amed.

_Mar. (to the Doge_). Then, father, 280
Surely you can obtain or grant me thus much:
[_To_ LOREDANO.
And you, sir, not oppose my prayer to be
Permitted to accompany my husband.

_Doge_. I will endeavour.

_Mar._ And you, Signor?

_Lor._ Lady!
'Tis not for me to anticipate the pleasure
Of the tribunal.

_Mar._ Pleasure! what a word
To use for the decrees of----

_Doge_. Daughter, know you
In what a presence you pronounce these things?

_Mar._ A Prince's and his subject's.

_Lor._ Subject!

_Mar._ Oh!
It galls you:--well, you are his equal, as 290
You think; but that you are not, nor would be,
Were he a peasant:--well, then, you're a Prince,
A princely noble; and what then am I?

_Lor._ The offspring of a noble house.

_Mar._ And wedded
To one as noble. What, or whose, then, is
The presence that should silence my free thoughts?

_Lor._ The presence of your husband's Judges.

_Doge_. And
The deference due even to the lightest word
That falls from those who rule in Venice.

_Mar._ Keep
Those maxims for your mass of scared mechanics, 300
Your merchants, your Dalmatian and Greek slaves,
Your tributaries, your dumb citizens,
And masked nobility, your sbirri, and
Your spies, your galley and your other slaves,
To whom your midnight carryings off and drownings,
Your dungeons next the palace roofs, or under
The water's level;[55] your mysterious meetings,
And unknown dooms, and sudden executions,
Your "Bridge of Sighs," your strangling chamber, and
Your torturing instruments, have made ye seem 310
The beings of another and worse world!
Keep such for them: I fear ye not. I know ye;[be]
Have known and proved your worst, in the infernal
Process of my poor husband! Treat me as
Ye treated him:--you did so, in so dealing
With him. Then what have I to fear _from_ you,
Even if I were of fearful nature, which
I trust I am