KING. O hearken, viceroy; hold Hieronimo! Brother, my nephew and thy son are slain! VICE. We are betray'd! my Balthazar is slain! Break ope the doors; run save Hieronimo! Hieronimo, do but inform the king of these events; Upon mine honour, thou shalt have no harm! HIERO. Viceroy, I will not trust thee with my life, Which I this day have offer'd to my son: Accursed wretch, why stayst thou him that was resolv'd to die? KING. Speak, traitor! damned, bloody murd'rer, speak!-- For, now I have thee, I will make thee speak! Why hast thou done this undeserving deed? VICE. Why hast thou murdered my Balthazar? CAS. Why hast thou butcher'd both my children thus? HIERO. O good words! As dear to me was Horatio As yours, or yours, my lord, to you. My guiltless son was by Lorenzo slain; And by Lorenzo and that Balthazar Am I at last revenged thoroughly,-- Upon whose souls may Heav'n be yet aveng'd With greater far than these afflictions! CAS. But who were thy confederates in this? VICE. That was thy daughter Bel-imperia; For by her hand my Balthazar was slain,-- I saw her stab him. KING. Why speak'st thou not? HIERO. What lesser liberty can kings afford Than harmless silence? Then afford it me! Sufficeth I may not nor I will not tell thee. KING. Fetch forth the tortures! Traitor as thou art, I'll make thee tell! HIERO. Indeed? Thou mayst torment me as his wretched son Hath done in murd'ring my Horatio; But never shalt thou force me to reveal The thing which I have vow'd inviolate. And therefore, in despite of all thy threats, Pleas'd with their deaths, and eas'd with their revenge, First take my tongue, and afterwards my heart! He bites out his tongue. KING. O monstrous resolution of a wretch! See, Viceroy, he hath bitten forth his tongue Rather than reveal what we require'd. CAS. Yet can he write. KING. And if in this he satisfy us not, We will devise th' extremest kind of death That ever was invented for a wretch. Then he makes signs for a knife to mend his pen. CAS. O, he would have a knife to mend his pen. VICE. Here; and advise thee that thou write the troth,-- Look to my brother! save Hieronimo! He with a knife stabs the DUKE and himself. KING. What age hath ever heard such monstrous deeds? My brother and the whole succeeding hope That Spain expected after my decease. Go bear his body hence, that we may mourn The loss of our beloved brother's death, That he may be entomb'd. Whate'er befall, I am the next, the nearest, last of all.