Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“ CASTRUCCIO.
Hear me, Claricha—be yourself my judge—
What Lucca was, let our first years recall:
Years past in war and exile—when the land
Had not one vineyard safe—one hearth secure—
How stands my country now?—at peace within,
The peasant, undisturb'd beneath his vine,
The citizen in safety, high or low,
While our fair banners flout the gates of Florence.
Not for the palace only have I ruled,
But for the green fields and the market place;
Peace dwells beneath the shadow of my power.
CLARICHA.
Ah, me! I know too well how much Castruccio
Has done for Lucca. ”

“ My hopes, my fears, my future were for Lucca.
CESARIO.
And you have made our Lucca what she is,
Peace in her streets, and victory at her gates.
CASTRUCCIO.
I know my power—alas! I also know
Power is a sad and solitary thing;
It cuts you off from old companionship,
It needeth iron heart and iron eye,
For its resolves are terrible, when life
Waits on your word, and when you know one breath—
One little breath—takes what it cannot give! ”

“ Please you, Count Castruccio,
To lead Bianca?
CASTRUCCIO.
Your pardon, lady, for a brief delay;
Let me look round this hall, I knew it not.
ARREZI.
'Tis never open'd but when some high guest
Honours us with his presence; and we ask
Our ancestors to aid us in his greeting.
CASTRUCCIO.
I like the custom. It is from the dead
The living must their noblest lessons learn;
The dead are as the stars that light the past:
We see how time has honoured them, and hope
Ourselves for equal honour. ”

“ CASTRUCCIO.
Twice have we met them in the open field,
Each time they fled before us. Oh! my friends,
If I may call ye such, we are not weak
Who have our own good swords, and urge a war
Just in the sight of heaven. Our weakness lies
In our dissension, in the small base aims
That disunite us from the common cause.
Lucca were strong, had Lucca but one heart!
Why should ye be mine enemies? I seek
Yours in the general good. I stand between
Ye and a people whom ye would oppress. ”

“ That never turn aside their sad reproach.
I'll after him, and wring a slow consent.
CESARIO.
Your pardon, lady; do not seek the count,
Let his just anger cool; think you how false,
How vile has been Arrezi's part to-night!
With flattering words he pray'd Castruccio's presence,
Made his own child the lure, yet, in his heart,
Lurk'd the assassin, and he plann'd to make
His home—his sacred home—the place for murder! ”

“ The game is yours—I, for one, ask not mercy!
CASTRUCCIO.
And, therefore, worthier to have unask'd.
Ye do mistake me, signors: all my thoughts
To ye are grateful ones. But for your rash
And ill-advised attempt, I had not known
How true the love on which my power is built—
How strong the cause the people trust with me!
Re-enter Count Gonsalvi
GONSALVI.
I must demand some escort: for the streets
Are fill'd with people, and unwillingly
Would I shed blood. What! Castrucani here? ”

“ A thousand plots fall harmless from the scaffold.
CLARICHA.
Nothing disarms an enemy like pardon.
CASTRUCCIO.
Not when they think the pardon wrung from fear.
Ancient oppression—present treachery—
Alike demand example. At our gates
Gather the foreign foe; they must not hope
For aid within our walls: I have long tried
A gentle rule of patience—'tis no more.
Plead not with those sad eyes, the count must die! ”

“ We only ask of victory for peace.
Enter Cesario.
CESARIO.
The envoys of the emperor await
Your leisure, to acknowledge you the lord
Of Lucca.
CASTRUCCIO.
Then Lucca's freedom is assured. High Heaven
I thank thee! (Addressing the crowd.) My friends,
Not on a day of victory and peace,
Shall justice sternly ask its penalty
Freely ye will forgive your enemies.
Last night's conspirators I pardon here—
Be they set free.
OFFICER.
⁠That has been done by death!
There lies the Count Arrezi.
(The crowd opens, and Claricha is seen lying by the
bier.) ”

