Collected Works of Rafael Sabatini

by Rafael Sabatini

  [They look at each other in silence.

  SINIBALDI: It leaves no signs, and none will know of what he died.

  GUIDO (with sarcasm): Save that he died here in my house — at my table!

  SINIBALDI: Do you not wish him dead? Have you not cause enough to kill him? Your daughter...

  GUIDO: O cease! Let the thing be done. What do I care so that he perishes? What do I care that I do the work of Venice, so that I do my own?

  SINIBALDI: That’s it, that’s it! Each of us achieves his ends.

  GUIDO: But only one will pay. What matter? I am past caring. There’s his cup the cup of honour — already set. Do it, and be damned!

  [SINIBALDI steps eagerly to the table, takes up the cup, and from the phial measures into it one drop. SINIBALDI: A lovely cup for such a draught!

  [He twirls the cup to spread the drop of liquid. He is still doing so when the door at back opens and,

  [PANTHASILEA comes in. She is wrapped in a black, hooded cloak, her face pale and set.

  [SINIBALDI wheels in alarm at the sound of the opening door, still holding the cup a second before he hastily puts it down.

  SINIBALDI: Madonna!

  [GUIDO turns, sees her, and utters an audible gasp of mingled anger and amazement.

  [She comes forward, loosens and removes her cloak, under which she is darkly clad. She flings the cloak on a chair by the door. She looks at her father in mute, appealing expectancy.

  GUIDO (starting up): So, you have returned at last, you drab!

  PANTHASILEA (piteously): Father!

  GUIDO (with a gesture of loathing): Never...never call me by that name again. I would a blight had withered me or ever I begat a harlot. O God! the shame of it!

  [PANTHASILEA stands rigid, frozen.

  SINIBALDI: Patience, sir! At least hear what Monna Lea has to say. Perhaps she can explain...

  GUIDO: Explain what? Her presence here? (To Panthasilea.) Why have you come back? To see for yourself the ruin you have wrought? To see your broken father dragged at the bloody wheel of this conqueror’s chariot? Or is it so that I may kill you, and thus wipe out your disgrace and mine?

  [With his hand on his dagger, he turns as if to rush upon her. SINIBALDI restrains him.

  PANTHASILEA: Nay, Lord Prince! Let be! (To Guido.)

  Kill me if you will. Kill me and be welcome. But do it cleanly with your dagger or your hands, not foully with your tongue.

  GUIDO: Why, so I will. But first, madonna, render your accounts. What did you go to do in Assisi, and what was it that you did?

  PANTHASILEA: What I went to do, you know; and why I went to do it.

  GUIDO: Ay; but will you tell us what you did?

  PANTHASILEA: I went to save Solignola. My love for Solignola and you was one spur to drive me. The other was my hate of the murderer of Pietro Varano.

  GUIDO: Yes, yes. This we know. Come to the business.

  PANTHASILEA: My hate was fed on lies — on lies. I believed Pietro to be good and noble; I learnt that he was base and vile, a murderer, an adulterer — the man I was to have married, the man my virgin heart had sanctified.

  GUIDO: So! They told you of the business of the Uberti!

  PANTHASILEA: You knew! You — my father — and you let me go immolate myself to avenge — that!

  GUIDO: Is there more of this?

  PANTHASILEA: A little more. There is the other lie, the lie touching this man I was to betray into your hands. He was depicted to me as a monster in body and in soul.

  GUIDO: In soul! He has no soul. He is antichrist.

  PANTHASILEA: So you taught me, and so I believed, so I thought last night that I had proof — until I came to see that what I deemed his vileness was but the mirror of my own. I went to do a Judas work. I was detected...

  GUIDO: Detected? You mean that you betrayed us.

  PANTHASILEA: Betrayed you! There was not the need. He knew; from the first he knew. He was never in my power. I was ever in his.

  SINIBALDI: But, madonna, two nights ago, when he came, as you told me, you might have taken him then.

  PANTHASILEA: You think so?

  SINIBALDI: I have your word for it, that you had not posted your men.

  PANTHASILEA: But if I had posted them, that would have happened then which happened last night instead.

  GUIDO: Had he not beguiled you, the blow would have been struck a week ago, and if it missed, we could have taken other measures.

  PANTHASILEA (scornfully): Against him? It is your vanity that blinds you, that has blinded you throughout, as it blinded those treacherous dolts at Sinigaglia, as it blinded me — poor fool! — when I went to proffer him my Judas-kiss, and stayed instead to receive the Judas-kiss from him.

  [With a growl of rage, GUIDO would fling himself upon her. But again SINIBALDI restrains him.

  SINIBALDI (suddenly inspired): You see how it is! She is possessed! That warlock has practised the black arts upon the girl.

  GUIDO (stricken by the explanation): Saints of Heaven! Can you believe...

  SINIBALDI: Can you behold her, can you hear her, and still doubt that she is bewitched?

  GUIDO: Bewitched! (Draws his dagger.) Let me go, by Heaven! that I may exorcise her.

  SINIBALDI: Nay, nay, man! A deed of violence now, and you ruin all.

  [GUIDO pauses, and curbs himself, recollecting.

