So be it justice it can go its way;
But if it be not justice -
LORD JUSTICE
Who is this?
COUNT BARDI
A very noble gentleman, and well known
To the late Duke.
LORD JUSTICE
Sir, thou art come in time
To see the murder of the Duke avenged.
There stands the man who did this heinous thing.
MORANZONE
My lord,
I ask again what proof have ye?
LORD JUSTICE
[holding up the dagger]
This dagger,
Which from his bloodstained hands, itself all blood,
Last night the soldiers seized: what further proof
Need we indeed?
MORANZONE
[takes the danger and approaches the DUCHESS]
Saw I not such a dagger
Hang from your Grace’s girdle yesterday?
[The DUCHESS shudders and makes no answer.]
Ah! my Lord Justice, may I speak a moment
With this young man, who in such peril stands?
LORD JUSTICE
Ay, willingly, my lord, and may you turn him
To make a full avowal of his guilt.
[LORD MORANZONE goes over to GUIDO, who stands R. and clutches him by the hand.]
MORANZONE
[in a low voice]
She did it! Nay, I saw it in her eyes.
Boy, dost thou think I’ll let thy father’s son
Be by this woman butchered to his death?
Her husband sold your father, and the wife
Would sell the son in turn.
GUIDO
Lord Moranzone,
I alone did this thing: be satisfied,
My father is avenged.
LORD JUSTICE
Doth he confess?
GUIDO
My lord, I do confess
That foul unnatural murder has been done.
FIRST CITIZEN
Why, look at that: he has a pitiful heart, and does not like murder; they will let him go for that.
LORD JUSTICE
Say you no more?
GUIDO
My lord, I say this also,
That to spill human blood is deadly sin.
SECOND CITIZEN
Marry, he should tell that to the headsman: ‘tis a good sentiment.
GUIDO
Lastly, my lord, I do entreat the Court
To give me leave to utter openly
The dreadful secret of this mystery,
And to point out the very guilty one
Who with this dagger last night slew the Duke.
LORD JUSTICE
Thou hast leave to speak.
DUCHESS
[rising]
I say he shall not speak:
What need have we of further evidence?
Was he not taken in the house at night
In Guilt’s own bloody livery?
LORD JUSTICE
[showing her the statute]
Your Grace
Can read the law.
DUCHESS
[waiving book aside]
Bethink you, my Lord Justice,
Is it not very like that such a one
May, in the presence of the people here,
Utter some slanderous word against my Lord,
Against the city, or the city’s honour,
Perchance against myself.
LORD JUSTICE
My liege, the law.
DUCHESS
He shall not speak, but, with gags in his mouth,
Shall climb the ladder to the bloody block.
LORD JUSTICE
The law, my liege.
DUCHESS
We are not bound by law,
But with it we bind others.
MORANZONE
My Lord Justice,
Thou wilt not suffer this injustice here.
LORD JUSTICE
The Court needs not thy voice, Lord Moranzone.
Madam, it were a precedent most evil
To wrest the law from its appointed course,
For, though the cause be just, yet anarchy
Might on this licence touch these golden scales
And unjust causes unjust victories gain.
COUNT BARDI
I do not think your Grace can stay the law.
DUCHESS
Ay, it is well to preach and prate of law:
Methinks, my haughty lords of Padua,
If ye are hurt in pocket or estate,
So much as makes your monstrous revenues
Less by the value of one ferry toll,
Ye do not wait the tedious law’s delay
With such sweet patience as ye counsel me.
COUNT BARDI
Madam, I think you wrong our nobles here.
DUCHESS
I think I wrong them not. Which of you all
Finding a thief within his house at night,
With some poor chattel thrust into his rags,
Will stop and parley with him? do ye not
Give him unto the officer and his hook
To be dragged gaolwards straightway?
And so now,
Had ye been men, finding this fellow here,
With my Lord’s life still hot upon his hands,
Ye would have haled him out into the court,
And struck his head off with an axe.