Castruccio Castrucani/Act IV

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

ACT IV.

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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.

Welcome, my friends!

(After two or three greetings.)
(Aside.) We cannot now recede, they come prepared.

CLARICHA (Aside).

He comes not!

1st noble.

You've spared, good count, no cost upon your banquet.

(Aside.) Wear not that moody brow, to-night is ours.

ARREZI (Aside.)

Alas! that this must be.—(Aloud.)—The count is late.

1st noble.

We're used to wait the Count Castruccio's pleasure.

CLARICHA (Aside).

Perhaps he may not come!

ARREZI.

Fair ladies, will you dance?(A dance.)

CLARICHA (Aside).

Each moment gives me hope he may not come.

ARREZI.

You stand apart; will you not dance my child?

CLARICHA.

I am not well. (Aside.)—Oh, Heaven, he comes!

Enter Castruccio, Cesario, and Attendants.

ARREZI.

Welcome, my noble guest!

CLARICHA (Aside).

The chain is round his neck.

CASTRUCCIO.

Thanks for your courtesy. The fair Bianca!

BIANCA.

You're welcome, signor.

1st noble (Aside).

The victim, now, is safe within our toils!

ARREZI.

You're late, my lord.

CASTRUCCIO.

I pray your pardon, 'twas no fault of mine!

1st noble.

It was our pride and pleasure to expect.

CLARICHA (Aside).

I see he is prepared; his eagle eye

Flashes, as, when a boy, he spoke of danger.

Enter Servant.

The banquet waits, my lord.

ARREZI (Aside).

There can be no delay,

1st noble (Aside).

And no misgiving!

ARREZI.

Our banquet's ready. Please you, Count Castruccio,

To lead Bianca?

CASTRUCCIO.

Your pardon, lady, for a brief delay;

Let me look round this hall, I knew it not.

ARREZI.

'Tis never open'd but when some high guest

Honours us with his presence; and we ask
Our ancestors to aid us in his greeting.

CASTRUCCIO.

I like the custom. It is from the dead

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.

True my good lord. (Aside to Arrezi.)

Why dost thou look so scared?

CASTRUCCIO.

The name of every noble ancestor’s

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).

I cannot bear this. (Aloud.) The banquet waits!

CASTRUCCIO.

A little while, I pray you, let it wait.

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).

Can he suspect? (Aloud.) Some men are resolute.

CASTRUCCIO.

Yonder is one who reign'd our doge in Lucca;

'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.

You're eloquent, my lord!

ARREZI (Aside).

I'll try to save him, and must see Leoni.

(Aloud.) Our guests await your pleasure.

CASTRUCCIO.

I pray their pardon: but who is yon knight

Clad in white armour?

ARREZI.

Our house's chiefest honour; when the Moors

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.

And, in the presence of this noble knight,

Who looks in visible scorn upon ye now,
Your ancestor, Arrezi, have you plann'd
To violate all hospitable rites!

ARREZI.

Count Castruccio!

CASTRUCCIO.

A cowardly assassin; but in vain.

(He stamps; his Guard comes in.)

1st noble.

We sell our lives full dearly!

(Springs at Castruccio, who strikes his sword from his hand.)

CASTRUCCIO.

Take them to prison; ladies, by your leave,

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).

Lady, I crave your absence.

CLARICHA.

I only stay to ask my chain again.

CASTRUCCIO (Recognising her).

Your chain! My own Claricha, have you been

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.

Ah! would I not lay down my life for thine

CASTRUCCIO.

Like a good angel's gift I hold the life

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.

Would I might ever make thy happiness!

CASTRUCCIO.

One word—where does my sweet one make her home?

CLARICHA.

With Count Arrezi.

CASTRUCCIO.

With mine enemy!

CLARICHA.

No longer such; henceforward bound to thee

By a free pardon.

CASTRUCCIO.

I cannot pardon him.

CLARICHA.

Not pardon him, Castruccio, for my sake?

CASTRUCCIO.

I cannot pardon him for Lucca's sake!

CLARICHA.

One moment hear me: oh! Castruccio, think

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.

Kneel not to me; ah! listen, dearest mine!

CLARICHA.

Will you not pay my debt of gratitude?

CASTRUCCIO.

Ask for my life, Claricha, it is thine!

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.

Nothing disarms an enemy like pardon.

CASTRUCCIO.

Not when they think the pardon wrung from fear.

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.

I do implore you by our ancient love!

CASTRUCCIO.

Oh! do not think that when I take this hand

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!

CASTRUCCIO.

Not where my heart has chosen must it find

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.

It is my hand has slain him; he, my friend,

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.

Your pardon, lady; do not seek the count,

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.

It is too true—but he was urged by others.

CESARIO.

Lady, it does not justify our crime,

Saying that others prompted us to sin.

CLARICHA.

Alas! alas! I cannot think of him

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.

'Twill need an order to allow your entrance.

CLARICHA.

Seek ye Castruccio; he will not refuse,

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 cloud upon the placid sky,

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.

You come full late, my lord

2nd noble.

I come too soon;

Despair and danger are my comrades here!

LEONI.

What can you mean?

2nd noble.

Mean? that Castruccio's friend

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.

The Count Arrezi prisoner!

2nd noble.

Aye—and his shadow falls upon his grave,

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.

Not if my life can ransom his. 'Twas I

Who urged the old man on—with sneer and threat
I silenced his misgivings.

2nd noble.

What can we do?

LEONI.

Rather than let that old man die, I'd kneel

Before the Castrucani, and give up
My head as fitting ransom.

2nd noble.

You would but only add another victim.

We have no choice but flight.

LEONI.

I will not fly,

Though I but stay'd to share Arrezi's scaffold.

2nd noble.

Live for revenge—a better hour may come.

LEONI.

Revenge is all too distant; I will save

Or perish!

2nd noble.

I tell you all is known; what can avail

A single arm?

LEONI.

Tis to that single arm that I must trust.

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.

Castruccio's guards are gather'd round his palace;

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.

I'd brave them all, Rinaldo, in such cause;

But mine's a far more subtle stratagem.

2nd noble.

Your stratagems have not avail'd us much.

LEONI.

The chances of the game have turn'd against us,

And I will pay the forfeit with my head,
Unless I turn them yet again.

2nd noble.

There's something in your courage raises mine;

I'll follow you.

LEONI.

That suits not with my scheme: take you this ring,

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.

Not till I know your purpose for yourself.

Half of the danger is my proper share.

LEONI.

On my right hand alone I must rely.

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.

Methinks that Fortune owes us some amends

For past ill-favour.

LEONI.

We must away; each moment that we lose

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.