_Enter_ Captain _with a band of_ Soldiers. _Capt._ The pistol was shot here; seize him! Bring lights. What, Don Sago, colonel of the horse? Ring the alarum-bell, raise the whole city; His troops are in the town; I fear treachery. 60 Who's this lies murder'd? Speak, bloodthirsty Spaniard! _Sago._ I have not spoil'd his face, you may know his visnomy. _Capt._ 'Tis Count Massino;[297] go convey him hence; Thy life, proud Spaniard, answers this offence. A strong guard for the prisoner, 'less the city's powers Rise to rescue him! [_Begirt him with soldiers._ _Sago._ What needs this strife? Know, slaves, I prize revenge above my life. Fame's register to future times shall tell That by Don Sago, Count Massino[297] fell! [_Exeunt omnes._ [288] Ed. 1631 and some copies of ed. 1613, "vote-killing."--The mandrake plant was supposed to shriek so poignantly when pulled from the ground, as to cause madness or death in the person who plucked it. [289] An allusion to the well-known superstition (to which there is a reference in _Hamlet_) that ghosts haunted the spot where they had concealed treasure in their lifetime. [290] The writer had certainly Hotspur's words in his memory:-- "That villainous salt-petre should be digg'd Out of the _bowels_ of the _harmless earth_."-- _1 Henry IV._ i. 2. [291] Qu. "Divine" or "Dear"? [292] Old eds. "ROGERO."--The prefix to his speeches is "_Rog._" [293] Ed. 1631 "cleane fac't." [294] An old form of "apostate." [295] I suppose it was left to the actor to explain shortly the history of Massino's relations with Isabella. [296] Old eds. "dead." [297] Old eds. "Rogero." ACT V. SCENE I. _Pavia.--The place of execution._ _Enter_[298] MEDINA, _followed by soldiers with the dead body of_ Count MASSINO _on a bier_; DON SAGO _guarded_, Executioner. _A scaffold laid out._ _Med._ Don Sago, quakest thou not to behold this spectacle-- This innocent sacrifice, murder'd nobleness-- When blood, the Maker ever promiseth, Shall though with slow yet with sure vengeance rest? 'Tis a guerdon earn'd, and must be paid; As sure revenge, as it is sure a deed; I ne'er knew murder yet, but it did bleed. Canst thou, after so many fearful conflicts Between this object and thy guilty conscience, Now thou art freed from out the serpent's jaws, 10 That vild adulteress, whose sorceries Doth draw chaste men into incontinence-- Whose tongue flows over with harmful eloquence-- Canst thou, I say, repent this heinous act, And learn to loathe that killing cockatrice?[299]