Chapter 61
The Governor, a crowd of People; then FABIUS, LELIUS, and FLORUS, all astonished; afterwards The Demon.
LIVIA. Sure the house is tumbling down.
MOSCON. How terrific! what a tempest!
GOVERNOR. Doubtless in disastrous ruin Topple down the walls of heaven
[The tempest is renewed, and enter FABIUS, LELIUS, and FLORUS.
FABIUS. Scarcely on the public scaffold Had the headsman's hand dissevered Cyprian and Justina's necks, When the earth, even to its centre, Seemed to tremble.
LELIUS. And a cloud, From whose burning womb extended The wild lightnings, the loud thunders, Awful embryos were projected, Fell upon us.
FLORUS. From which issued A most horrid, most repelling Shape, who on the scaly shells Of a mailed and mighty serpent, O'er the scaffold made a sign Motioning silence and attention.
[The Scene opens, and a scaffold with the heads and bodies of JUSTINA and CYPRIAN is seen. Over it in the air, upon a winged serpent, is The Demon.
DEMON. Hear, O mortals, hear what I, By the orders of high Heaven, For Justina's exculpation, Must declare to all here present. I it was, who to dishonour Her pure fame, in form dissembled For the purpose, scaled her house, And her very chamber entered. And in order that her fame Should not by that fraud be lessened, I come here her injured honour To exhibit pure and perfect. Cyprian, who with her lieth On a happy bier at rest there, Was my slave. But he effacing, With the blood his neck outsheddeth, The red signature, the linen Is now spotless and unblemished. And the two, in spite of me, Having to the spheres ascended Of the sacred throne of God, Live there in a world far better.-- This, then, is the truth, which I Tell, because God makes me tell it, Much against my will, my practice Not being great as a truth-teller. [He falls swiftly, and sinks into the earth.
LIVIA. Oh! what horror!
FLORUS. What confusion!
LIVIA. What a prodigy!
MOSCON. What terror!
GOVERNOR. These are all but the enchantments Which this sorcerer effected At his death.
FLORUS. I am in doubt To believe them or reject them.
LELIUS. The mere thought of them confounds me.
CLARIN. If magician, it is certain, As I hold, he must have been The magician then of heaven.
MOSCON. Leaving our partitioned love In a rather odd dilemma, For "The Wonderful Magician" Ask the pardon of its errors.