Mortadello

OR, THE ANGEL OF VENICE 51 GABRIELE. Canonical ! Straight from the bridge, the merry men ! to the canal. MORTADELLO. He’s drowned ? GABRIELE. They fished him like a lobster. MORTADELLO. Have I troops ? Is it not I that speak and strike ? GABRIELE. Your eagle swoops, But where’s the use ? The lamb is hidden underground. MORTADELLO. Is it your Doge or dupe I am ? GABRIELE. She shall be found. [He turns to go. SCENE III. A Charnel-House beneath the Convent of the Ursulines. It is a cellar piled with skulls and bones. There is a truckle bed, above which is a wooden crucifix. There is also a prie-Dicu and image of the Virgin, luxurious and decorative, a startling contrast to the simplicity of the rest. MONICA. [Alone at the prie-Dieu.] No news ! No word of Mortadello’s fate ! No hope. To bruise the head of the old snake, the State. No scope To loose on him the white fangs of my hate. I grope A night so dark, so trembling, so obscure, so fierce No light comes filtered from the dawn, so pure to pierce This web of woe. Ah ! God, I ache for turn of tide At ebb. Then let the moonrise kindle and burn beside The sunset. God ! if I have loved thee in truth, adored As none before me, given all my youth, dear Lord, To Thee, now hear me, hear me, hear me this one breath ! Give me this Mortadello to my kiss—and death !