FIESCO (violently). Ha! From following what?
ARABELLA. The tumult——
FIESCO. What was her dress?
ARABELLA. A Scarlet mantle.
FIESCO (in a transport of rage). Get thee to the abyss of hell! The mantle?
ARABELLA. Lay here upon the ground.
SOME OF THE CONSPIRATORS (talking apart). 'Twas here that Gianettino was killed.
FIESCO (ready to faint, to ARABELLA). Thy mistress is found—(ARABELLA advances anxiously—FIESCO casts his eyes round the whole circle—then, with a faltering voice)—'Tis true—'Tis true—And I am the instrument of this horrid deed. (Madly.) Back! back! ye human forms! Oh! (gnashing his teeth wildly, and looking up toward heaven) had I but this created orb between my teeth—I feel as though I could tear the universe to fragments, till nature's face was hideous as the pain that gnaws my soul! (To the others, that stand around, trembling.) See, how they stand aghast there, miserable creatures! blessing themselves and rejoicing that they are not as I am. I alone feel the blow. (Wildly.) I!—why I? Why not these as well? Why is my sorrow denied the balm of being shared with others?
CALCAGNO (timidly). Most gracious duke!
FIESCO (rushes on hint with a look of fiendlike joy). Ha! Welcome! Here, Heaven be thanked, is one whom the same thunderbolt has struck! (Pressing CALCAGNO furiously in his arms.) Brother of my sorrows! Welcome to your share of destruction! She's dead. Didst thou not also love her? (Forcing him toward the dead body.) Behold her and despair! She's dead. (Fixing his eyes earnestly on one part of the stage.) Oh, that I could stand upon the brink of the infernal gulf, and view below all hell's variety of torments!—could hear the horrid shrieks of damned souls! (Approaching the body, trembling.) Here lies my murdered wife. Nay—that says too little—the wife that I myself have murdered. Oh! 'Tis the cunningest of hell's devices—first I was allured to the topmost pinnacle of joy—to the very threshold of heaven—then—in an instant hurled headlong down—and then—oh that my breath could send a pestilence to hell! And then was made the murderer of my wife—fool that I was to trust two erring eyes? Oh, fiends, this is your masterpiece of torture! (All the CONSPIRATORS lean upon their swords much afflicted—a pause.)