Samuele Bocconigo

 

throws himself down the stairs and climbs onto the stern of a large ferryboat; turning towards Baglione who frenetically waves his arms on the terrace:

 

 

Sir!... Sir!... It is too late!... The order has already been given! The sailors are cutting the hawsers!...

 

Paolo Baglione

No!... No!... That's impossible, Samuele!... Jump into a boat and row with all your strength! (His hands shield his eyes, as he watches the sailors swarm around the Fortunata ) Cursed conspiracy!... ( Turning to a negro slave ) Mohammed! Quick! Dive in and yell at the top of your lungs that this be stopped!... Alvise! Quickly order the heralds to play the fanfare of war!

Alvise gives the command.

 

 

Alvise

Master, it is hopless!... The hawsers have already been cut!... Heaven! Heaven! The Fortunata stirs... She stirs! She's beginning to slip!...

 

Giovanni Paruta

growing excited in the crowd, his arms raised to the heavens:

 

 

Fortunata ! Fortunata ! I thank you on my knees! As you have restored me to life!... Oh! My divine Fortunata ! You have realized the miracle!

He kneels down in midst of the mutinous crowd, gesticulating as cries out of the miracle.

 

 

 

A Woman in the Crowd

Yes! It's a miracle! T he old Giovanni Paruta has regained his sight!... Yes! He was blind, that one... And his eyes are truly cured!...

 

A Wandering Vendor

It's a lie! He is always as blind as a wall... But Giovanni is clever... He simply wants to raise the price of his amulets!...

 

The Soldiers

 

 

clearing the crowd with the blades of their swords:

Quiet, worthless old beggar!... Let us pass!...

 

Paolo Baglione

Ola! Samuele! Convey my orders then at the top of your voice! Shout to Selva that someone must fill the hole they have dug under the Fortunata with sand! Order him to say that I deem anyone a traitor who does not fill the hole with his decrepit body!...

 

Samuele Bocconigo

from the heights of the ferry, shouting to the guards of the Doge:

 

 

 

Here is one of the heads of the conspiracy!... I recognize him! In the name of the Doge, I arrest you!... Soldiers, arrest that man!

He cries into the agitated crowd. The guards seize Pietro Candiano, Pasquale Cicogna, Jacopo Cavalli and violently drag them before the terrace, dispersing the crowd, which would like to kill them, with sabre blows. Meanwhile one sees the Fortunata slowly resume its slide ending in the resounding crash of its prow against waters of the lagoon. An immense cry of joy fills the air.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Soldier Of The Guard

 

 

who holds Pietro Candiano prisoner:


He pled his case in the square against the Doge and you, sir... He spoke of your injustice to raise the people against you! He is the author of the conspiracy!...

 

Paolo Baglione

Speak!... Speak to me of this injustice, you who preach hatred against the Republic! Which are the crimes of which you accuse me?

 

Pietro Candiano

with scorn:

 


They were your soldiers who threw me, without reason, into a prison...

 

Samuele Bocconigo

Have you forgotten the first revolt you raised in the dockyard?...

 

Pietro Candiano

They were your soldiers who drove me from the dockyard, where my father had worked all his life! I was one of the first builders of the Fortunata , in which others today take pride... Do I not have then the right to kill her, she whom I have fashioned with my brain, at the moment she has become the prey of unworthy successors?

 

Domenico Selva

 

appears spread out on a coarse stretcher carried four soldiers. He is bruised and bleeding:

 

 

Pity! Pity! Getlteman! I know nothing! I am quite old and my vision is cloudy, as I have seen monstrous and incomprehensible things around me... I am enslaved to the Republic! The Republic is my religion! She is my mother! who then accuses me of intending to murder my mother? I no longer understand, perhaps I am insane! Pity!...

 

Shouts from the Crowd

Sir! Sir! Do not condemn him! He is innocent! Selva is not a traitor! Look at him! He has two broken arms... He has an wounded chest... I myself saw him strain to raise a beam to save the Fortunata from disaster!... ( T he crowd seizes the stretcher of Domenico Selva and raises it up. Suddenly an massive uproar engulfs all the voices ) Long live Domenico Selva! Save Domenico Selva!

 

Paolo Baglione

 

addressing Pietro:

 

You therefore are the guilty one! Defend yourself! T he people of Venice accuse and denounce you as the head of the conspiracy...

 

Domenico Selva

to Baglione:

 

 

Master!... Sir... I do not know the name of the guilty ones... but, I swear to you, Pietro is innocent!

 

Pietro Candiano

Ola, old slave! Your defense does not help me... You believe all the foolishness the children have scrawled on the walls of your ruined brain!... Old hemp woven by wicked hands, you are as dense and devout as a rope, as a ship's hawser, as a chain on the foot of a prisoner!... Your brain is as crude and closed as a bolt!

 

Domenico Selva

He lies! He lies! He's mad!... I no longer understand him! Oh! My poor Venice!

 

Pietro Candiano

Listen then to the words of this contemptible servant!... Incoherent and obtuse words, which spill from his frightened mouth as dirty water leaps from a shaken vat.

 

Domenico Selva

Oh! May the Virgin Mary save the Republic as I am old and helpless against all these wretched people, and I will soon die...

 

Pietro Candiano

Sir, set free this dying man! I alone am guilty!... I alone planned the revolt!

At Baglione's sign, Domenico Selva is freed and carried through the applause of the crowd.

 

 

 

Paolo Baglione

What is your name, you who speaks so nobly?

 

Pietro Candiano

My name is Pietro Candiano.

