Collected Works of Rafael Sabatini

by Rafael Sabatini

  [The EXECUTIONERS take themselves off by the doorway left.

  VALENTINOIS (to Agabito): You can go, Agabito. Your work is done for to-night. But leave me that letter, and the transcript. (He takes it from Agabito.)

  AGABITO (affably, as he departs): A happy night, magnificent.

  VALENTINOIS: Good-night! Good-night!

  [AGABITO goes up.

  VALENTINOIS: Bid Scipione bring Ramirez. But do not yet remove the guard from the gallery door.

  [AGABITO goes off by gallery. VALENTINOIS sits conning the paper.

  VALENTINOIS (reading): ‘All is ready’...’My aims.’ My aims. What aims?

  [SCIPIONE enters, carrying Ramirez’ sword in the crook of his arm. RAMIREZ follows him. Stepping forward, the latter puts out his hands appealingly.

  RAMIREZ: My lord, I am an unworthy fool, but...

  VALENTINOIS (forbiddingly): Wait! (To Scipione.) Set that sword on the table, there. (Valentinois folds the letter into its original creases.) Here, Scipione. It’s a plain seal. See it mended, and then have the letter conveyed into Solignola and delivered to Count Guido. Let one of your own men take it, disguising himself as a clown. And mark this: you are to capture no more messengers at present.

  SCIPIONE: I am to allow letters to pass into Solignola?

  VALENTINOIS: Freely and unchallenged. Such messages as they receive are likely to lull their vigilance, and we shall find it easier to complete the mine without interference. I shall ride over in the morning with Micheletto, and give you clear instructions about the excavations, and also about mounting batteries elsewhere as a blind upon our real aim. You may go.

  SCIPIONE (bowing): Highness!

  [He goes out, after an intrigued and sympathetic glance in the direction of the waiting Ramirez. VALENTINOIS sits down at the table. As the door closes, he takes up the sword, and looks at Ramirez.

  VALENTINOIS: Well, Ramirez? You had something to say to me, I think.

  RAMIREZ: Only to plead with your highness. I admit my fault. I am a hot-blooded, quick-tempered scoundrel, and I deserve your anger. But I urge my tried loyalty as a plea for more merciful punishment than dismissal from your service.

  VALENTINOIS: You find it harsh?

  RAMIREZ: Almost as harsh and dishonouring as the epithet your highness cast at me. To call me “dog”and publicly! I am a soldier, scarred in your service and of proven excellence as a leader...

  VALENTINOIS: And of an equally proven fidelity to me. Am I a fool, Ramirez, or are you?

  RAMIREZ: Your highness means?

  VALENTINOIS: I have not many servants like you, Ramirez; hardly another whom I esteem so highly; certainly no other whom I trust more fully. To dismiss you for a trivial fault, I must be a fool. To believe that I could mean it, you must be a fool.

  RAMIREZ: I don’t understand.

  VALENTINOIS: Dullard! I dismissed you publicly in the terms I employed, for the belief of others, not your own. If I called you “dog” in public, I call you “friend” in private. It was necessary for the service I require of you.

  [He holds out the sword to Ramirez. RAMIREZ bounds forward to take it.

  RAMIREZ: Highness!

  VALENTINOIS: Listen. There is a plot here in Assisi, which aims at my liberty, possibly at my life. Go forth now, breathing vengeance, a man bitterly wronged, dismissed before witnesses, harshly and with infamy. Denounce me publicly in terms as infamous. Proclaim me a thief, a liar, a murderer, what you will. But let yourself be freely heard. Announce it as your aim, henceforth, to avenge the affront I put upon you. Make big talk of your impugned Castilian honour. You will not have long to waIt before your hate is offered employment. You will be just the tool for treacherous hands. You understand?

  RAMIREZ: Completely. I am your man, my lord.

  VALENTINOIS: Good! About it, then, my friend.

