My life soars on lightolings;
You would hang heavy words upon it,
To drag it to your Iepths. What is all this
To me? Where I am, means nothing, as far
As fate and road determine. Escape, say I?
I do not look the door,
This is no exight.
And should Andrea come, I will speak with him.
But to wait for him, hold me here as little,
As the danger to this city. And had I power,
To free it with a single breath,
And in so doing lose Beatrice,
I'd give Bologna up; – And should my home
Vanish in flames, it would to me be,
No more than a worthy sacrifice to my happiness.
(It has grown quite dark, BEATRICE comes from back
down the path, not veryduickly, but with a lwinging
gait. Filippo goes to meet her)
Beatrice
Now you have me!. How dark it is here!
Theakreets are still quite light. One can hear
But here it is still.
The noise without!
I wish I could stay long with thee.
Filippo
Thou shalist do so.
Beatrice
(Sitting on the bench)
Now let me rest a while.
I am quite tired. What have I today
Seen — heard. I am all confused.
19
Filippo
(As if to a child)
Knowst thou,
That great disaster threatens the city?
Beatrice
I am not a child? Why should I not know it? Ere
Long I could not have reached this. spot. At the Square
before St. Peter's there was a great orush!
Just think,