[_A groan from the_ DUKE’S _chamber again_.] Did you not hear a voice? MORANZONE I always hear, From the dim confines of some sepulchre, A voice that cries for vengeance. We waste time, It will be morning soon; are you resolved You will not kill the Duke? GUIDO I am resolved. MORANZONE O wretched father, lying unavenged. GUIDO More wretched, were thy son a murderer. MORANZONE Why, what is life? GUIDO I do not know, my lord, I did not give it, and I dare not take it. MORANZONE I do not thank God often; but I think I thank him now that I have got no son! And you, what bastard blood flows in your veins That when you have your enemy in your grasp You let him go! I would that I had left you With the dull hinds that reared you. GUIDO Better perhaps That you had done so! May be better still I’d not been born to this distressful world. MORANZONE Farewell! GUIDO Farewell! Some day, Lord Moranzone, You will understand my vengeance. MORANZONE Never, boy. [_Gets out of window and exit by rope ladder_.] GUIDO Father, I think thou knowest my resolve, And with this nobler vengeance art content. Father, I think in letting this man live That I am doing what thou wouldst have done. Father, I know not if a human voice Can pierce the iron gateway of the dead, Or if the dead are set in ignorance Of what we do, or do not, for their sakes. And yet I feel a presence in the air, There is a shadow standing at my side, And ghostly kisses seem to touch my lips, And leave them holier. [_Kneels down_.] O father, if ’tis thou, Canst thou not burst through the decrees of death, And if corporeal semblance show thyself, That I may touch thy hand! No, there is nothing. [_Rises_.] ’Tis the night that cheats us with its phantoms, And, like a puppet-master, makes us think That things are real which are not. It grows late. Now must I to my business. [_Pulls out a letter from his doublet and reads it_.] When he wakes, And sees this letter, and the dagger with it, Will he not have some loathing for his life, Repent, perchance, and lead a better life, Or will he mock because a young man spared His natural enemy? I do not care. Father, it is thy bidding that I do, Thy bidding, and the bidding of my love Which teaches me to know thee as thou art. [_Ascends staircase stealthily_, _and just as he reaches out his hand to draw back the curtain the Duchess appears all in white_. GUIDO _starts back_.] DUCHESS Guido! what do you here so late? GUIDO O white and spotless angel of my life, Sure thou hast come from Heaven with a message That mercy is more noble than revenge? DUCHESS There is no barrier between us now. GUIDO None, love, nor shall be. DUCHESS I have seen to that. GUIDO