Well then--May damnation overtake the vile assassin! MARINELLI. A rival--a favoured rival too. ODOARDO. How? Favoured? What say you? MARINELLI. Nothing but what fame reports. ODOARDO. Favoured? favoured by my daughter? MARINELLI. Certainly not. That cannot be. Were you to say it I would contradict it. But, on this account, your Highness, though no prejudice, however well-grounded, can be of any weight in the scale of justice, it will, nevertheless, be absolutely necessary that the unfortunate lady should be examined. PRINCE. True--undoubtedly. MARINELLI. And where can this be done but in Guastalla? PRINCE. There you are right, Marinelli, there you are right.--This alters the affair, dear Galotti. Is it not so. You yourself must see---- ODOARDO. Yes! I see----what I see. O God! O God! PRINCE. What now? What is the matter? ODOARDO. I am only angry with myself for not having foreseen what I now perceive. Well, then--she shall return to Guastalla. I will take her to her mother, and till she has been acquitted, after the most rigid examination, I myself will not leave Guastalla. For who knows--(_with a bitter smile of irony_)--who knows whether the court of justice may not think it necessary to examine me? MARINELLI. It is very possible. In such cases justice rather does too much than too little. I therefore even fear---- PRINCE. What? What do you fear? MARINELLI. That the mother and daughter will not, at present, be suffered to confer together. ODOARDO. Not confer together? MARINELLI. It will be necessary to keep mother and daughter apart. ODOARDO. To keep mother and daughter apart? MARINELLI. The mother, the daughter, and the father. The forms of the court absolutely enjoin this caution; and I assure your Highness that it pains me that I must enforce the necessity of at least placing Emilia in strict security. ODOARDO. In strict security!--Oh, Prince, Prince!--Butyes--right!--of course, of course! In strict security! Is it not so, Prince? Oh! justice! oh justice is a fine thing! Excellent! (_Hastily puts his hand into the pocket in which he had concealed the dagger_.) PRINCE (_in a soothing tone_). Compose yourself, dear Galotti. ODOARDO (_aside, drawing his hand, without the dagger, from his pocket_). There spoke his guardian angel.