  RAMIREZ: The taverns of Assisi shall ring to-night with your highness’s misdeeds.

  VALENTINOIS: Excellent! The ambassadors of the Most Serene Republic will imagine themselves back in Venice.

  RAMIREZ: Oh, if I had but known...

  VALENTINOIS: Your instincts should have told you. Call Micheletto, as you go. God be with you!

  [RAMIREZ opens the door and calls.

  RAMIREZ: Micheletto! To the duke!

  [CORELLA appears on the threshold.

  VALENTINOIS: Let Diego Ramirez go. He is free.

  CORELLA (eagerly): Your highness has...

  VALENTINOIS (forbiddingly): He is free. That is all.

  RAMIREZ goes out.

  VALENTINOIS: You may go. Remove the guards from the end of the gallery. Let my guests roam at will.

  [CORELLA departs by the gallery, leaving the door open. Dance-music begins again in the distance.

  [VALENTINOIS sits a moment silently meditative. Then he takes up the transcript of the letter, scans it, and reads it aloud.

  VALENTINOIS: “Within a week I count upon an opportunity to carry out my aims.” Within a week! Ha!

  [He holds the sheet in the flame of one of the candles, whereby it is consumed. As it burns the voices of several men and women, gay and laughing, are heard off left. Presently one voice emerges clearly from the confused aggregate of sound.

  PANTHASILEA (off): Where do you say that the duke hides himself?

  [VALENTINOIS raises his head sharply, his eyes gleam. CORELLA’S voice is heard vaguely answering.

  CORELLA (off): He is in the ante-chamber.

  [A moment later PANTHASILEA with SINIBALDI and REMOLINO enter along the gallery. PANTHASILEA’S manner is gay, laughter vibrates through her words. Gorgeously dressed, a mask hangs from her wrist.

  PANTHASILEA: Here is his highness! Fled to shelter from the chatter of his guests.

  VALENTINOIS (rising): The rebuke is merited, madonna. I am an indifferent host.

  PANTHASILEA: Oh, worse — far worse — an insensible one. Your magnificence fled the dance with which you had engaged yourself to honour me.

  VALENTINOIS: But how reluctantly! Driven by the merciless duties of my office.

  [She conies down, her companions following. Looking through the doorway on the left, and perceiving the nature of the place, she checks and shudders. She speaks in a voice laden with horror.

  PANTHASILEA: Your duties brought you here!

  VALENTINOIS: Yes. But those engines were not concerned in it. I merely came to a council with my officers on the means for reducing Solignola.

  PANTHASILEA: They tell me that it is a very strong place. Does your highness look to reduce it soon?

  VALENTINOIS: Within ten days at most. Within a week if I am fortunate. Oh, yes— “within a week I count upon an opportunity to carry out my aims.”

  [The phrase touches a memory in Panthasilea’s mind. Her eyes dilate.

  SINIBALDI: That were a speedy solution, indeed, highness.

  VALENTINOIS (laughing, carelessly): Pooh! I am not concerned to make it speedier. That is all. Although his Holiness is clamouring for my return to Rome, I can no longer be in haste to go. (He looks intently at Panthasilea.) I have found too much to attract and hold me here in Assisi.

  [He bows to her. She laughs nervously.

  PANTHASILEA: Remembering how you fled the dance. I cannot suspect that the attraction is supplied by any of your guests.

  VALENTINOIS: It is your pleasure to be cruel. I have pleaded my excuse. Show me that I am forgiven by suffering me to make amends. The music calls us, Monna Bianca. Shall we go?

  PANTHASILEA: With all my heart. (Glancing left again.) I am chilled with horror here.

  [He takes her hand to lead her out, signing to the others to precede him. SINIBALDI and REMOLINO go up. He follows with her; then, checks to answer.

  VALENTINOIS: I should have spared you that. It is a sight for felons only — specially for those unspeakable creatures who by betrayal and falsehood burrow to their ends. It is haunted by the anguish to which their treachery brought them in the end. Ah! it makes you shudder! Well it may. Come,
Monna Bianca. Let us find a setting more proper for the rare jewel of your beauty.

