SAVELLA: Lady, my moments here Are counted. I must rouse him from his sleep, Since none else dare. LUCRETIA [ASIDE]: O, terror! O, despair! [TO BERNARDO.] Bernardo, conduct you the Lord Legate to _20 Your father's chamber. [EXEUNT SAVELLA AND BERNARDO.] [ENTER BEATRICE.] BEATRICE: 'Tis a messenger Come to arrest the culprit who now stands Before the throne of unappealable God. Both Earth and Heaven, consenting arbiters, Acquit our deed. LUCRETIA: Oh, agony of fear! _25 Would that he yet might live! Even now I heard The Legate's followers whisper as they passed They had a warrant for his instant death. All was prepared by unforbidden means Which we must pay so dearly, having done. _30 Even now they search the tower, and find the body; Now they suspect the truth; now they consult Before they come to tax us with the fact; O, horrible, 'tis all discovered! BEATRICE: Mother, What is done wisely, is done well. Be bold _35 As thou art just. 'Tis like a truant child To fear that others know what thou hast done, Even from thine own strong consciousness, and thus Write on unsteady eyes and altered cheeks All thou wouldst hide. Be faithful to thyself, _40 And fear no other witness but thy fear. For if, as cannot be, some circumstance Should rise in accusation, we can blind Suspicion with such cheap astonishment, Or overbear it with such guiltless pride, _45 As murderers cannot feign. The deed is done, And what may follow now regards not me. I am as universal as the light; Free as the earth-surrounding air; as firm As the world's centre. Consequence, to me, _50 Is as the wind which strikes the solid rock, But shakes it not. [A CRY WITHIN AND TUMULT.] VOICES: Murder! Murder! Murder! [ENTER BERNARDO AND SAVELLA.] SAVELLA [TO HIS FOLLOWERS]: Go search the castle round; sound the alarm; Look to the gates, that none escape! BEATRICE: What now? BERNARDO: I know not what to say...my father's dead. _55 BEATRICE: How; dead! he only sleeps; you mistake, brother. His sleep is very calm, very like death; 'Tis wonderful how well a tyrant sleeps. He is not dead? BERNARDO: Dead; murdered. LUCRETIA [WITH EXTREME AGITATION]: Oh no, no! He is not murdered though he may be dead; _60 I have alone the keys of those apartments. SAVELLA: Ha! Is it so? BEATRICE: My Lord, I pray excuse us; We will retire; my mother is not well: She seems quite overcome with this strange horror. [EXEUNT LUCRETIA AND BEATRICE.] SAVELLA: Can you suspect who may have murdered him? _65 BERNARDO: I know not what to think. SAVELLA: Can you name any Who had an interest in his death?