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