  [He bows low over her hand, bearing it towards his lips. She withdraws it, crying out in protest.

  PANTHASILEA: Highness! Too great an honour!

  VALENTINOIS: An honour I must pay this lovely hand, even though I perceived it to carry death for me.

  [As bending again he kisses it, she looks straight before her in sheer terror.

  [From the gallery, SINIBALDI looks on slyly exultant, CARDINAL REMOLINO smiling indulgently.

  THE CURTAIN SLOWLY FALLS.

  ACT III

  A Room in the Pieve Palace at Assisi.

  A nobly proportioned room, the walls tapestried, the ceiling frescoed, the floor paved in black and white marbles.

  In the back flat three glass doors open upon a balustraded terrace. Three steps from the stage level lead up to these doors. Beyond the balustrade we see a moonlit garden, dimly figured on the back cloth, with spear-like cypresses standing black against the faintly luminous sky.

  There are four sets of twin pillars at the back, two of these being placed between the windows, the other two flanking them. A rod crosses these pillars near their capitals, carrying leather curtains which are gilded, and tinted in dull reds and blues.

  There are double doors in the right flat; about midway up and above them, this flat sets on an angle to the back, with a small single door in it. This is the door to Panthasilea’s bedroom.

  There is a large, projecting fireplace with a broad overmantel low down on the left. Below this stands an armchair. Raked across stage, just above the fireplace, there is a long settle of carved wood, with leather cushions. Above this settle stands a wooden lectern on which an open volume — an illuminated manuscript. A little to the right of midstage there is a fairly substantial table, at which are placed two armchairs, all of carved and gilded wood, the chairs being upholstered in wrought and tinted leather. On this table a gold salver, bearing a gold beaker, and three tall venetian glasses.

  A candlebranch of gold carrying six lighted candles is placed upon the broad overmantel. From this the room is suffused with golden light, which contrasts with the cold moonlight outside.

  AT RISE OF CURTAIN the middle window stands open to the terrace.

  GIULIA is alone, lounging on the settle.

  [Immediately the doors R. are opened by GIOVANNI, who ENTERS.

  [GIULIA swings her feet to the ground, and sits up.

  GIULIA: What is it, Giovanni?

  GIOVANNI: Prince Sinibaldi is here, Monna Giulia, craving audience of madonna.

  GIULIA (rising): Madonna is in her room. But admit his excellency. I will call her.

  [GIOVANNI bows, and holding the doors open ushers SINIBALDI, then withdraws.

  GIOVANNI: This way, excellency.

  [SINIBALDI comes in quickly. He is wrapped in a cloak, and he carries a broad round hat. These he casts aside as he advances.

  SINIBALDI: Monna Panthasilea...Where is she?

  GIULIA: Sh! My lord! That name is never mentioned here. Monna Bianca is in her room. I will call her.

  SINIBALDI: Pray do.

  [As she is turning again, SINIBALDI’S voice arrests her.

  SINIBALDI: Stay, Monna Giulia! Tell me: What is it that has miscarried in our plans?

  GIULIA (at a loss): Miscarried, excellency?

  SINIBALDI: Why have the duke’s visits ceased abruptly? For two days — yesterday and to-day — he has not been near your lady. Does he...does he suspect?

  GIULIA: How does your excellency know that he has not been?

  SINIBALDI: How do I know? Just as I know — just as all Assisi knows — that for four days he was assiduous in his visits. For two hours and more each afternoon the street was blocked by his waiting escort.

  GIULIA (laughing): That is why.

  SINIBALDI: That is why? Why what?

  GIULIA: By his devotion he was rendering madonna the talk of all Assisi. For her reputation’s sake she desired him to practise more discretion.

  SINIBALDI: Discretion! Surely this is not a time for prudish qualms!