 

Paolo Baglione

 

startled:


Pietro Candiano?!

 

Pietro Candiano

Do you not know me? Your spies undoubtedly must have already told you about me?

 

Paolo Baglione

You make a mistake, since you yourself have disposed me in your favor. Your language appeals to me... You are worthy of my forgiveness and of a more perilous freedom! To do this to you will please you more... I act as a master... One finds nothing to merit the chain of slavery!

 

Applause from the crowd.

 

 

A Herald

The Doge Marco Barbarigo stands to speak!...

 

The Doge

I approve, Baglione. I am happy to share with you ( addressing himself to the people ) and with you, great people of Venice, the pleasure of pardon! It is necessary that a great happiness bursts over the lagoons and spreads, swelling the hearts and inundating the public squares, palaces and the taverns, on this triumphant, glorious and joyous day!... As here is the most illustrious Ambassador and Legate of the Pope, Prince Pietro da Toledo, who comes in the name of His Holiness, to grant the august hand of Donna Claudia, grandchild of His Holiness, to my much beloved Baglione, in a sign of profound and sincere allegiance.

Applause of the crowd.

 

 

 

The Legate of the Pope

 

after the Heralds have sounded their bugles:

 


In the name of His Holiness I come to grant the hand of Donna Claudia to Paolo Baglione, general of Venice, commander of all armies of the Republic!... I have been charged with bringing to the Republic of Venice and to all its people the blessing of His Holiness.

The people kneel and the Legate of the Pope slowly gives the papal blessing.

 

 

 

The Doge

All the freedom of joy and inebriation to the people of Venice, and to all foreigners, pilgrims and slaves on the soil of the Republic!

The Doge exits. The crowd disperses in every direction with cries of joy. The boats also depart, full of people. The soldiers slowly clear the square in front of the palace.

 

 

 

 

Paolo Baglione

 

remains alone with Ca' Da Mosto and Bocconigo pausing in thought for a few moments as he leans with his elbow against the balustrade:

 

 

 

This wedding will not happen... It will never happen. It would be act of folly!...

 

Samuele Bocconigo

 

after a moment of silence:

 

Your obedience to the will of the Doge and clemency toward the rebels were only ostensible then?

 

Paolo Baglione

Not exactly, as my forgiveness of Pietro Candiano was absolute...

 

Ca' Da Mosto

You will be able to change your mind, Sir!...

 

Paolo Baglione

Ah! Bah! ( After a pensive silence ) Do you know who Pietro Candiano is? He is the father of she whom I adore more than glory and more than Venice itself!

 

Ca' Da Mosto

You love then a common girl?... You, Sir? Is it possible?

 

Paolo Baglione

I love Rosalba Candiano! She adores me without knowing who I would be, for me alone, and not for my power and fame, as do all ( with a mocking tone ) these patricians and courtesans you prepare me to meet! ( Addressing himself to Bocconigo ) He thus considers me infantile and strange... I am forced to pass her eyes by way of a gondola... It is perhaps naïve... But I have preferred simply to abandon myself to my heart... I love Rosalba Candiano. It is an implacable and sublime passion that I will not be able to fulfill by having her!

 

Samuele Bocconigo

Oh! Sir! Permit me the audacity of a bit of advice. You would do better to present yourself in the splendor of your regality... You would have had a better chance of preserving it... The Venetians are rather venal...

 

Paolo Baglione

Rosalba is not like other women!...

 

Samuele Bocconigo

Ah! Ah! ( Sneering ) I am certain that if one simply went to her and said these words: “I come on behalf of Paolo Baglione, who wants to offer to you this jewel as a pledge of his passion... Do you want to be his?” I am certain and would wager that the gondolier would no longer feel like talking to her...

 

Paolo Baglione

Perhaps it is idiotic, but I bet the contrary!...

 

Samuele Bocconigo

I accept your challenge!... Have you, Sir, already set a date with the beautiful girl?

 

Ca' Da Mosto

 

sneeringly :

 

Eh! Eh! Samuele always acts as though he has all the women of Venice in his pocket!...

 

Samuele Bocconigo

 

shrugging his shoulders:

 

One simply needs to take the trouble to follow them!

 

Ca' Da Mosto

Ah! Like the frightfully revolting ones who gave themselves to us the other evening! How ignoble an appointment!...

 

Samuele Bocconigo

Always more interesting than your love of Rosa Argenti, who walks the street like an old turkey, through the narrow streets of Venice, with her antique coral throat pendant...

 

Ca' Da Mosto

Careful, Samuele... I forbid you to speak of Rosa Argenti...

 

Samuele Bocconigo

And of her young black boy who always lifts her train too high?

 

Ca' Da Mosto

 

bursting with anger:

 

Watch yourself, Samuele!

 

Paolo Baglione

Peace! Peace! My friends...

 

Samuele Bocconigo

Let's see... I wanted, speaking to you of foolish things, to make the point that you are as madly in love as our Baglione ( wooing him ) whose beloved is in another way truly admirable and worthy of every madness!...

 

Paolo Baglione

T o the court!... Samuele, do you maintain the bet?

 

Samuele Bocconigo

I do! Have you, sir, a date already set with this lady?

 

Paolo Bagli one

I must see her at midnight, at the Campiello dei Santi Martiri.

 

Samuele Bocconigo

Marvelous! I will go, if you permit me this, to your room, and I will bring her to you, Sir Paolo Baglione!

 

Paolo Baglione

I challenge you!

 

They leave.

 

 

 

Curtain

 

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back to issue one

 

[ page 5 of 5 ]