_Doge_. Not so--but I have set my little left[419] Of life upon this cast: the die was thrown When I first listened to your treason.--Start not! _That_ is the word; I cannot shape my tongue To syllable black deeds into smooth names, Though I be wrought on to commit them. When I heard you tempt your Sovereign, and forbore 60 To have you dragged to prison, I became Your guiltiest accomplice: now you may, If it so please you, do as much by me. _I. Ber_. Strange words, my Lord, and most unmerited; I am no spy, and neither are we traitors. _Doge_. _We--We!_--no matter--you have earned the right To talk of _us_.--But to the point.--If this Attempt succeeds, and Venice, rendered free And flourishing, when we are in our graves, Conducts her generations to our tombs, 70 And makes her children with their little hands Strew flowers o'er her deliverers' ashes, then The consequence will sanctify the deed, And we shall be like the two Bruti in The annals of hereafter; but if not, If we should fail, employing bloody means And secret plot, although to a good end, Still we are traitors, honest Israel;--thou No less than he who was thy Sovereign Six hours ago, and now thy brother rebel. 80 _I. Ber_. 'Tis not the moment to consider thus, Else I could answer.--Let us to the meeting, Or we may be observed in lingering here. _Doge_. We _are_ observed, and have been. _I. Ber_. We observed! Let me discover--and this steel----- _Doge_. Put up; Here are no human witnesses: look there-- What see you? _I. Ber_. Only a tall warrior's statue[420] Bestriding a proud steed, in the dim light Of the dull moon. _Doge_. That Warrior was the sire Of my sire's fathers, and that statue was 90 Decreed to him by the twice rescued city:-- Think you that he looks down on us or no? _I. Ber_. My Lord, these are mere fantasies; there are No eyes in marble. _Doge_. But there are in Death. I tell thee, man, there is a spirit in Such things that acts and sees, unseen, though felt; And, if there be a spell to stir the dead, 'Tis in such deeds as we are now upon. Deem'st thou the souls of such a race as mine Can rest, when he, their last descendant Chief, 100 Stands plotting on the brink of their pure graves With stung plebeians? _I. Ber_. It had been as well To have pondered this before,--ere you embarked In our great enterprise.--Do you repent?