OR, THE ANGEL OF VENICE 
65 
 
with power and menace.]  Bow down, blasphemer, to 
the cross of Christ ! 
GABRIELE.  Once more !  Are you bewitched by sorcery, 
enticed 
By beauty ?  I command you to arrest the woman. 
Your duty ! 
MONICA.  [Towering over him.]  Thing misshapen, blasted and 
inhuman, 
Bow down to the cross !  His love purge thee !  His Passion 
Save thee ! 
Christ crown the work !  Here is the blessing that he gave 
thee ! 
[She touches him with the cross.  He staggers and 
reels. 
GABRIELE.  I am slain.  O torture her ;  she hath poisoned me 
 
 
 
[He falls, and writhes in agony. 
MONICA. 
 
Too true ! 
God’s pain is deadly poison for a fiend like you 
Sent from the pit to plague mankind.  O soldiers, turn 
Your hearts, that it may save you, all God’s mercy burn 
Sin from you.  Follow me ! 
SOLDIERS. 
 
Our queen.  Sweet saint of God ! 
GABRIELE.  Spew, spew God’s agony and death.  Black 
period 
Of all my hopes. 
 
[He dies. 
MONICA. 
 
There goes to his master a lost soul. 
SOLDIERS.  We’ll follow you. 
MONICA. 
 
Who knows the glory of my goal ? 
SOLDIERS.  To the palace ! 
MONICA. 
 No, my friends, obey your orders still. 
It is the prison that ends my passage.  All my will