ALFONSO.
[Vehemently drawing her to his breast.] While he sleeps.
SCENE III
An apartment next to the Borgia Tower, which is reached by a passage on which the door gives. Don Michelotto Corella stands in the centre, the door being open. Suddenly Duke Cesare de Valentinois della Romagna comes to him in a blaze of passion.
CESARE.
Eigh, Michelotto, shall a vermin kill?
Conceive! Alfonso flicked me with an arrow,
Shot from the chamber where Lucrezia watches.
MICHELOTTO.
The Duchess did not see?
CESARE.
It makes no matter,
It is of no account.... Swift, Michelotto,
A rope.... Conceive! This little pipe of breath,
This spawn, this Naples sought the overthrow
Of my large destinies ... and his kind Duchess
Simmers the pipkin that he may not die
Of poisoned food! Not even the sharp vendetta
Of the Sanseverini fallen upon him
A month ago has mangled him to death;
He keeps his tower, mending his wounds apace.
But, swish!—an arrow flies to end me.... Ecco!
She is hard by, the silky wife grown fulsome,
Dragged on a husband’s chain. Swift, Michelotto, swift!