ACT IV.
Scene I.--The same.
The Prince and Marinelli.
PRINCE.
Come, Marinelli, I must collect myself--I look to you for explanation.
MARINELLI.
Oh! maternal anger! Ha! ha! ha!
PRINCE.
You laugh?
MARINELLI.
Had you, Prince, but seen her frantic conduct in this room! You heard how she screamed; yet how tame she became as soon as she beheld you! Ha! ha! Yes--I never yet knew the mother who scratched a prince's eyes out, because he thought her daughter handsome.
PRINCE.
You are a poor observer. The daughter fell senseless into her mother's arms. This made the mother forget her rage. It was her daughter, not me, whom she spared, when, in a low voice, she uttered--what I myself had rather not have heard--had rather not have understood.
MARINELLI.
What means your Highness?
PRINCE.
Why this dissimulation? Answer me. Is it true or false?
MARINELLI.
And if it were true!
PRINCE.
If it were! It is, then--he is dead (in a threatening tone). Marinelli! Marinelli!
MARINELLI.
Well?
PRINCE.
By the God of justice I swear that I am innocent of this blood. Had you previously told me that the Count's life must be sacrificed--God is my witness I would as soon have consented to lose my own.
MARINELLI.
Had I previously told you! As if the Count's death was part of my plan! I charged Angelo that on his soul he should take care that no person suffered injury; and this, too, would have been the case, had not the Count begun the fray, and shot the first assailant on the spot.
PRINCE.
Indeed! he ought to have understood the joke better.
MARINELLI.
So that Angelo was enraged, and instantly avenged his comrade's death----
PRINCE.
Well, that is certainly very natural.
MARINELLI.
I have reproved him for it.
PRINCE.
Reproved him! How good--natured! Advise him never to appear again in my dominions; for my reproof might not be found so good-natured.
MARINELLI.
Just as I foresaw! I and Angelo.--Design and accident; all the same.--It was, however, agreed, and indeed promised, that I should not be answerable for any accidents which might happen.
PRINCE.
Might happen, say you, or must?
MARINELLI.
Still better! Yet one word, your Highness, before you say in harsh phrase what you think of me. The Count's death was far from being a matter of indifference to me. I had challenged him. He left the world without giving me satisfaction, and my honour, consequently, remains tarnished. Allowing, therefore, what under other circumstances I deserved the suspicion you allude to, can I in this? (with assumed anger.) He who can so suspect me----
PRINCE (yielding).
Well, well!
MARINELLI.
Oh that he were still alive! I would give all that I possess--(with bitterness)--even the favour of my Prince--even that treasure, invaluable and never to be trifled with, would I give.
PRINCE.
Well, well! I understand you. His death was accidental, merely accidental--you assure me that it was so, and I believe it. But will any one else believe it? Will Emilia--her mother--the world?
MARINELLI (coldly).
Scarcely.
PRINCE.
What, then, will they believe? You shrug your shoulders. They will suppose Angelo the tool and me the prime mover.
MARINELLI (still more coldly).
Probable enough!
PRINCE.
Me! me, myself!--or from this hour I must resign all hopes of Emilia.
MARINELLI (in a tone of perfect indifference).
Which you must also have done, had the Count lived.
PRINCE (violently).
Marinelli!--(checking his warmth)--But you shall not rouse my anger. Be it so. It is so. You mean to imply that the Count's death is fortunate for me;--the best thing which could have happened--the only circumstance which could bring my passion to a happy issue--and, therefore, no matter how it happened. A Count more or less in the world is of little consequence. Am I right?--I am not alarmed at a little crime; but it must be a secret little crime, a serviceable little crime. But ours has not been either secret or serviceable. It has opened a passage only to close it again. Every one will lay it to our door. And, after all, we have not perpetrated it at all. This can only be the result of your wise and wonderful management.
MARINELLI.
If your Highness have it so----
PRINCE.
Why not?--I want an explanation----
MARINELLI.
I am accused of more than I deserve.
PRINCE.
I want an explanation.
MARINELLI.
Well then, what error in my plans has attached such obvious suspicion to the Prince? The fault lies in the master-stroke which your Highness so graciously put to my plans----
PRINCE.
I?
MARINELLI.
Allow me to say that the step which you took at church this morning--with whatever circumspection it was done, or however inevitable it might be--was not part of my programme.
PRINCE.
How did that injure it?
MARINELLI.
Not indeed the whole plan, but its opportuneness.
PRINCE.
Do I understand you?
MARINELLI.
To speak more intelligibly. When I undertook the business, Emilia knew nothing of the Prince's attachment. Her mother just as little. How if I formed my foundation upon this circumstance, and in the meantime the Prince was undermining my edifice?
PRINCE (striking his forehead).
Damnation!
MARINELLI.
How, if he himself betrayed his intentions?
PRINCE.
Cursed interposition!
MARINELLI.
For had he not so behaved himself I should like to know what part of my plan could have raised the least suspicion in the mind of the mother or the daughter?
PRINCE.
You are right.
MARINELLI.
And therein I certainly am very wrong.--Pardon me.