Now, sir alchemist, Linger as long as it may suit thy pleasure-- 'Tis mine to tarry here. Oh, by San John, I'll turn philosopher myself, and do Some good at last in this benighted world! Now how like demons on the ascending smoke, Making grimaces, leaps the laughing flame, Filling the room with a mysterious haze, Which rolls and writhes along the shadowy air, Taking a thousand strange, fantastic forms; And every form is lit with burning eyes, Which pierce me through and through like fiery arrows! The dim walls grow unsteady, and I seem To stand upon a reeling deck! Hold, hold! A hundred crags are toppling overhead. I faint, I sink--now, let me clutch that limb-- Oh, devil! It breaks to ashes in my grasp! What ghost is that which beckons through the mist? The duke! the duke! and bleeding at the breast! Whose dagger struck the blow? (_Enter Giacomo._) _Gia._ Mine, villain, mine! What! thou'st set the other two aburning? Impatient dog, thou cheat'st me to the last! I should have done the deed--and yet 'tis well. Thou diest by thine own dull hardihood! _Ber._ Ha! is it so? Then follow thou! _Gia._ My time Is not quite yet, this antidote shall place A bar between us for a little while. (_He raises a vial to his lips, drinks, and flings it aside._) _Ber._ (_Rallying._) Come, give it me-- _Gia._ Ha, ha! I drained it all! There is the broken vial. _Ber._ Is there no arm To save me from the abyss? _Gia._ No, villain, sink! And take this cursed record of thy plot, (_He thrusts a paper into Bernardo's hand,_) And it shall gain thee speedy entrance at Th' infernal gate! (_Bernardo reads, reels and falls._) _Gia._ (_Looking on the body._) Poor miserable dust! This body now is honest as the best, The very best of earth, lie where it may. This mantle must conceal the thing from sight, For soon Rosalia, as I bade her, shall Be here. Oh, Heaven! vouchsafe to me the power To do this last stern act of justice. Thou Who called the child of Jairus from the dead, Assist a stricken father now to raise His sinless daughter from the bier of shame. And may her soul, unconscious of the deed, Forever walk the azure fields of heaven. (_Enter Rosalia, dressed in simple white, bearing a small golden crucifix in her hand._) _Ros._ Dear father, in obedience, I have come-- But where's Bernardo? _Gia._ Gone to watch the stars; To see old solitary Saturn whirl Like poor Ixion on his burning wheel-- He is our patron orb to-night, my child. _Ros._ I do not know what strange experiment Thou'dst have me see, but in my heart I feel That He, in whose remembrance this was made (_looking at the cross_) Should be chief patron of our thoughts and acts. Since vesper time--I know not how it was-- I could do naught but kneel and tell my prayers.