Scene II.
Marinelli and presently Angelo.
MARINELLI (goes again to the window).
The carriage is returning slowly to town. So slowly? and at each door a servant? These appearances do not please me; they show the plot has only half succeeded. They are driving some wounded person carefully, and he is not dead. The fellow in the mask comes nearer. 'Tis Angelo himself--foolhardy! But he knows the windings of this place. He beckons to me--he must know that he has succeeded.--Ha! ha! Count Appiani. You, who refused an embassy to Massa, have been obliged to go a longer journey. Who taught you to recognize apes so well? 'Tis true, they are malicious (walks towards the door). Well, Angelo?
Enter Angelo, with his mash in his hand.
ANGELO.
Be ready, my lord. She will be here directly.
MARINELLI.
How did you succeed in other respects?
ANGELO.
As you wished, I have no doubt.
MARINELLI.
How is it with the Count?
ANGELO.
So, so. But he must have had some suspicions, for he was not quite unprepared.
MARINELLI.
Quick, tell me--is he dead?
ANGELO.
I am sorry for him, poor man.
MARINELLI.
There! Take that for thy compassion (gives him a purse).
ANGELO.
And our poor Nicolo too, he has shared the same luck.
MARINELLI.
What! Loss on both sides?
ANGELO.
Yes. I could cry for the honest lad's fate; though I come in for another quarter of this purse by it; for I am his heir, since I avenged him. This is a law among us, and as good a law, methinks, as ever was made for the support of friendship and fidelity. This Nicolo, my lord----
MARINELLI.
No more of your Nicolo! The Count----
ANGELO.
Zounds! The Count finished him, and I finished the Count. He fell, and though he might be alive when they put him into the coach, I'll answer for it that he will never come alive out of it.
MARINELLI.
Were you but sure of this, Angelo----
ANGELO.
I'll forfeit your custom, if it be not true. Have you any further commands? For I have a long journey. We must be across the frontier before sunset.
MARINELLI.
Go, then.
ANGELO.
Should anything else occur in my way, you know where to inquire for me. What any other can venture to do will be no magic for me, and my terms are lower than any other's. (Exit.)
MARINELLI.
'Tis well--yet not so well as it might have been. Shame on thee, Angelo, to be such a niggard! Surely the Count was worthy of a second shot. Now, he may die in agony; poor Count! Shame, Angelo! It was a cruel and bungling piece of work. The Prince must not know what has happened. He himself must discover how advantageous this death is to him. Death! What would I not give to be certain of it!