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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.