No More Learning

The traitorous signal, which was to have set
The bloodhound mob on their patrician prey--
The knell hath rung, but it is not the Senate's!

_Doge_ (_after a pause_).
All's silent, and all's lost!

_Sig_. Now, Doge, denounce me 250
As rebel slave of a revolted Council!
Have I not done my duty?

_Doge_. Peace, thou thing!
Thou hast done a worthy deed, and earned the price
Of blood, and they who use thee will reward thee.
But thou wert sent to watch, and not to prate,
As thou said'st even now--then do thine office,
But let it be in silence, as behoves thee,
Since, though thy prisoner, I am thy Prince.

_Sig_. I did not mean to fail in the respect
Due to your rank: in this I shall obey you. 260

_Doge_ (_aside_). There now is nothing left me save to die;
And yet how near success! I would have fallen,
And proudly, in the hour of triumph, but
To miss it thus!
----

_Enter other_ SIGNORS OF THE NIGHT, _with_
BERTUCCIO FALIERO _prisoner_.

_2nd Sig_. We took him in the act
Of issuing from the tower, where, at his order,
As delegated from the Doge, the signal
Had thus begun to sound.

_1st Sig_. Are all the passes
Which lead up to the palace well secured?

_2nd Sig_. They are--besides, it matters not; the Chiefs
Are all in chains, and some even now on trial-- 270
Their followers are dispersed, and many taken.

_Ber. F. _ Uncle!

_Doge_. It is in vain to war with Fortune;
The glory hath departed from our house.

_Ber. F. _ Who would have deemed it? --Ah!