“ Alas! why should we meet? it is in vain.
CASTRUCCIO.
I cannot choose, my heart beats quick with joy:
Youth, hope, and tenderness return with thee.
CLARICHA.
For thine own sake, Castruccio, fare-thee-well.
CASTRUCCIO.
Stay yet one moment; if thou didst but know
How faithfully this heart has kept thy name,
Its sad and secret music; years have past
Since the green vineyards heard our youthful vow ”

“ What of Castruccio's fate—what of our chief?
CESARIO.
The treachery of the nobles has prevail'd.
Castruccio lies within the city prison,
Thither convey'd by Ludolph's foreign band;
A thousand dangers circle him around,
The secret dagger, and the open scaffold.
2nd citizen.
Well, now we have no friend!
CESARIO.
He was your friend; the meanest citizen
Found, in the shadow of Castruccio's name,
His best security.
2nd citizen.
He never wrung from us our hard-earn'd gains.
1st citizen.
Our lives were precious to him; must he die? ”

“ None question'd, then, our rightful sovereignty.
LEONI.
Which half the citizens now laugh to scorn.
As yet I have not been an hour in Lucca,
Yet I can see all things are changed.
ARREZI.
⁠Too true!
LEONI.
Your servants are your masters; where are gone
Your old respect and high authority?
ARREZI.
I do not know the times in which I live.
So much of change lies heavy on each hour!
Castruccio comes to-night—now greet him fair. ”

“ Short time is mine to reach the Florentines,
And yet return to grace the festival:
My entrance at the banquet is the signal!
ARREZI.
Castruccio may miss you from the halls
Whose heir should be the first to bid him welcome!
LEONI.
A little colouring gives truth to falsehood,
Tell him I'm jealous of Bianca's smile.
ARREZI.
But——
LEONI.
Buts are the stumbling-blocks of enterprise,
We will not have them.
ARREZI.
The risk is fearful—do not think Castruccio
Will yield without a struggle. How can I
Stand by and see him murder'd? ”

“ You, Count Rinaldo, have our followers arm'd,
And meet me secret in the cypress-grove;
I'll wait there, coming from the Florentines.
Our forces and their band must join at once;
This fix'd, we'll seek the banquet-room together.
My welcome to Castruccio is my dagger!
1st noble.
One cup of wine, Leoni, ere you go.
LEONI.
I have not time—yet stay—we'll drink one pledge.
⁠ (They pour out wine; each takes a goblet.) ”

“ CASTRUCCIO.
War or submission! sad such choice and stern:
Vast is the suffering—great the wrong of war!
But—and all Lucca speaketh in these words—
Rather we take the suffering; and the wrong
Rests on the oppressor's head, than we submit. ”

“ Count Castruccio!
CASTRUCCIO.
A cowardly assassin; but in vain.
⁠ (He stamps; his Guard comes in.)
1st noble.
We sell our lives full dearly!
⁠ (Springs at Castruccio, who strikes his sword from his hand.)
CASTRUCCIO.
Take them to prison; ladies, by your leave,
This is no place for you. (Addressing one of them.) ”

“ I met thee flying from the Florentines,
My heart warm'd to thee as thou wert my own.
Perhaps it is that in thy face and voice
There is a touch that brings again the face,
The voice, that once made heaven on earth to me. ”

“ Scene I.—A Banquetting Hall opening into a garden,
and hung with pictures.—Servants—Count Arezzi.
ARREZI (Solus) .
I have but little heart for this gay banquet:
Dangers and fears encompass me around;
I know the Castrucani doubts my faith,
I know Leoni loathes the coming marriage.
Which never will his fiery spirit see
Without a struggle; and with that must come
All that I thought to shun of strife and blood.
Ah! there are moments, when my thoughts have ask'd
The heart that beats with them—can this be life? ”

“ A secret band of Florentines now lie
In ambush by the city's western gate,
Whose keeper I have gain'd. I haste to seek them
Bearing the orders of the Count Gonsalvi,
Who'll meet them at the gate and lead them on.
Castruccio slain—the people overawed,
Henceforth our triumph is secure.
ARREZI.
It will be bought too dearly.
LEONI.
Danger will only heighten our success. ”

