MICHELOTTO.
The poignard or the little rope? I serve you
Close as my bone to flesh.
CESARE.
So God in silence
Contracts with San Michele. Die for me——
You were not such a fool! I choose who dies.
Fetch me your instruments—the steel, the rope.
Quick, and return! [Exit Michelotto.
I wait a thousand years!
Aha, Carlotta, little Sancia too!
Ay, and Lucrezia ... she can watch so much,
I doubt not she was watching when he shot:
She would not warn me—she has seen so much,
And never stirred in tongue or eye.... But listen!
[He bends his ear toward the door.
I hear the cooing voice; she sings to him.
[Lucrezia’s voice is heard from the Borgia Tower.
Sweetest Mother,
Thy suit is won:
Flowers for thee,
Flowers for thy Son,
Flowers at thy knee
For the Trinity!
She is soothing him with little, airy notes,
Like the rustle of the leaves.
[Re-enter Michelotto. Cesare opens his hands for the dagger and cord.
O Michelotto,
These jewels
Have never shone so bright—steel, steel, and necklets
Twisted and coiled so deftly round the throat
The breath heaves up—then plumb back to its void.
Conceal yourself.... I drag the women out....