GUIDO: Tarry here for me.

DUCHESS: No, you are not going?
You will not leave me as you did before?

GUIDO: I will return within a moment’s space,
But first I must repair to the Duke’s chamber,
And leave this letter and this dagger there,
That when he wakes –

DUCHESS: When who wakes?

GUIDO: Why, the Duke.

DUCHESS: He will not wake again.

GUIDO: What, is he dead?

DUCHESS: Ay! He is dead.

GUIDO: O God! How wonderful
Are all thy secret ways! Who would have said
That on this very night, when I had yielded
Into thy hands the vengeance that is Thine,
Thou with thy finger should have touched the man,
And bade him come before thy judgment seat.

DUCHESS: I have just killed him.

GUIDO (in horror): Oh!

DUCHESS: He was asleep;
Come closer, love, and I will tell you all.
Kiss me upon the mouth, and I will tell you.
You will not kiss me now? – well, you will kiss me
When I have told you how I killed the Duke.
After you left me with such bitter words,
Feeling my life went lame without your love,
I had resolved to kill myself to-night.
About an hour ago I waked from sleep,
And took my dagger from beneath my pillow,
Where I had hidden it to serve my need,
And drew it from the sheath, and felt the edge,
And thought of you, and how I loved you, Guido,
And turned to fall upon it, when I marked
The old man sleeping, full of years and sin;
There lay he muttering curses in his sleep.
And as I looked upon his evil face
Suddenly like a flame there flashed across me,
There is the barrier which Guido spoke of:
You said there lay a barrier between us,
What barrier but he? –

I hardly know
What happened, but a steaming mist of blood
Rose up between us two.

GUIDO: O horrible!

DUCHESS: You would have said so had you seen that mist:
And then the air rained blood and then he groaned,
And then he groaned no more! I only heard
The dripping of the blood upon the floor.

GUIDO: Enough, enough.

DUCHESS: Will you not kiss me now?
Do you remember saying that women’s love
Turns men to angels? Well, the love of man
Turns women into martyrs; for its sake
We do or suffer anything.

GUIDO: O God!

DUCHESS: Will you not speak?

GUIDO: I cannot speak at all.

DUCHESS: This is the knife with which I killed the Duke.
I did not think he would have bled so much,
But I can wash my hands in water after;
Can I not wash my hands? Ay, but my soul?
Let us not talk of this! Let us go hence:
Is not the barrier broken down between us?
What would you more? Come, it is almost morning.

Puts her hand on GUIDO’S