Odoardo. ODOARDO (_after a pause, during which his eyes follow the_ Prince). Why not? Most willingly. Ha! ha! ha! (_Looks wildly around_.) Who laughed? By Heaven I believe it was myself. 'Tis well. I will be merry. The game is near an end. Thus must it be, or thus. But--(_pauses_)--how if she were in league with him? How if this were the usual deception? How if she were not worthy of what I am about to do for her? (_Pauses again_.) And what am I about to do for her? Have I a heart to name it even to myself? A thought comes to me--a thought which can be but a thought. Horrible!--I will go. I will not wait until she comes. (_Raises his eyes towards Heaven_.) If she be innocent, let Him who plunged her into this abyss, extricate her from it. He needs not my hand. I will away. (_As he is going he espies_ Emilia.) Ha! 'Tis too late. My hand is required--He requires it. Scene VII. Emilia, Odoardo. _Enter_ Emilia. EMILIA. How! Ton here, my father? And you alone--without the Count--without my mother? So uneasy, too, my father? ODOARDO. And you so much at ease, my daughter? EMILIA. Why should I not be so, my father? Either all is lost, or nothing. To be able to be at ease, and to be obliged to be at ease, do they not come to the same thing! ODOARDO. But what do you suppose to be the case? EMILIA. That all is lost--therefore that we must be at ease, my father. ODOARDO. And you are at ease, because necessity requires it? Who are you? A girl; my daughter? Then should the man and the father be ashamed of you. But let me hear. What mean you when you say that all is lost?--that Count Appiani is dead? EMILIA. And why is he dead? Why? Ha! It is, then, true, my father--the horrible tale is true which I read in my mother's tearful and wild looks. Where is my mother? Where has she gone? ODOARDO. She is gone before us--if we could but follow her. EMILIA. Oh, the sooner the better. For if the Count be dead--if he was doomed to die on that account--Ha! Why do we stay here? Let us fly, my father. ODOARDO. Fly! Where is the necessity? You are in the hands of your ravisher, and will there remain. EMILIA. I remain in his hands? ODOARDO. And alone--without your mother--without me. EMILIA.