Part 10 (1/2)

_Porzia_ (_swaying_). What is it? Speak!

_Marina._ My lady, it is dead!

[_A wild pause._

_Porzia._ Dead? dead? my child? my little one? my own?

My baby?... Oh; oh, oh!... oh, oh, oh, oh!

[_She stretches her arms distractedly before her and goes._

_Rizzio_ (_who has staggered, dazed, and is frenziedly realizing_).

G.o.d, G.o.d, the madness ... is this then the madness....

At last!...

Her child? her child? and I--never a husband?

She has a child and I am childless! I!...

Have I been tricked, beaten, betrayed, undone, Duped by a lie of low inconstancy.

[_To Marina._

Speak, quean!

_Marina._ O sir, I know not what to say!

_Rizzio._ Tho truth bays wild, fool-face!

_Marina._ Sir, sir, I cannot!

But hold, I pray you! for she is ... she ... Ah!

[_Has cried out, for the curtains have parted and Porzia is entering--the dead child in her arms, her eyes gazing sightlessly._

_Rizzio_ (_who looks at her, racked, laughs wildly, then rushes to door_). At last, at last the heretic's in h.e.l.l!

[_Breaks past Aloysius entering, and is gone._

_Marina_ (_to the leech_). O Signor Aloysius, my poor, poor lady!

[_Weeping._

My lady! O what now, what now shall heal her!

_Aloysius._ Go in, prepare her bed, and I will bring her.

In, in, I say! (_as she goes; to the mother_) Porzia!

[_Gently._

[_She does not answer._

Come, Porzia!