Chapter 19

[A room at Lagoverde, The next day. Beatrice alone.]

BEA. In sooth, I do not feel the earth so firm Under my feet as yesterday it was. All that I loved are gone to a far land, And left me here alone, save for two children And twenty thousand enemies, and the thing Of horror that's in store for me. Almost I feel my feet uprooted from the earth, There's such a tugging at me to be gone. Save for your children, [Looking off stage towards Bianca's room.] 'twould be simple enough To lay me down beside you in your bed, And call on Death, who is not yet out of hearing, To take me, too. [Enter Fidelio.]

FID. Mistress I have news for you. Guido is dead!

BEA. Is dead?

FID. Ay, he is dead, Dead of a dagger i' the back,--and dead enough For twenty. Scarce were you gone an hour's time We came upon him cold. And in a pool Nearby, the Lady Francesca floating drowned, Who last was seen a-listening like a ghost At the door of the dungeon, 'Tis a marvelous thing! But that's not all!

BEA. Why, what more can there be?

FID. Mistress, in the night the people of Fiori Rose like a wind and swept the Duke's men down Like leaves! Your throne is empty,--and awaits you!

[Enter Giulietta,]

GIU. Madam.

BEA. Ay, Giulietta.

GIU. Madam, last night, Before you came, she bade me tell you something, And not forget. 'Tis this: That the foot stumbles, The hand doth awkward things, and the foolish tongue Says what it would not say,--but in the heart Truth lies,--and all is well 'twixt her and you.

[She starts to go out, and turns back at the door.]

She bade me above all things to forget not The last: that all is well 'twixt her and you. [Exit.]

BEA. [Slowly and with great content.] She is not gone from me. Oh, there be places Farther away than Death! She is returned From her long silence, and rings out above me Like a silver bell!--Let us go back, Fidelio, And gather up the fallen stones, and build us Another tower.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Lamp and the Bell, by Edna St. Vincent Millay