The Venetian. Frank J. Morlock

a marvelous scheme, Milord, and I don’t see anything which is preventing this plan from succeeding for you have without doubt for me an order from the Council.

      COUNT

      What do you mean?

      BRAVO

      Which enjoins me to rid Venice of an old geezer suspected of virtue, forearmed with delicacy and very religiously determined to guard the honor of a young girl!

      COUNT

      Why haven’t you understood me?

      BRAVO

      On the contrary, Milord, I have understood you and perfectly. Why you told me the first, what you wanted and it’s my turn now to tell you what I want, an order from the Council.

      COUNT

      (pulling out a purse full of money)

      Wait, here it is.

      BRAVO

      (pushing it away)

      The Republic is magnificent, Milord; it rewards richly those who serve it, it covers with gold the weapon each time it spills blood—it’s a jealous mistress to whom I do not wish to be unfaithful—I want an official order—

      COUNT

      Why such a scruple on your part astonishes me, confounds me.

      BRAVO

      I have a bargain in blood with the Republic—it’s true Count Bellamonte—your father was a member of the Council when this bargain was imposed on me—as for him, he knew what motive had make me put this dagger in hand and this mask on my face; your father would not have come to me making the demand you are—I want an order.

      COUNT

      But if I obtain that order you won’t have committed one less murder.

      BRAVO

      For which I will answer to men—but which the Council of Ten will join me in answering before God.

      COUNT

      Well; since you absolutely must have an order you will get it. The old man is coming from Genoa, Genoa is at war with the Republic, and that man that no one knows here is without any doubt a spy of the Doria. I shall have the order and I will have it nailed to your door as is the custom of this tribunal.

      Think now, that it will be no longer be to me, but to the Council, that you will render an account of your obedience.

      BRAVO

      That’s fine.

      COUNT

      Goodbye—don’t forget—behind the bridge of Paglia, facing the house of the gondolier Luigi.

      BRAVO

      Goodbye, Count.

      (The Count leaves.)

      BRAVO

      (alone)

      The day is not yet over it seems. The Republic is very hard to serve. No matter, let’s profit by the hour that is left to me.

      (removing his mask which he hangs on a hook)

      Infernal mask!

      (removing his dagger which he places on a table)

      Cursed dagger!

      Which makes itself a part of me—as if the hand of God had imprinted the mask on my face and the other nailed to my belt.

      Oh! Let my mouth breathe—now I am a man like all other men—ah!

      (he stretches out, overcome, on the bed)

      (Salfieri appears outside and jumps with agility into the room.)

      BRAVO

      Who goes there?

      SALFIERI

      Greetings to your Lordship.

      BRAVO

      (rushing to his dagger)

      Who are you?

      SALFIERI

      A man against whom you have no need to draw this dagger—for you can kill me with a word—I’m proscribed.

      BRAVO

      And why come in like this, thorough the window?

      SALFIERI

      Because you probably would not have opened the door to me.

      BRAVO

      What do you want?

      SALFIERI

      An asylum for the night.

      BRAVO

      And if I refuse, what will happen?

      SALFIERI

      Only something very simple, six years ago, I left Venice under weight of a death warrant—a motive more powerful than my life has brought me back.

      A ship let me off on the beach—and if I get back to it in an hour, it is my vessel. I no longer know a single friend in Venice.

      Your protection is my life—your refusal is my death. If you refuse me, we are both young—you have a dagger—I have one. The chances are equal—if you kill me, I have no need of asylum tonight; if I kill you, my refuge is found. I no more fear sleeping near a dead enemy than beside a living friend.

      BRAVO

      And if, on the contrary, I protect you?

      SALFIERI

      You will have done an immense service to a man who will remember it eternally.

      BRAVO

      (extending his hand)

      Put it there.

      SALFIERI

      Thanks.

      BRAVO

      Now, I am going to close this window for I am no longer alone.

      (coming back)

      Well?

      SALFIERI

      Well, my host—I am at your orders. Do you want to stay up, I’ll stay up. Do you want to sleep—toss yourself on this bed and I will toss myself on this cloak—are you disposed to do for me more than you have done so far? I will tell you what brings me to Venice—for what purpose I have come—what woman I am pursuing—what man I am seeking—then, if you cause me to speak to his man, or to meet this woman, you will be more to me than a protector, than a friend, you will be a god.

      BRAVO

      Speak and what I can do I will do.

      SALFIERI

      I’m exiled over a political affair, there’s only one thing that can make an exile forget his country—it’s love. Proscribed by the Republic of Venice, I found exile in the Republic of Genoa—by chance, I met a young girl, I loved her, she loved me, I forgot everything.

      BRAVO

      That’s really a youthful head and a youthful heart—that’s really love.

      SALFIERI

      Yes, yes—for six months I had only one thought—her—all my days were spent waiting for night, because, guarded as she was, only at night could I see her. Then I crossed over the garden wall. Confident and pure as a Madonna, she came to open up for me—and I, timid and childishly amorous, I lay at her feet seeking my life in her eyes—forgetting the past which was slipping away without her, happy in the present I felt was mine—confident in a future I believed was ours—

      BRAVO

      That’s really the way the mad hours of youth are spent, I remember myself—

      SALFIERI

      One night I came as usual—I found open the door that Violetta