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I should almost have forgotten you, had you not oftener been present to my thoughts than to my sight. I think I have not seen you since my last entertainment. VERRINA. Do not count the hours, Fiesco! Heavy burdens have in that interval weighed down my aged head. But enough of this FIESCO. Not enough to satisfy the anxiety of friendship. You must inform me farther when we are alone.
Our acquaintance is yet green; but my affection for thee is already ripe. Has your esteem for me improved? BOURGOGNINO. 'Tis on the increase. FIESCO. Verrina, it is reported that this brave young man is to be your son-in-law. Receive my warmest approbation of your choice. I have conversed with him but once; and yet I should be proud to call him my relation.
The Moor informs me of a plot: I send him back to you in chains, and shall sleep to-night without a guard." VERRINA. Well, Fiesco? Shall Doria surpass me in magnanimity? Shall the race of Fiesco want this one virtue? No, by my honor disperse I'll go and own the whole Art thou mad? Was, then, our enterprise some thievish act of villany? Was it not our country's cause?
Stephano Verrina, who was on deck when the vessel struck, rushed down into the cabin appropriated to Nisida, and by signs endeavored to convey to her a sense of the danger which menaced them. Conquering her ineffable aversion for the bandit, Nisida followed him hastily to the deck.
And as the lightning played upon the raging sea, Nisida and Verrina caught hurried but frightful glimpses of many human faces, whereon was expressed the indescribable agony of the drowning. "Perdition!" cried Verrina; "all are gone save Nisida and myself! And shall we too perish ere she has become mine? shall death separate us ere I have reveled in her charms?
"I have ascertained, my lord, beyond all possibility of doubt," answered the valet, "that the assailants of the convent were a terrible horde of banditti, at that time headed by Stephano Verrina, who has since disappeared no one knows whither; that the Marquis of Orsini was one of the leaders in the awful deed of sacrilege, and that her ladyship the countess, and a young maiden named Flora Francatelli, were rescued by the robbers from their cells in the establishment.
The Catiline conception required an avenger of Genoa, for it was evident that the accidental drowning of Fiesco in the moment of his triumph would never do in a play. It was necessary that his death appear as a punishment, a nemesis. So for the role of avenger Schiller invented a stern patriot to whom, without historical warrant, he gave the name of Verrina. Verrina is the real Brutus.
VERRINA. No every rascal in Italy will say it. Are you contented with the leavings of other men's repasts? BOURGOGNINO. Old man, do not make me desperate. CALCAGNO. Bourgognino! he speaks the truth. The truth? Has the girl then mocked me? CALCAGNO. No! no! Bourgognino. The girl is spotless as an angel. By my soul's happiness, I comprehend it not! Spotless, yet dishonored!
Let them be the first fruits of my tyranny. Go, and announce to them their deliverance. VERRINA. You will enjoy but half the pleasure unless you see their happiness. Perform this deed thyself. The great are seldom witnesses of the evils which they cause. And shall they, too, do good by stealth and in obscurity? Methinks the duke is not too great to sympathize with a beggar.
Now he has conquered Genoa I resume that poor possession. Forbid it, Heaven! That price is too enormous even for a dukedom. Hum! Is liberty then out of fashion, that republics are so lightly thrown away upon the first that offers himself? Verrina, say this to no one but Fiesco. VERRINA. Oh, of course! Great indeed must be that mind which can hear the voice of truth without offence.
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