Mortadello

OR, THE ANGEL OF VENICE 65 with power and menace.] Bow down, blasphemer, to the cross of Christ ! GABRIELE. Once more ! Are you bewitched by sorcery, enticed By beauty ? I command you to arrest the woman. Your duty ! MONICA. [Towering over him.] Thing misshapen, blasted and inhuman, Bow down to the cross ! His love purge thee ! His Passion Save thee ! Christ crown the work ! Here is the blessing that he gave thee ! [She touches him with the cross. He staggers and reels. GABRIELE. I am slain. O torture her ; she hath poisoned me [He falls, and writhes in agony. MONICA. Too true ! God’s pain is deadly poison for a fiend like you Sent from the pit to plague mankind. O soldiers, turn Your hearts, that it may save you, all God’s mercy burn Sin from you. Follow me ! SOLDIERS. Our queen. Sweet saint of God ! GABRIELE. Spew, spew God’s agony and death. Black period Of all my hopes. [He dies. MONICA. There goes to his master a lost soul. SOLDIERS. We’ll follow you. MONICA. Who knows the glory of my goal ? SOLDIERS. To the palace ! MONICA. No, my friends, obey your orders still. It is the prison that ends my passage. All my will