# Castruccio Castrucani/Act IV

ACT IV.
Scene I.—The same Hall as before, but now illuminated,
hung with Pictures, &c.
Count Arrezi, Bianca, Claricha, Guests, &c.
Claricha anxiously watching the groups as they enter.
ARREZI.
(After two or three greetings.)
(Aside.) We cannot now recede, they come prepared.
CLARICHA (Aside).
1st noble.
(Aside.) Wear not that moody brow, to-night is ours.
ARREZI (Aside.)
1st noble.
CLARICHA (Aside).
ARREZI.
CLARICHA (Aside).
ARREZI.
CLARICHA.
Enter Castruccio, Cesario, and Attendants.
ARREZI.
CLARICHA (Aside).
CASTRUCCIO.
BIANCA.
1st noble (Aside).
ARREZI.
CASTRUCCIO.
1st noble.
CLARICHA (Aside).
Flashes, as, when a boy, he spoke of danger.
Enter Servant.
ARREZI (Aside).
1st noble (Aside).
ARREZI.
To lead Bianca?
CASTRUCCIO.
Let me look round this hall, I knew it not.
ARREZI.
Honours us with his presence; and we ask
Our ancestors to aid us in his greeting.
CASTRUCCIO.
The living must their noblest lessons learn;
The dead are as the stars that light the past:
We see how time has honoured them, and hope
Ourselves for equal honour.
1st noble.
Why dost thou look so scared?
CASTRUCCIO.
A bond upon the soul against disgrace!
'Tis no vain pride that looketh to their honours,
And taketh thence a high security
That we prove not unworthy of such names.
ARREZI (Aside).
CASTRUCCIO.
I like this gallery much—our history,
Our Lucca's history, is on its walls;
Her noblest, and her bravest, and her best,
Keep the time-honour'd life of memory.
Now, if a man had plann'd some low vile deed,
He dared not act it here.
1st noble (Aside).
CASTRUCCIO.
'Tis now some fifty years—I know the face.
The public monument the public raised
In gratitude for a long life of service.
His statue looks upon the town he ruled,
An honour unto both. It is the past
Redeems the present, and that bids us look
To the dim future with a lofty hope.
Cold and unworthy were the actual hours,
If they look'd only to themselves; but life
Is conscious of its immortality,
Urged by high duty—animate by power;
The present, in the shadow of the past,
Learns what it owes the future.
The sage, the hero, leave their great example
Heroic guides upon a glorious path;
They are the lights by which we shape our course,
Only by looking up can we see Heav'n.
1st noble.
ARREZI (Aside).
(Aloud.) Our guests await your pleasure.
CASTRUCCIO.
Clad in white armour?
ARREZI.
Made him a prisoner, on his plighted word,
So high they held the Count Vitelli's name,
They let him seek his native land to raise
The ransom which they set. He found his lands
Impoverish'd like the state, and could not raise
The heavy sum required. In vain 'twas urged
Small faith was needed with the Infidel;
But he return'd, taking his chains again,
And died a captive.
CASTRUCCIO.
Who looks in visible scorn upon ye now,
Your ancestor, Arrezi, have you plann'd
To violate all hospitable rites!
ARREZI.
CASTRUCCIO.
(He stamps; his Guard comes in.)
1st noble.
(Springs at Castruccio, who strikes his sword from his hand.)
CASTRUCCIO.
This is no place for you. (Addressing one of them.)
Madam, I give the Count Arrezi's daughter
To your kind charge and honourable keeping;
We never meet again![Exeunt.
Claricha comes forward.
CASTRUCCIO (Not knowing her).
CLARICHA.
CASTRUCCIO (Recognising her).
Lucca's good angel—sweet preserver, mine!
Take back your chain, and, with it, take my heart
And its entire allegiance. Oh! sweet love,
This is no time to pour my heart in words,
Yet happiness must ask a moment's space.
Saved, and by thee!
CLARICHA.
CASTRUCCIO.
Which thou hast rescued; it must be for good:
Life's sweetest hopes return again with thee.
Mine once again—my own, long lost Claricha!
This very evening I reproach'd my fate;
To meet thee still the beautiful, the true,
And yet resign thee, was too hard a task!
I question'd with my honour, and I falter'd
In the stern path of right: but I am now
So happy, my Claricha!
CLARICHA.
CASTRUCCIO.
CLARICHA.
CASTRUCCIO.
CLARICHA.
By a free pardon.
CASTRUCCIO.
CLARICHA.
CASTRUCCIO.
CLARICHA.
How kind the count has been; my one true friend!
An orphan—pity was my only claim;
It was enough with him—I owe him all Of fond affection's care; but for that care I were not here to kneel and ask for mercy.
CASTRUCCIO.
CLARICHA.
CASTRUCCIO.
But ask not for the lives which others trust Safe to my charge; think not that I refuse Arrezi's life because he sought for mine; I have no anger for my private wrong: But there are those in Lucca who need warning, And they shall have it. With the traitor's head A thousand plots fall harmless from the scaffold.
CLARICHA.
CASTRUCCIO.
Ancient oppression—present treachery— Alike demand example. At our gates Gather the foreign foe; they must not hope For aid within our walls: I have long tried A gentle rule of patience—'tis no more. Plead not with those sad eyes, the count must die!