“ The late attempt fills all your friends with fear,
Not mine to check their angry eagerness,
Which now is fain to seek thee, sword in hand.
CASTRUCCIO.
To stay is madness now; my brief delay
May be atoned in blood. Love, now farewell. ”

“ That wanders, like an orphan, through the heavens,
Companionless, with its dark boughs, that seem
Still as the heavy shadows which they fling,
This hour is not for enterprise. The heart
Mocks its own projects and its own designs,
So little, with eternal night around,
So worthless, gazing on those distant worlds.
Why, what vain fantasies are these to cross
My mind at such a time! but we are toys
E'en to ourselves. Where can Rinaldo stay? ”

“ And from the very room which now Castruccio
Makes his own private chamber—leave that way,
And, Fortune, I will worship thee again.
2nd noble.
Methinks that Fortune owes us some amends
For past ill-favour.
LEONI.
We must away; each moment that we lose
Brings my old kinsman nearer to the scaffold. ”

“ The scene is laid in Lucca, during the contests between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines; but my object has not been to bring forward old party distinctions, in which no one now takes any interest, but to represent the first rising against the feudal system, which has since led to such important results. Castruccio is the (attempted) ideal of the hero and the patriot. He has himself been exiled and oppressed; out of this early experience grows his sympathy with the wrongs of the city to whose cause he devotes himself, while the glory of Lucca is the poetry and passion of his life. ”

“ The nobles are too strong.
CESARIO.
'Tis for your sake they are his enemies.
He might have shared their power, and kept ye slaves.
2nd citizen.
We have been much oppress'd; until he came,
No one could sit in quiet at his door.
Money and blood were the perpetual cry
Of our small tyrants. ”

“ Though I but stay'd to share Arrezi's scaffold.
2nd noble.
Live for revenge—a better hour may come.
LEONI.
Revenge is all too distant; I will save
Or perish!
2nd noble.
I tell you all is known; what can avail
A single arm?
LEONI.
Tis to that single arm that I must trust.
There yet remains one sole—one desperate chance—
The risk is mine. (Drawing his dagger.) This blade has stood, ere now,
My certain friend. (Sheathing it.) —I'll trust to it again.
2nd noble.
Castruccio's guards are gather'd round his palace ”

“ Is garner'd all most precious to my soul.
It is not true that love decays or dies
With time or absence: years have pass'd away,
Yet still my dreams are faithful to one thought.
One voice makes secret music in my ear,
Distinct as when it breathed its earliest vow.
Long since hath hope grown faint, but weary never! ”

“ I hear the secret lock I thought none knew
Turn in the panel, and I hear a step;
It is too stealthy for a friendly one—
Let me be on my guard—it comes more near.
I see a shadow darken on the ground:
There is a dagger in the hand. ”

“ Know our Castruccio.
1st citizen.
⁠Did the prisoner pass
While I was gone?
2nd citizen.
The moment that you left;
I wait to see the body brought this way.
1st citizen.
Lo! where they come.
(The crowd press together; and, as the body, covered on
a bier, is brought in on one side, Claricha enters
at the other. The bearers set down the body.)
CLARICHA.
I cannot urge my way—in Heaven's name,
I pray you, let me pass.
1st citizen.
Rest you a little while, poor child, beside me:
You cannot pierce the crowd.
CLARICHA.
I must go on ”

“ But strong in your good cause. Oh, ye are strong,
If ye would know your strength! ”

“ Urged by the Count Castruccio, not ourselves.
GONSALVI.
It must be paid.
2nd noble.
Well, well,
The goldsmiths round our market-place are rich.
The citizens, too, better being poor,
As more obedient, right that they should pay
The penalty of their rebellious spirit. ”

“ A country, fill'd with tyrants and with slaves,
What waits upon her history?—crime and shame!
But the free state, where every rank is knit
By general blessings, freedom shared by all,
There is prosperity—there those great names
Whose glory lingers though themselves be gone.
It is not I ye serve, it is your country!— (Applause.)
2nd noble (Aside) .
I see that we must yield, or seem to yield;
He's master now.
CASTRUCCIO.
And for this base submission
To your hereditary enemies,
There is no yoke so galling as the yoke
Foreign invaders place upon your neck! ”