LANCIOTTO.  But have I heard you out? 
You told me all?

  PEPE.  All; I have nothing left.

LANCIOTTO.  Why, you brain-stricken idiot, to trust
Your story and your body in my grasp! [Seizes him.

  PEPE.  Unhand me, cousin!

LANCIOTTO.  When I drop you, Pepe,
You’ll be at rest.

  PEPE.  I will betray you—­O!

  LANCIOTTO.  Not till the judgment day. [They struggle.

  PEPE. [Drawing PAOLO’S dagger.] Take that!

LANCIOTTO. [Wresting the dagger from him.]     Well meant,
But poorly done!  Here’s my return.                            [Stabs him.

PEPE.  O! beast! [Falls.]
This I expected; it is naught—­Ha! ha! [Laughing.]
I’ll go to sleep; but you—­what will you bear! 
Hunchback, come here!

  LANCIOTTO.  Fie! say your prayers.

PEPE.  Hark, hark! 
Paolo hired me, swine, to murder you.

  LANCIOTTO.  That is a lie; you never cared for gold.

PEPE.  He did, I say!  I’ll swear to it, by heaven! 
Do you believe me?

  LANCIOTTO.  No!

PEPE.                 You lie! you lie! 
Look at the dagger, cousin—­Ugh!—­good-night!                      [Dies.

  LANCIOTTO.  O! horrible!  It was a gift of mine—­
He never laid it by.  Speak, speak, fool, speak!
          
                                             [Shakes the body.]
How didst thou get it?—­speak!  Thou’rt warm—­not dead—­
Thou hast a tongue—­O! speak!  Come, come, a jest—­
Another jest from those thin mocking lips! 
Call me a cripple—­hunchback—­what thou wilt;
But speak to me!  He cannot.  Now, by heaven,
I’ll stir this business till I find the truth! 
Am I a fool?  It is a silly lie,
Coined by yon villain with his last base breath. 
What ho! without there!

    Enter CAPTAIN and Soldiers.

  CAPTAIN.  Did you call, my lord?

LANCIOTTO.  Did Heaven thunder?  Are you deaf, you louts? 
Saddle my horse!  What are you staring at? 
Is it your first look at a dead man?  Well,
Then look your fill.  Saddle my horse, I say! 
Black Pluto—­stir!  Bear that assassin hence. 
Chop him to pieces, if he move.  My horse!

CAPTAIN.  My lord, he’s shoeing.

LANCIOTTO.  Did I ask for shoes? 
I want my horse.  Run, fellow, run!  Unbarbed—­
My lightest harness on his back.  Fly, fly! [Exit a SOLDIER.]
[The others pick up the body.]
Ask him, I pray you, if he did not lie!

CAPTAIN.  The man is dead, my lord.

LANCIOTTO. [Laughing.] Then do not ask him!
[Exeunt SOLDIERS with the body.]
By Jupiter, I shall go mad, I think!
[Walks about.