The Works of Lord Byron Volume IV Part 70

_1st Sig_. Lords, our orders Are to keep guard on both in separate chambers, Until the Council call ye to your trial.

_Doge_. Our trial! will they keep their mockery up Even to the last? but let them deal upon us, As we had dealt on them, but with less pomp.

'Tis but a game of mutual homicides, Who have cast lots for the first death, and they 290 Have won with false dice.--Who hath been our Judas?

_1st Sig_. I am not warranted to answer that.

_Ber. F._ I'll answer for thee--'tis a certain Bertram, Even now deposing to the secret Giunta.

_Doge_. Bertram, the Bergamask! With what vile tools[448]

We operate to slay or save! This creature, Black with a double treason, now will earn Rewards and honours, and be stamped in story With the geese in the Capitol, which gabbled Till Rome awoke, and had an annual triumph, 300 While Manlius, who hurled down the Gauls, was cast[ez]

From the Tarpeian.

_1st Sig_. He aspired to treason, And sought to rule the State.

_Doge_. He saved the State, And sought but to reform what he revived-- But this is idle--Come, sirs, do your work.

_1st Sig_. n.o.ble Bertuccio, we must now remove you Into an inner chamber.

_Ber. F._ Farewell, Uncle!

If we shall meet again in life I know not, But they perhaps will let our ashes mingle.

_Doge_. Yes, and our spirits, which shall yet go forth, 310 And do what our frail clay, thus clogged, hath failed in!

They cannot quench the memory of those Who would have hurled them from their guilty thrones, And such examples will find heirs, though distant.

ACT V.

SCENE 1.--_The Hall of the Council of Ten a.s.sembled with the additional Senators, who, on the Trials of the Conspirators for the Treason of_ MARINO FALIERO, _composed what was called the Giunta,--Guards, Officers, etc., etc._ ISRAEL BERTUCCIO _and_ PHILIP CALENDARO _as Prisoners_.

BERTRAM, LIONI, _and Witnesses, etc._

_The Chief of the Ten_, BENINTENDE.[fa][449]

_Ben_. There now rests, after such conviction of Their manifold and manifest offences, But to p.r.o.nounce on these obdurate men The sentence of the Law:--a grievous task To those who hear, and those who speak. Alas!

That it should fall to me! and that my days Of office should be stigmatised through all The years of coming time, as bearing record To this most foul and complicated treason Against a just and free state, known to all 10 The earth as being the Christian bulwark 'gainst The Saracen and the schismatic Greek, The savage Hun, and not less barbarous Frank; A City which has opened India's wealth To Europe; the last Roman refuge from O'erwhelming Attila; the Ocean's Queen; Proud Genoa's prouder rival! 'Tis to sap The throne of such a City, these lost men Have risked and forfeited their worthless lives-- So let them die the death.

_I. Ber_. We are prepared; 20 Your racks have done that for us. Let us die.

_Ben_. If ye have that to say which would obtain Abatement of your punishment, the Giunta Will hear you; if you have aught to confess, Now is your time,--perhaps it may avail ye.

_I. Ber_. We stand to hear, and not to speak.

_Ben_. Your crimes Are fully proved by your accomplices, And all which Circ.u.mstance can add to aid them; Yet we would hear from your own lips complete Avowal of your treason: on the verge 30 Of that dread gulf which none repa.s.s, the truth Alone can profit you on earth or Heaven-- Say, then, what was your motive?

_I. Ber_. Justice![fb]

_Ben_. What Your object?

_I. Ber_. Freedom!

_Ben_. You are brief, sir.

_I. Ber_. So my life grows: I Was bred a soldier, not a senator.

_Ben_. Perhaps you think by this blunt brevity To brave your judges to postpone the sentence?

_I. Ber_. Do you be brief as I am, and believe me, I shall prefer that mercy to your pardon. 40

_Ben_. Is this your sole reply to the Tribunal?

_I. Ber_. Go, ask your racks what they have wrung from us, Or place us there again; we have still some blood left, And some slight sense of pain in these wrenched limbs: But this ye dare not do; for if we die there-- And you have left us little life to spend Upon your engines, gorged with pangs already-- Ye lose the public spectacle, with which You would appal your slaves to further slavery!

Groans are not words, nor agony a.s.sent, 50 Nor affirmation Truth, if Nature's sense Should overcome the soul into a lie, For a short respite--must we bear or die?

_Ben_. Say, who were your accomplices?

_I. Ber_. The Senate.

_Ben_. What do you mean?

_I. Ber_. Ask of the suffering people, Whom your patrician crimes have driven to crime.

_Ben_. You know the Doge?

_I. Ber_. I served with him at Zara In the field, when _you_ were pleading here your way To present office; we exposed our lives, While you but hazarded the lives of others, 60 Alike by accusation or defence; And for the rest, all Venice knows her Doge, Through his great actions, and the Senate's insults.

_Ben_. You have held conference with him?

_I. Ber_. I am weary-- Even wearier of your questions than your tortures: I pray you pa.s.s to judgment.

_Ben_. It is coming.

And you, too, Philip Calendaro, what Have you to say why you should not be doomed?

_Cal_. I never was a man of many words, And now have few left worth the utterance. 70

_Ben_. A further application of yon engine May change your tone.

_Cal_. Most true, it _will_ do so; A former application did so; but It will not change my words, or, if it did--

_Ben_. What then?

_Cal_. Will my avowal on yon rack Stand good in law?

_Ben_. a.s.suredly.

_Cal_. Whoe'er The culprit be whom I accuse of treason?

_Ben_. Without doubt, he will be brought up to trial.