  [PANTHASILEA enters from her bedroom, of which a glimpse is obtained as the door opens.

  GIULIA: Here comes madonna herself.

  [SINIBALDI swings round. PANTHASILEA advances into the room; then pauses, considering him.

  PANTHASILEA: Prince Sinibaldi! Is this wise? If you were seen entering my house...

  SINIBALDI: What then? It is known that I am acquainted with Monna Bianca Bracci of Spoleto. Have we not danced together at the Communal? How, then, is it strange that like the Lord Cesare Borgia, I should come to pay my homage to the fairest lady in Assisi?

  PANTHASILEA (advancing and speaking coldly): Is that all that brings you?

  SINIBALDI: I would it were. I come in apprehension — to inquire why Valentino’s visits have ceased at such a moment.

  [PANTHASILEA’S manner is chill and aloof. She is a woman moving now mechanically in a task that has become repellent. Her distaste for SINIBALDI is manifest, and merely held in check by her appreciation of his position and her own.

  PANTHASILEA: Have they ceased?

  SINIBALDI: For two days — yesterday and to-day — he has not been here, and I understand from Monna Giulia that this is by your own desire.

  PANTHASILEA: Naturally. It was not possible for me to have Valentino seized whilst his escort was at my door.

  [SINIBALDI is momentarily nonplussed. PANTHASILEA: A cup of wine, Lord Prince?

  SINIBALDI (starting out of his brooding): Wine? No. No wine, I thank you. Madonna, I do not understand.

  PANTHASILEA: So you presume to question. I shall be glad to know your right.

  SINIBALDI: No, no. I am not here to question, but to warn. And now, it seems, I am too late.

  PANTHASILEA: To warn, do you say?

  SINIBALDI: I have just received word from a sure source that the final assault upon Solignola will be delivered at any moment now.

  [There is a movement of dismay from PANTHASILEA. She stands stricken and bemused whilst SINIBALDI continues:

  SINIBALDI: Once that is done, Valentino will depart for Rome, and there is an end to this fine opportunity.

  PANTHASILEA (commanding herself): True. But why assume that already it is too late?

  SINIBALDI: If already Valentino should have paid you his last visit...

  PANTHASILEA: He has not. He will be here soon.

  SINIBALDI (startled): Eh?

  PANTHASILEA: I expect him at the second hour of night.

  SINIBALDI (amazed): What? You have given him an assignation? Here?

  PANTHASILEA: How else was it to be contrived? Now you understand why I bade him visit me no more, on the ground that his escort waiting in the street was destructive of my reputation.

  SINIBALDI: Yes, yes! And so?

  PANTHASILEA And so, desiring neither to render me a subject for scandal, nor yet to forgo his visits, he did as I expected — he begged the key of the garden gate that he might come in secret and alone.

  SINIBALDI: By Heaven! But that was shrewdly played, madonna!

  [PANTHASILEA turns to GIULIA.

  PANTHASILEA: Bid them send Santafiora to me here at once.

  [GIULIA nods, and goes out.

  PANTHASILEA: I am glad your excellency approves me.

  SINIBALDI,: Approve you? I am lost in wonder. You...you have no doubt...You...are sure that he will come?

  PANTHASILEA: Oh, yes. He came last night; and he will come again.

  SINIBALDI: He came last night, do you say?

  PANTHASILEA: I said so. Yes. (Half defiantly.)

  SINIBALDI (between amazement and anger): He came last night, and you allowed him to depart again?

  [She is silent, hanging her head a little. His indignation rises, fanned by suspicion.

  SINIBALDI: What does it mean? Can that squeamish fool Gianluca have been pestering you again?

  PANTHASILEA: Gianluca? Gianluca is sulking. I have not seen him s
ince I dismissed him a week ago.

  SINIBALDI: But then...?

  PANTHASILEA (a little lamely) My preparations were not quite complete. I...I could not risk a failure.