gates that none escape!

   Beatrice.     What now?

55   Bernardo. I know not what to say … my father’s dead.

   Beatrice. How; dead! he only sleeps; you mistake, brother.

His sleep is very calm, very like death;

’Tis wonderful how well a tyrant sleeps.

He is not dead?

   Bernardo. Dead; murdered.

   Lucretia (with extreme agitation).

                                          Oh, no, no,

60He is not murdered though he may be dead;

I have alone the keys of those apartments.

   Savella. Ha! Is it so?

   Beatrice.  My Lord, I pray excuse us;

We will retire; my mother is not well:

She seems quite overcome with this strange horror.

[Exeunt LUCRETIA and BEATRICE.

65   Savella. Can you suspect who may have murdered him?

   Bernardo. I know not what to think.

   Savella.      Can you name any

Who had an interest in his death?

   Bernardo.    Alas!

I can name none who had not, and those most

Who most lament that such a deed is done;

70My mother, and my sister, and myself.

   Savella. ’Tis strange! There were clear marks of violence.

I found the old man’s body in the moonlight

Hanging beneath the window of his chamber

Among the branches of a pine: he could not

75Have fallen there, for all his limbs lay heaped

And effortless; ’tis true there was no blood …

Favour me, Sir; it much imports your house

That all should be made clear; to tell the ladies

That I request their presence.      [Exit BERNARDO.

[Enter Guards bringing in MARZIO.

   Guard.    We have one.

80   Officer. My Lord, we found this ruffian and another

Lurking among the rocks; there is no doubt

But that they are the murderers of Count Cenci:

Each had a bag of coin; this fellow wore

A gold-inwoven robe, which shining bright

85Under the dark rocks to the glimmering moon

Betrayed them to our notice: the other fell

Desperately fighting.

   Savella.  What does he confess?

   Officer. He keeps firm silence; but these lines found on him

May speak.

   Savella. Their language is at least sincere.      [Reads.

‘TO THE LADY BEATRICE.

90That the atonement of what my nature

Sickens to conjecture may soon arrive,

I send thee, at thy brother’s desire, those

Who will speak and do more than I dare

Write …

            Thy devoted servant, Orsino.’

[Enter LUCRETIA, BEATRICE, and BERNARDO.

95Knowest thou this writing, Lady?

   Beatrice.     No.

   Savella.      Nor thou?

   Lucretia. (Her conduct throughout the scene is marked by extreme agitation.)

Where was it found? What is it? It should be

Orsino’s hand! It speaks of that strange horror

Which never yet found utterance, but which made

Between that hapless child and her dead father

100A gulph of obscure hatred.

   Savella.   Is it so?

Is it true, Lady, that thy father did

Such outrages as to awaken in thee

Unfilial hate?

   Beatrice. Not hate, ’twas more than hate:

This is most true, yet wherefore question me?

105   Savella. There is a deed demanding question done;

Thou hast a secret which will answer not.

   Beatrice. What sayest? My Lord, your words are bold and rash.

   Savella. I do arrest all present in the name

Of the Pope’s Holiness. You must to Rome.

110   Lucretia. O, not to Rome! Indeed we are not guilty.

   Beatrice. Guilty! Who dares talk of guilt? My Lord,

I am more innocent of parricide

Than is a child born fatherless … Dear Mother,

Your gentleness and patience are no shield

115For this keen-judging world, this two-edged lie,

Which seems, but is not. What! will human laws,

Rather will ye who are their ministers,

Bar all access to retribution first,

And then, when heaven doth interpose to do

120What ye neglect, arming familiar things

To the redress of an unwonted crime,

Make ye the victims who demanded it

Culprits? ’Tis ye are culprits! That poor wretch

Who stands so pale, and trembling, and amazed,

125If it be true he murdered Cenci, was

A sword in the right hand of justest God.

Wherefore should I have wielded it? Unless

The crimes which mortal tongue dare never name

God therefore scruples to avenge.

   Savella.     You own

130That you desired his death?

   Beatrice.   It would have been

A crime no less than his, if for one moment

That fierce desire had faded in my heart.

’Tis true I did believe, and hope, and pray,

Aye, I even knew … for God is wise and just,

135That some strange sudden death hung over him.

’Tis true that this did happen, and most true

There was no other rest for me on earth,

No other hope in Heaven … now what of this?

   Savella.