_Mar._ You shall be so no more--I will go with thee. _Jac. Fos._ My best Marina!--and our children? _Mar._ They, I fear, by the prevention of the state's Abhorrent policy, (which holds all ties As threads, which may be broken at her pleasure), Will not be suffered to proceed with us. _Jac. Fos._ And canst thou leave them? _Mar._ Yes--with many a pang! But--I _can_ leave them, children as they are, To teach you to be less a child. From this Learn you to sway your feelings, when exacted 200 By duties paramount; and 'tis our first On earth to bear. _Jac. Fos._ Have I not borne? _Mar._ Too much From tyrannous injustice, and enough To teach you not to shrink now from a lot, Which, as compared with what you have undergone Of late, is mercy. _Jac. Fos._ Ah! you never yet Were far away from Venice, never saw Her beautiful towers in the receding distance, While every furrow of the vessel's track Seemed ploughing deep into your heart; you never 210 Saw day go down upon your native spires[bo] So calmly with its gold and crimson glory, And after dreaming a disturbéd vision Of them and theirs, awoke and found them not. _Mar._ I will divide this with you. Let us think Of our departure from this much-loved city, (Since you must _love_ it, as it seems,) and this Chamber of state, her gratitude allots you. Our children will be cared for by the Doge, And by my uncles; we must sail ere night. 220 _Jac. Fos._ That's sudden. Shall I not behold my father? _Mar._ You will. _Jac. Fos._ Where? _Mar._ Here, or in the ducal chamber-- He said not which. I would that you could bear Your exile as he bears it. _Jac. Fos._ Blame him not. I sometimes murmur for a moment; but He could not now act otherwise. A show Of feeling or compassion on his part Would have but drawn upon his agéd head Suspicion from "the Ten," and upon mine Accumulated ills. _Mar._ Accumulated! 230 What pangs are those they have spared you? _Jac. Fos._ That of leaving Venice without beholding him or you, Which might have been forbidden now, as 'twas Upon my former exile. _Mar._ That is true, And thus far I am also the State's debtor, And shall be more so when I see us both Floating on the free waves--away--away-- Be it to the earth's end, from this abhorred, Unjust, and---- _Jac. Fos._ Curse it not. If I am silent, Who dares accuse my Country?