  PANTHASILEA: Do not restrain him, sir. And do not deceive yourselves. He practised on me no witchery but that of his beauty, his cunning and his power.

  GUIDO: You shameless drab!

  SINIBALDI: How should she understand — poor victim of his spells?

  PANTHASILEA: That, yes — that and more. Say also: the wretched dupe of his loathing and his scorn, which he disguised under a glittering mask of love. 0 God! Is there in all the world such another thing of shame? Why don’t you kill me, and have done?

  GUIDO: Ay!

  SINIBALDI (again restraining): We will do better, madonna. We will avenge you.

  PANTHASILEA: Avenge me! You! (Laughs.) How will you avenge me?

  SINIBALDI: I will end now where I should have begun — do that which as lately as last night I was urging you to do.

  PANTHASILEA: You will kill him — you!

  SINIBALDI: I will bring about his end.

  PANTHASILEA: And how will you accomplish it? He is invulnerable. Weapons forged to slay him, turn against those that handle them.

  SINIBALDI: Not this one. Impalpable, invisible, it lies in wait for him already.

  GUIDO: Ay.

  PANTHASILEA You deceive yourselves to your undoing. He is empanoplied in caution, armed in cunning against all your wiles.

  GUIDO: His cunning cannot turn steel or supply the antidote to poison.

  PANTHASILEA: He wears mail under his silk as a protection against steel, and never touches meat or wine without a venom-taster.

  GUIDO: What’s that?

  [He looks sharply at SINIBALDI, who has also made a movement of dismay. PANTHASILEA observes one and the other.

  PANTHASILEA: Last night, myself, I was appointed to that office. He constrained me to it before he would drink a cup of wine I offered him. He takes no chances.

  GUIDO (bewildered): You! He made you his venom-taster, do you say?

  PANTHASILEA: Yes.

  [GUIDO considers her a moment with dilating eyes. Then deliberately he sheathes his dagger.

  GUIDO: Now I understand why God has willed that you should come back, despite your load of shame.

  SINIBALDI: Eh?

  GUIDO: It is so that you may be his venom-taster once again, to-night.

  [SINIBALDI audibly sucks in his breath. He would intervene, but controls himself.

  [There is a tense pause. PANTHASILEA, looking at her father, at SINIBALDI and finally at the cup with which she has seen him tampering, realizes all. There is from her a flash of inspiration, almost instantly veiled. She smiles a little at last, but with more mockery than mirth.

  [Martial music is heard
faintly in the distance and rapidly approaching.

  PANTHASILEA: I understand, I think. So be it. It is very...just.

  [SINIBALDI, who has been showing constraint, breathes freely again.

  SINIBALDI: And very timely. They are returning.

  [GUIDO sinks limply into a chair, his head in his hands. PANTHASILEA turns slowly, and goes up and out into the half-gloom of the loggia, where she remains standing, looking out.

  [SINIBALDI approaches GUIDO, and touches his shoulder.

  SINIBALDI: Come, brace yourself, Lord Count. You have a part to play.

  GUIDo: A part! Lord of Heaven! What part is mine?

  SINIBALDI: A Roman part.

  GUIDO (bitterly): Written by a Venetian. Pah!

  [The main doors are thrown open. MACCHIAVELLI, CAPELLO, GASPARO and MARIANO come in. The music swells up, now close at hand.

  [Two LACKEYS enter from above door right, with tapers, and light the lanterns to dispel the gathering dusk.

  [GUIDO rises to receive the orators, controlling himself.

  GUIDO: Sirs, you are well returned.

  CAPELLO: You missed a very impressive ceremony. But it was kind of you, Lord Prince, to bear Count Guido company. Courage, Lord Count. After all, you retain your vicarship.

  GUIDO (impatiently): Where is his highness? MACCHIAVELLI: He follows. CAPELLO: Here he comes.

  [FOUR Swiss enter and take up their stations inside the door. Then comes VALENTINOIS, preceded immediately in single file by CORELLA, RAMIREZ and FERRANTE, and followed by two pages. VALENTINOIS takes off his steel cap and then the velvet skull-cap under it. These he hands to one of the pages, who sets them down. Then VALENTINOIS comes forward, ungloving, raking the room with his glance, which finally settles on SINIBALDI.

  VALENTINOIS: Ah, Lord Prince! We missed your company in the Cathedral.

  [At the sound of his voice, PANTHASILEA wheels about, a hand clutching her agitated bosom.

  SINIBALDI: I was none so well, highness, and Venice was well represented by Messer Capello.

  VALENTINOIS: (nodding): Who will report to the Serene Republic this happy conclusion of our campaign.

  SINIBALDI: The Serene Republic will rejoice in this. VALENTINOIS (dryly): I know.

  SINIBALDI: And she will commend your generous wisdom in the matter of Count Guido.

  VALENTINOIS: TO merit the approval of the Most Serene is more than a reward. It leaves me in her debt — and in yours, Lord Prince. I shall study to repay. I always pay my debts. But Come, sirs. To table! I have a long journey before me for to-morrow, and so I must early to bed.

