Vas. "Tis most strangely true. Flo. Cursed man-have I lived to [Dies. Car. Hold up, Florio. Monster of children! see what thou hast done, Gio. Let them! Oh my father, How well his death becomes him in his griefs! Why this was done with courage; now survives None of our house but I, gilt in the blood Of a fair sister and a hapless father. Sor. Inhuman scorn of men, hast thou a thought T'outlive thy murders? Gio. Yes, I tell thee yes; For in my fists I bear the twists of life. [Draws. Soranzo, see this heart, which was thy wife's; Vas. I cannot hold any longer. You, sir, are you grown insolent in your butcheries? have at you. Gio. Come, I am arm'd to meet thee. [They fight. Vas. No! will it not be yet? if this will not, another shall. Not yet? I shall fit you anonVENGEANCE!" The BANDITTI rush in. Gio. Welcome!. come more of you; whate'er you be, 2 VENGEANCE!] This, as was observed, p. 233. was the watchword, or preconcerted signal for assistance. I dare your worst [They surround and wound him. Oh I can stand no longer; feeble arms, Have you so soon lost strength? [Falls. Vas. Now, you are welcome, sir!-Away, my masters, all is done; shift for yourselves, your reward is your own: shift for yourselves. [Aside to BAND. [Exeunt. Vas. How do you, my lord? See you this? [pointing to Gro.] how is't? Sor. Dead; but in death well pleas'd, that I have liv'd To see my wrongs reveng'd on that black devil.-. My last of breath; let not that lecher live- [Dies. Vas. The reward of peace and rest be with [you], my ever dearest lord and master! Gio. Whose hand gave me this wound? Vas. Mine, sir; I was your first man; have you enough? Gio. I thank thee, thou hast done for me But what I would have else done on myself. Art sure thy lord is dead? Vas. Oh impudent slave! As sure as I am sure to see thee die. Car. Think on thy life and end, and call for mercy. Gio. Mercy? why, I have found it in this" justice. Car. Strive yet to cry to Heaven. Gio. Oh I bleed fast. Death, thou'rt a guest long look'd for, I embrace Don. Strange miracle of justice! [Dies. Car. Raise up the city, we shall be murder'd · all! Vas. You need not fear, you shall not; this strange task being ended, I have paid the duty to the son, which I have vowed to the father. Car. Speak, wretched villain, what incarnate fiend Hath led thee on to this? Vas. Honesty, and pity of my master's wrongs: for know, my lord, I am by birth a Spaniard, brought forth my country in my youth by lord Soranzo's father; whom, whilst he lived, I served faithfully; since whose death I have been to this man, as I was to him. What I have done, was duty, and I repent nothing, but that the loss of life had not ransomed his. my Car. Say, fellow, know'st thou any yet unnam'd, Of council in this incest? Vas. Yes, an old woman, sometime guardian to. this murder'd lady. Car. And what's become of her? Vas. Within this room she is; whose eyes, after her confession, I caused to be put out, but kept alive, to confirm what from Giovanni's own mouth you have heard. Now, my lord, what I have done you may judge of; and let your own wisdom be a judge in your own reason. Car. Peace! first this woman,' chief in these effects, My sentence is, that forthwith she be ta'en There to be burnt to ashes. Don. "Tis most just. Car. Be it your charge, Donado, see it done. Don. I shall. Vas. What for me? if death, 'tis welcome; I have been honest to the son, as I was to the father. Car. Fellow, for thee, since what thou didst was done Not for thyself, being no Italian, We banish thee for ever; to depart Within three days: in this we do dispense With grounds of reason, not of thine offence. Vas. 'Tis well; this conquest is mine, and I rejoice that a Spaniard outwent an Italian in revenge. [Exit. 3 First this woman, &c.] What! without hearing her? It is well, however, that some one was at hand to satisfy the Cardinal's fierce love of justice. The sacrifice, it must be confessed, is somewhat like that of the poor bed-rid weaver in Hudibras; and if, of the four who now remain alive upon the stage, three, including his Eminence, had been sentenced to the hurdle with her, few would have thought them too hardly dealt with. Car. Take up these slaughter'd bodies, see them buried; And all the gold and jewels, or whatsoever, To see the effect of pride and lust at once Car. What! Richardetto, whom we thought for dead? Don. Sir, was it you Rich. Your friend. Car. We shall have time To talk at large of all; but never yet Here, instead of an Epilogue, we have, in the old copy, an apology for the errors of the press. It forms, as the learned Partridge says, a strange non sequitur; and is, in truth, more captious than logical. As a just compliment, however, to the skill of the performers, and the good taste of Lord Peterborough, it merits preservation. "The general commendation deserved by the actors in the presentment of this tragedy, may easily excuse such faults as are escaped in the printing. A common charity may allow him the ability of spelling, whom a secure confidence assures that he cannot ignorantly err in the application of sense." It The remarks on this dreadful story cannot be more appositely terminated, perhaps, than by the following passage from the concluding chapter of Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors. is, as Mr. Lambe observes, "solemn and fine." "As there are many relations (he begins), whereto we cannot assent, and make some doubt thereof, so there are divers others whose verities we |