Page:Victor Hugo's Works (Guernsey Edition) v14.djvu/25

Rh

He trusts me!

Here! take my ring; your letters sealed with this,

My page Ascanio will bring me straight.

'T is but three hours' hard riding, and in six

I'm here again. Mark! write not on suspicion.

Let evil thought ripen to evil act,

That in the full flush of their guilty joys

I may strike sudden and strike home.

No Bentivoglio pardons.

Have a care!

Faenza is Manfredi's! These court-flies,

Who flutter in the sunshine of his favour,

Have stings; the pudding-headed citizens

Love his free ways,—he leaves their wives alone.

You play your own head, touching his.

Give me my vengeance,—then come what come may.

Enough! I am resolved. Now for the dance!

They shall not see a cloud upon my brow,

Though my heart ache and burn. I can smile, too,

On him and her. Bertuccio, remember! [Exit, followed by her women, R.

A blood-stone—apt reminder!

Does she think

That none but her have wrongs? That none but her

Means to revenge them? What! "No Bentivoglio

Pardons?" There is a certain vile Bertuccio,