  [He turns, and so confronts PANTHASILEA, who is standing in the loggia. He starts at sight of her. Recovering, he speaks calmly, in greeting, bowing low.

  VALENTINOIS: Monna Panthasilea! My homage. I had not dared to hope that you would grace our company to-night.

  [He extends his hand. She hesitates a moment, then comes forward, and kisses it, curtsying.

  [Retaining her hand, he turns to lead her to a place beside his own.

  VALENTINOIS: Come, then. To table! You, madonna, here on my right.

  PANTHASILEA: I am here to discharge the office to which your highness has appointed me.

  VALENTINOIS: Office?

  PANTHASILEA: Venom-taster to your potency.

  [VALENTINOIS’ eyes quicken suddenly. They flash upon COUNT GUIDO and from him to SINIBALDI, both of whom betray constraint. Then he looks steadily at PANTHASILEA.

  VALENTINOIS: That is to take a jest too seriously.

  PANTHASILEA: No office in the service of your potency can be taken as a jest.

  VALENTINOIS: Certainly not that one. It is no sinecure to be venom-taster to Cesare Borgia. It has its risks, madonna.

  GUIDO: Not here, my lord.

  VALENTINOIS: Could I suggest it? I could no more suspect your lordship than I could suspect...say, Prince Sinibaldi, who represents a State that loves and honours me, or this sombre Macchiavelli, who strictly confines himself to poisoning minds.

  MACCHIAVELLI: I thank your highness for the compliment.

  VALENTINOIS: There was none intended. But be seated, pray. You, here beside me, Ser Niccolo; then Ramirez; you, Lord Prince, there, and Micheletto yonder. Messeri Capello, Gasparo and Mariano here on my left. You, Lord Count, up there, where you can command your seneschal. Be seated, pray.

  [All sit.

  [The FOUR SWISS remain on guard, two on each side of the closed doors, FERRANTE between them.

  VALENTINOIS: It is regrettable that the only lady present should remain standing by virtue of her office. But since you insist, madonna, I’ll not deny myself the honour you would pay me, all unworthy though I account myself.

  [He sits. PANTHASILEA remains standing behind him and a little to his right.

  [The SENESCHAL comes in L., ushering two lackeys with dishes of risotto; two other lackeys follow with jugs of wine; the SENESCHAL, himself, carries a jug. For a moment there is the bustle of preparation, and a general hum of talk. Then VALENTINOIS leans forward to address SINIBALDI, and all fall silent.

  VALENTINOIS: You are pale, Lord Prince.

  SINIBALDI: Your highness honours me by your attention. I have said that I am none so well.

  VALENTINOIS: You should study your health, sir. In you the Most Serene would lose a precious servant, and I a valued friend.

  SINIBALDI: Your highness overwhelms me. [A lackey is pouring wine for SINIBALDI.

  [At the same moment the SENESCHAL approaches VALENTINOIS to pour for him from his own special jug. VALENTINOIS prevents him, by covering the chalice with his hand.

  VALENTINOIS: Wait! I’ll drink from the same jug as the prince. I have a pledge for him, and it is proper we should drink it in one wine.

  [To the servant who has poured for SINIBALDI.

  VALENTINOIS: You there!

  [The SERVANT approaches him. VALENTINOIS uncovers his chalice.

  VALENTINOIS: Pour.

  [The SERVANT fills VALENTINOIS’ cup, whilst the latter covertly watches SINIBALDI, who cannot repress a smile at the futile precaution. He half sneers as he says:

  SINIBALDI: Your highness takes no risks.

  VALENTINOIS: That is why I am alive. I drink to you, Lord Prince, and to the illustrious State you represent so worthily.

  [He raises his cup. SINIBALDI does the same. Slowly, his eyes ever on SINIBALDI, VALENTINOIS carries the cup towards his lips. He is about to drink.

  PANTHASILEA: I have not tasted for your magnificence.

  [VALENTINOIS checks, the cup almost at his lips. Very slowly, he half lowers it.

  VALENTINOIS: That ceremony is surely idle. But so are many. Let us preserve the forms.

  [He sets the cup down. She takes it, raises it, and slowly drinks.

  [VALENTINOIS does not look round, but is intently watching SINIBALDI, who, almost despite himself, in his rage and excitement, makes a half-movement to warn or to check. But finding VALENTINOIS’ eyes upon him, he instantly suppresses it.

  [PANTHASILEA sets down the cup which she has emptied.

  [His stare demands an explanation of the act.

  PANTHASILEA: I...I thirsted, highness.

  VALENTINOIS: Thirsted! But...to drain my cup...to the last drop...

  PANTHASILEA: It was...unwarrantable. I...I ask your pardon. I will repair the fault. I...

  [She falters. Her senses swim, but from emotion rather than the working of the poison. She swings half round and away to the right, gasping a little.

  [VALENTINOIS sits frozen. As he fits together the last pieces of the puzzle and discovers the whole truth at last, understanding, amazement and horror transform his countenance. There is a sudden reaction in his mind, a sudden sloughing of his monstrous egotism, reflected in his awe-stricken face.

  PANTHASILEA: Air! Air! God! Give me air!

  [VALENTINOIS bounds up, his voice vibrant with real passion and grief.