SCENE XI.
THE SAME.
The Demon appears at the door which is behind JUSTINA.
DEMON [aside]. For the deep design I handle,
For my double plot I come
Raging to this simple home,
Now to work the greatest scandal
Ever seen. Here, brooding o'er him,
This wild lover mad with ire,
I will fan his jealous fire,
I will place myself before him,
Catch his eye, and then as fleeing,
In invisible gloom array me.
[He affects to come in, and being seen by LELIUS muffles himself in
his cloak, and re-enters the inner apartment.
JUSTINA. Man, do you come here to slay me?
LELIUS. No, to die.
JUSTINA. What object seeing
Paralyses thus your senses?
LELIUS. What I see is your untruth.
Tell me now, the wish, forsooth,
Has invented my offences.
From that very chamber there
Came a man, I turned my head,
When he saw my face he fled
Back into the room.
JUSTINA. The air
Must this phantasy display—
This illusion.
LELIUS. Oh, that sight!
JUSTINA. Is it not enough by night,
Lelius, but in open day
Thus fictitious forms to see?
LELIUS. Phantom shape or real lover,
Now the truth I will discover.
[He goes into the room where The Demon had disappeared.
JUSTINA. I no hindrance offer thee,
For my innocence, a way,
At the cost of this permission,
Thus finds out the night's submission
To correct by the light of day.
SCENE XII.
LYSANDER and JUSTINA; LELIUS, within.
LYSANDER. My Justina.
JUSTINA [aside]. Woe is me!
Ah, if here before Lysander*
Lelius from that room comes forth!
[footnote] *Asonante in a-i to the end of Scene XVII.
LYSANDER. My misfortunes, my disasters
Fly to be consoled by thee.
JUSTINA. What can be the grief, the sadness,
That your face betrays so plainly?
LYSANDER. And no wonder, when the pallor
Springs even from the heart. This sobbing
Stops my weak words in their passage.
[LELIUS appears at the door of the apartment.
LELIUS [aside]. I begin now to believe,
Since he is not in this chamber,
Jealousy can cause these spectres.
He, the man I saw, has vanished,
How I know not.
JUSTINA [aside to Lelius]. Come not forth,
Lelius, here before my father.
LELIUS. Convalescent in my sickness
I will wait till he is absent.
[Retires.
JUSTINA. Why this weeping? why this sighing?
What, sir, moves thee, what unmans thee?
LYSANDER. I am moved by a misfortune,
I'm unmanned by a disaster,
Greater far than tender pity
Ever wept,—the dread example
Cruelty has sworn to make
In the innocent blood of martyrs.
To the Governor of this city
Decius Caesar a strict mandate
Has despatched... I can speak no more.
JUSTINA [aside]. What position e'er was harder?
Moved with pity for the Christians
Hither comes to me Lysander
The sad news to tell, not knowing
Lelius to his words may hearken,—
Lelius, the Governor's son.
LYSANDER. So Justina...
JUSTINA. Sir, no farther,
Since you feel it so acutely,
Speak upon this painful matter.
LYSANDER. Let me, for I'll feel some solace
When to thee it is imparted.
In it he commands...
JUSTINA. Proceed not
Further now, when you should rather
Cheat your years with more repose.
LYSANDER. How? when I, to make you partner
In those lively fears whose bodings
Are sufficient to despatch me,
Would inform you of the edict,
The most cruel that the margin
Of the Tiber ever saw
Writ in blood to stain its waters,
Do you stop me? Ah, Justina,
You were wont in another manner
Once to listen to me.
JUSTINA. Sir,
Different were the circumstances.
LELIUS [at the door, aside]. I can hear but indistinctly
Half-formed words and broken accents.
SCENE XIII.
FLORUS enters.—JUSTINA and LYSANDER; LELIUS, peeping at the door
of the inner room.
FLORUS [aside]. Licence has a jealous lover,
Who but enters to unmask here
A pretended purity,
To forego politer manners.
I come here with that intention...
But as she is with her father
I will wait a new occasion.
LYSANDER. Who is there? Some footstep passes.
FLORUS [aside]. Ah! 'tis now impossible
Without speaking to get back here.
Some excuse I'll try to offer:—
I am...
LYSANDER. You here, sir?
FLORUS. Your pardon.
I ask leave, sir, to speak with you
On a most important matter.
JUSTINA [aside]. Oh! take pity on me, fortune,
For these trials are too many.
LYSANDER. Well, sir, speak.
FLORUS [aside, at the door]. Florus in Justina's house
Leaves and enters like a master!—
These are not unfounded jealousies,
These are real and substantial.
LYSANDER. You grow pale, you change your colour.
FLORUS. Do not wonder, be not startled,
For I came to give a warning,
To your life of utmost value,
Of an enemy that you have,
Who your swift destruction planneth.
What I've said is quite sufficient.
LYSANDER [aside]. Florus, doubtless, must have gathered
Somehow that I am a Christian,
And thus comes in kindliest manner
Of my danger to apprise me.—
[Aloud.
Speak, hide nothing in this matter.
SCENE XIV.
LIVIA enters.—
JUSTINA, LYSANDER, and FLORUS; LELIUS at the door of the room.
LIVIA. Sir, the Governor, who is waiting
At the door of the house, commanded
Me to call you to his presence.
FLORUS. Best I wait for his departure:—
[Aside.
(Meantime my excuse I'll think of.)
So 'tis well that you despatch him.
LYSANDER. I appreciate your politeness.
Here I will return instanter.
[Exeunt LYSANDER and LIVIA.