CAMILLO: 
Nay, there is reason in your plea; ’twere hard.

GIACOMO: 
’Tis hard for a firm man to bear:  but I
Have a dear wife, a lady of high birth,
Whose dowry in ill hour I lent my father 20
Without a bond or witness to the deed: 
And children, who inherit her fine senses,
The fairest creatures in this breathing world;
And she and they reproach me not.  Cardinal,
Do you not think the Pope would interpose 25
And stretch authority beyond the law?

CAMILLO: 
Though your peculiar case is hard, I know
The Pope will not divert the course of law. 
After that impious feast the other night
I spoke with him, and urged him then to check 30
Your father’s cruel hand; he frowned and said,
’Children are disobedient, and they sting
Their fathers’ hearts to madness and despair,
Requiting years of care with contumely. 
I pity the Count Cenci from my heart; 35
His outraged love perhaps awakened hate,
And thus he is exasperated to ill. 
In the great war between the old and young
I, who have white hairs and a tottering body,
Will keep at least blameless neutrality.’ 40
[ENTER ORSINO.]
You, my good Lord Orsino, heard those words.

ORSINO: 
What words?

GIACOMO: 
Alas, repeat them not again! 
There then is no redress for me, at least
None but that which I may achieve myself,
Since I am driven to the brink.—­But, say, 45
My innocent sister and my only brother
Are dying underneath my father’s eye. 
The memorable torturers of this land,
Galeaz Visconti, Borgia, Ezzelin,
Never inflicted on their meanest slave 50
What these endure; shall they have no protection?

CAMILLO: 
Why, if they would petition to the Pope
I see not how he could refuse it—­yet
He holds it of most dangerous example
In aught to weaken the paternal power, 55
Being, as ’twere, the shadow of his own. 
I pray you now excuse me.  I have business
That will not bear delay.

[EXIT CAMILLO.]

GIACOMO: 
But you, Orsino,
Have the petition:  wherefore not present it?

ORSINO: 
I have presented it, and backed it with 60
My earnest prayers, and urgent interest;
It was returned unanswered.  I doubt not
But that the strange and execrable deeds
Alleged in it—­in truth they might well baffle
Any belief—­have turned the Pope’s displeasure 65
Upon the accusers from the criminal: 
So I should guess from what Camillo said.

GIACOMO: 
My friend, that palace-walking devil Gold
Has whispered silence to his Holiness: 
And we are left, as scorpions ringed with fire. 70
What should we do but strike ourselves to death? 
For he who is our murderous persecutor
Is shielded by a father’s holy name,
Or I would—­