_Lod._ I'll not tell you: And yet I care not greatly if I do; Marry, with this preparation. Holy father, I come not to you as an intelligencer, But as a penitent sinner: what I utter Is in confession merely; which you know Must never be revealed. _Mont._ You have o'erta'en me. _Lod._ Sir, I did love Brachiano's duchess dearly, Or rather I pursued her with hot lust, Though she ne'er knew on't. She was poisoned; Upon my soul; she was; for which I have sworn To avenge her murder. _Mont._ To the Duke of Florence? _Lod._ To him I have. _Mont._ Miserable creature! If thou persist in this, 'tis damnable. Dost thou imagine thou canst slide on blood, And not be tainted with a shameful fall? Or, like the black and melancholic yew-tree, Dost think to root thyself in dead men's graves, And yet to prosper? Instruction to thee Comes like sweet showers to over-hardened ground; They wet, but pierce not deep. And so I leave thee, With all the Furies hanging 'bout thy neck, Till by thy penitence thou remove this evil, In conjuring from thy breast that cruel devil. [_Exit._ _Lod._ I'll give it o'er; he says 'tis damnable, Besides I did expect his suffrage, By reason of Camillo's death. _Re-enter_ FRANCISCO DE MEDICIS _with a_ Servant. _Fran. de Med._ Do you know that count? _Serv._ Yes, my lord. _Fran. de Med._ Bear him these thousand ducats to his lodging; Tell him the Pope hath sent them.--[_Aside._] Happily That will confirm him more than all the rest. [_Exit._ _Serv._ Sir,--[_Exit._ _Lod._ To me, sir? _Serv._ His Holiness hath sent you a thousand crowns, And wills you, if you travel, to make him Your patron for intelligence. _Lod._ His creature ever to be commanded. [_Exit_ Servant. Why, now 'tis come about. He railed upon me; And yet these crowns were told out and laid ready Before he knew my voyage. O the art, The modest form of greatness! that do sit, Like brides at wedding-dinners, with their looks turned From the least wanton jest, their puling stomach Sick of the modesty, when their thoughts are loose, Even acting of those hot and lustful sports Are to ensue about midnight: such his cunning: He sounds my depth thus with a golden plummet. I am doubly armed now. Now to the act of blood, There's but three Furies found in spacious hell, But in a great man's breast three thousand dwell. [_Exit._ ACT THE FIFTH. SCENE I.--_An Apartment in a Palace at Padua._ _A passage over the stage of_ BRACHIANO, FLAMINEO, MARCELLO, HORTENSIO, VITTORIA COROMBONA, CORNELIA, ZANCHE, _and others._ [_Exeunt omnes except_ FLAMINEO _and_ HORTENSIO. _Flam._ In all the weary minutes of my life, Day ne'er broke up till now. This marriage Confirms me happy. _Hort._ 'Tis a good assurance. Saw you not yet the Moor that's come to court?