CLARICHA.
CASTRUCCIO.
I link it to a calm and happy lot;
You will share with me sacrifice and pain.
For power, it is an awful thing, and stands
Girt by stern duties. Not to thy sweet tears
May I yield up one staid and solemn purpose;
Once have I pardon'd: but, to pardon twice,
Were weakness, and not mercy. He must die!
CLARICHA.
CASTRUCCIO.
Unrest and womanish complaint; weep, love,
Kindly and natural tears; but still remember
Lucca has my first duty. Cesario, wait.
Farewell, love! within a few short hours
We'll meet again; when I shall ask from thee
More justice to mine act.[Exit.
CLARICHA.
My kind—my only friend. Is there no hope?
I did not urge him earnestly enough—
I did not tell him he would lose my love
Unless he heard my desperate pray'rs for mercy.
Oh! never shall I know a quiet hour
Again in life, unless Arrezi live;
His memory will haunt me like a ghost,
Pale and perpetual at my side, with eyes
That never turn aside their sad reproach.
I'll after him, and wring a slow consent.
CESARIO.
Let his just anger cool; think you how false,
How vile has been Arrezi's part to-night!
With flattering words he pray'd Castruccio's presence,
Made his own child the lure, yet, in his heart,
Lurk'd the assassin, and he plann'd to make
His home—his sacred home—the place for murder!
CLARICHA.
CESARIO.
Saying that others prompted us to sin.
CLARICHA.
But as he was to me—a kind old man,
The only friend my orphan girlhood knew.
Oh! I must see him; I must kneel and weep
Before his feet—he cannot pardon me—
Yet let me ask forgiveness. Gentle youth,
Conduct me to the prison.
CESARIO.
CLARICHA.
And I, meanwhile, must weep and pray. Oh! Fate,
How thou dost mock us! I have met Castruccio,
The prayer of many years has been fulfill'd;
We love with that true love we vow'd at parting,
Yet my full heart sinks down with misery.
My kind—my only friend—oh! gentle youth,
Haste, for sweet pity's sake.[Exeunt.
Scene II.—Part of a Garden. LEONI pacing backwards and forwards.
LEONI.
There is no motion in the drooping leaves;
I neither like this waiting nor this stillness.
Too much the rest of this still night contrasts
The unrest that is feverish in my soul!
The midnight, with its pale and mournful moon,
That wanders, like an orphan, through the heavens,
Companionless, with its dark boughs, that seem
Still as the heavy shadows which they fling,
This hour is not for enterprise. The heart
Mocks its own projects and its own designs,
So little, with eternal night around,
So worthless, gazing on those distant worlds.
Why, what vain fantasies are these to cross
My mind at such a time! but we are toys
E'en to ourselves. Where can Rinaldo stay?
The banquet hour is past—Ah! here he comes.
Enter 2nd noble hastily.
2nd noble.
Despair and danger are my comrades here!
LEONI.
2nd noble.
Has stood him in good stead; he came prepared,
Knowing the welcome that he was to meet.
Your uncle and his friends are now in prison,
Condemn'd to death.
LEONI.
2nd noble.
He stands so near to it. Just now I pass'd
Beside the market-place; the midnight rang
With the loud hammer's blow, and with the saw
Grating its sullen pathway through the wood
Which is to raise the scaffold for to-morrow.
Arrezi there will be the first to die.
LEONI.
Who urged the old man on—with sneer and threat
I silenced his misgivings.
2nd noble.
LEONI.
Before the Castrucani, and give up
My head as fitting ransom.
2nd noble.
We have no choice but flight.
LEONI.
Though I but stay'd to share Arrezi's scaffold.
2nd noble.
LEONI.
Or perish!
2nd noble.
A single arm?
LEONI.
There yet remains one sole—one desperate chance—
The risk is mine. (Drawing his dagger.) This blade has stood, ere now,
My certain friend. (Sheathing it.)—I'll trust to it again.
2nd noble.
And, if some cunning tale could win your entrance,
You'd perish, ev'n as you struck the blow.
A hundred swords would straight avenge his death.
LEONI.
But mine's a far more subtle stratagem.
2nd noble.
LEONI.
And I will pay the forfeit with my head,
Unless I turn them yet again.
2nd noble.
I'll follow you.
LEONI.
And hurry with it to the Florentines,
Who lay in ambush near the ruin'd tower;
Hasten their march; I did not wish their aid
Until our party muster'd in its strength:
But now, our life and death hangs on their speed.
Hence, good Rinaldo.
2nd noble.
Half of the danger is my proper share.
LEONI.
You may remember, in our boyish days
My father held the Castrucani palace—
The Castrucani were themselves in exile;
I know each turn and winding—there was one,
A secret passage leading to the city,
And from the very room which now Castruccio
Makes his own private chamber—leave that way,
And, Fortune, I will worship thee again.
2nd noble.
For past ill-favour.
LEONI.
Brings my old kinsman nearer to the scaffold.
Off to the Florentines! Now life and death
Hang on an hour's chance.[Exeunt different ways.
END OF THE FOURTH ACT.