TAMORA.
Where is thy brother Bassianus?
SATURNINUS.
Now to the bottom dost thou search my wound.
Poor Bassianus here lies murdered.
TAMORA.
Then all too late I bring this fatal writ,
The complot of this timeless tragedy;
And wonder greatly that man’s face can fold
In pleasing smiles such murderous tyranny.
[She giveth Saturnine a letter.]
SATURNINUS.
[Reads.] An if we miss to meet him handsomely,
Sweet huntsman, Bassianus ’tis we mean,
Do thou so much as dig the grave for him;
Thou know’st our meaning. Look for thy reward
Among the nettles at the elder-tree
Which overshades the mouth of that same pit
Where we decreed to bury Bassianus.
Do this, and purchase us thy lasting friends.
O Tamora, was ever heard the like?
This is the pit, and this the elder-tree.
Look, sirs, if you can find the huntsman out
That should have murdered Bassianus here.
AARON.
My gracious lord, here is the bag of gold.
[Showing it.]
SATURNINUS.
[To Titus.] Two of thy whelps, fell curs of bloody kind,
Have here bereft my brother of his life.
Sirs, drag them from the pit unto the prison.
There let them bide until we have devised
Some never-heard-of torturing pain for them.
TAMORA.
What, are they in this pit? O wondrous thing!
How easily murder is discovered!
TITUS.
High emperor, upon my feeble knee
I beg this boon, with tears not lightly shed,
That this fell fault of my accursed sons,
Accursed if the fault be proved in them—