Part 70 (2/2)

ODOARDO.

Calumny! Infamous calumny! I know my daughter. If there be murder here, there is seduction also, (_Looks wildly round, stamping and foaming_.) Now, Claudia! Now, fond mother! Have we not lived to see a day of joy?

Oh, the gracious Prince! Oh, the mighty honour!

ORSINA (_aside_).

Have I roused thee, old man?

ODOARDO.

Here I stand before the robber's cave. (_Throws his coat back on both sides, and perceives he has no weapon_.) 'Tis a marvel that, in my haste, I have not forgotten my hands too. (_Feeling in all his pockets_.) Nothing, nothing.

ORSINA.

Ha! I understand, and can a.s.sist you. I have brought one. (_Produces a dagger_.) There! Take it, take it quickly, ere any one observes us. I have something else, too--poison--but that is for women, not for men.

Take this (_forcing the dagger upon him_), take it.

ODOARDO.

I thank thee. Dear child, whosoever again a.s.serts thou art a lunatic, he shall answer it to me.

ORSINA.

Conceal it, instantly. (Odoardo _hides the dagger_.) The opportunity for using it is denied to me. You will not fail to find one, and you will seize the first that comes, if you are a man. I am but a woman, yet I came hither resolute. We, old man, can trust each other, for we are both injured, and by the same seducer. Oh, if you knew how preposterously, how inexpressibly, how incomprehensibly, I have been injured by him, you would almost forget his conduct towards yourself.

Do you know me? I am Orsina, the deluded, forsaken Orsina--perhaps forsaken only for your daughter. But how is she to blame? Soon she also will be forsaken; then another, another, and another. Ha! (_As if in rapture_) What a celestial thought! When all who have been victims of his arts shall form a band, and we shall be converted into Maenads, into furies; what transport will it be to tear him piecemeal, limb from limb, to wallow through his entrails, and wrench from its seat the traitor's heart--that heart which he promised to bestow on each, and gave to none. Ha! that indeed will be a glorious revelry!

Scene VIII.

Claudia, Odoardo, Orsina.

_Enter_ Claudia.

CLAUDIA (_looks round, and as soon as she espies her husband, runs towards him_.)

I was right. Our protector, our deliverer! Are you really here? Do I indeed behold you, Odoardo? From their whisper and their manner I knew it was the case. What shall I say to you, if you are still ignorant?

What shall I say to you if you already know everything? But we are innocent. I am innocent. Your daughter is innocent. Innocent; wholly innocent.

ODOARDO (_who, on seeing his wife, has endeavoured to compose himself_).

'Tis well. Be calm, and answer me.--(_To_ Orsina)--Not that I doubt your information, Madam. Is the Count dead?

CLAUDIA.

He is.

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