Part 11 (1/2)

_Commissioner._ My lord, if instantly You haste not to prevent it, treachery Shameless and bold will be accomplished, making Our victory vain, as't partly hath already.

_Count._ How now?

_Com._ The prisoners leave the camp in troops!

The leaders and the soldiers vie together To set them free; and nothing can restrain them Saving command of yours.

_Count._ Command of mine?

_Com._ You hesitate to give it?

_Count._ 'T is a use, This, of the war, you know. It is so sweet To pardon when we conquer; and their hate Is quickly turned to friends.h.i.+p in the hearts That throb beneath the steel. Ah, do not seek To take this n.o.ble privilege from those Who risked their lives for your sake, and to-day Are generous because valiant yesterday.

_Com._ Let him be generous who fights for himself, My lord! But these--and it rests upon their honor-- Have fought at our expense, and unto us Belong the prisoners.

_Count._ You may well think so, Doubtless, but those who met them front to front, Who felt their blows, and fought so hard to lay Their bleeding hands upon them, they will not So easily believe it.

_Com._ And is this A joust for pleasure then? And doth not Venice Conquer to keep? And shall her victory Be all in vain?

_Count._ Already I have heard it, And I must hear that word again? 'Tis bitter; Importunate it comes upon me, like an insect That, driven once away, returns to buzz About my face.... The victory is in vain!

The field is heaped with corpses; scattered wide, And broken, are the rest--a most flouris.h.i.+ng Army, with which, if it were still united, And it were mine, mine truly, I'd engage To overrun all Italy! Every design Of the enemy baffled; even the hope of harm Taken away from him; and from my hand Hardly escaped, and glad of their escape, Four captains against whom but yesterday It were a boast to show resistance; vanished Half of the dread of those great names; in us Doubled the daring that the foe has lost; The whole choice of the war now in our hands; And ours the lands they've left--is't nothing?

Think you that they will go back to the Duke, Those prisoners; and that they love him, or Care more for _him_ than _you_? that they have fought In _his_ behalf? Nay, they have combatted Because a sovereign voice within the heart Of men that follow any banner cries, ”Combat and conquer!” they have lost and so Are set at liberty; they'll sell themselves-- O, such is now the soldier!--to the first That seeks to buy them--Buy them; they are yours!

_1st Com._ When we paid those that were to fight with them, We then believed ourselves to have purchased them.

_2d Com._ My lord, Venice confides in you; in you She sees a son; and all that to her good And to her glory can redound, expects Shall be done by you.

_Count._ Everything I can.

_2d Com._ And what can you not do upon this field?

_Count._ The thing you ask. An ancient use, a use Dear to the soldier, I can not violate.

_2d Com._ You, whom no one resists, on whom so promptly Every will follows, so that none can say, Whether for love or fear it yield itself; You, in this camp, you are not able, you, To make a law, and to enforce it?

_Count._ I said I could not; now I rather say, I _will_ not!

No further words; with friends this hath been ever My ancient custom; satisfy at once And gladly all just prayers, and for all other Refuse them openly and promptly. Soldier!

_Com._ Nay--what is your purpose?

_Count._ You will see anon.

{_To a soldier who enters_ How many prisoners still remain?

_Soldier._ I think, My lord, four hundred.

_Count._ Call them hither--call The bravest of them--those you meet the first; Send them here quickly. {Exit soldier.

Surely, I might do it-- If I gave such a sign, there were not heard A murmur in the camp. But these, my children, My comrades amid peril, and in joy, Those who confide in me, believe they follow A leader ever ready to defend The honor and advantage of the soldier; _I_ play them false, and make more slavish yet, More vile and base their calling, than 'tis now?

Lords, I am trustful, as the soldier is, But if you now insist on that from me Which shall deprive me of my comrades' love, If you desire to separate me from them, And so reduce me that I have no stay Saving yourselves--in spite of me I say it, You force me, you, to doubt--

_Com._ What do you say?

{_The prisoners, among them young Pergola, enter._