ODOARDO.

Say the word, Madam! The single word, which is to deprive me of my
reason! Out with it! Distil not thus your poison drop by drop. That
single word at once!

ORSINA.

You yourself shall put the letters of it together. This morning the
Prince spoke to your daughter at church; this afternoon he has her at
his----his summer-palace.

ODOARDO.

Spoke to her at church? The Prince to my daughter?

ORSINA.

With such familiarity and such fervour. Their agreement was about no
trifling matter; and if they did agree, all the better: all the better
if your daughter made this her voluntary asylum. You understand--and in
that case this is no forcible seduction, but only a trifling--trifling
assassination.

ODOARDO.

Calumny! Infamous calumny! I know my daughter. If there be murder here,
there is seduction also, (_Looks wildly round, stamping and foaming_.)
Now, Claudia! Now, fond mother! Have we not lived to see a day of joy?
Oh, the gracious Prince! Oh, the mighty honour!

ORSINA (_aside_).

Have I roused thee, old man?

ODOARDO.

Here I stand before the robber's cave. (_Throws his coat back on both
sides, and perceives he has no weapon_.) 'Tis a marvel that, in my
haste, I have not forgotten my hands too. (_Feeling in all his
pockets_.) Nothing, nothing.

ORSINA.

Ha! I understand, and can assist you. I have brought one. (_Produces a
dagger_.) There! Take it, take it quickly, ere any one observes us. I
have something else, too--poison--but that is for women, not for men.
Take this (_forcing the dagger upon him_), take it.

ODOARDO.

I thank thee. Dear child, whosoever again asserts thou art a lunatic,
he shall answer it to me.

ORSINA.

Conceal it, instantly. (Odoardo _hides the dagger_.) The opportunity
for using it is denied to me. You will not fail to find one, and you
will seize the first that comes, if you are a man. I am but a woman,
yet I came hither resolute. We, old man, can trust each other, for we
are both injured, and by the same seducer. Oh, if you knew how
preposterously, how inexpressibly, how incomprehensibly, I have been
injured by him, you would almost forget his cond