are you, my child?--I
come, I come (_rushes into the room, followed by_ Marinelli).

ACT IV.

Scene I.--_The same_.

The Prince _and_ Marinelli.

PRINCE.

Come, Marinelli, I must collect myself--I look to you for explanation.

MARINELLI.

Oh! maternal anger! Ha! ha! ha!

PRINCE.

You laugh?

MARINELLI.

Had you, Prince, but seen her frantic conduct in this room! You heard
how she screamed; yet how tame she became as soon as she beheld you!
Ha! ha! Yes--I never yet knew the mother who scratched a prince's eyes
out, because he thought her daughter handsome.

PRINCE.

You are a poor observer. The daughter fell senseless into her mother's
arms. This made the mother forget her rage. It was her daughter, not
me, whom she spared, when, in a low voice, she uttered--what I myself
had rather not have heard--had rather not have understood.

MARINELLI.

What means your Highness?

PRINCE.

Why this dissimulation? Answer me. Is it true or false?

MARINELLI.

And if it were true!

PRINCE.

If it were! It is, then--he is dead (_in a threatening tone_).
Marinelli! Marinelli!

MARINELLI.

Well?

PRINCE.

By the God of justice I swear that I am innocent of this blood. Had you
previously told me that the Count's life must be sacrificed--God is my
witness I would as soon have consented to lose my own.

MARINELLI.

Had I previously told you! As if the Count's death was part of my plan!
I charged Angelo that on his soul he should take care that no person
suffered injury; and this, too, would have been the case, had not the
Count begun the fray, and shot the first assailant on the spot.

PRINCE.

Indeed! he ought to have understood the joke better.

MARINELLI.

So that Angelo was enraged, and instantly avenged his comrade's
death----

PRINCE.

Well, that is certainly very natural.

MARINELLI.

I have reproved him for i