They kiss each other now for the first time in this Act, when suddenly the DUCHESS leaps up in the dreadful spasm of death, tears in agony at her dress, and finally, with face twisted and distorted with pain, falls back dead in a chair. GUIDO seizing her dagger from her belt, kills himself; and, as he falls across her knees, clutches at the cloak which is on the back of the chair. There is a little pause. Then down the passage comes the tramp of Soldiers; the door is opened, and the LORD JUSTICE, the Headsman, and the Guard enter and see this figure shrouded in black, and GUIDO lying dead across her. The LORD JUSTICE rushes forward and drags the cloak off the DUCHESS, whose face is now the marble image of peace, the sign of God’s forgiveness.

TABLEAU

CURTAIN

Vera, or The Nihilists

A Drama in a Prologue, and Four Acts

Persons in the Prologue

PETER SABOUROFF (an Innkeeper)

NICOLAS

COLONEL KOTEMKIN

DMITRI SABOUROFF

VERA SABOUROFF (his Daughter)

MICHAEL (a Peasant)

Persons in the Play

IVAN THE CZAR

PRINCE PAUL MARALOFFSKI (Prime Minister of Russia)

PRINCE PETROVITCH

COUNT ROUVALOFF

MARQUIS DE POIVRARD

BARON RAFF

GENERAL KOTEMKIN

A PAGE

COLONEL OF THE GUARD

Nihilists

PETER TCHERNAVITCH, President of the Nihilists

MICHAEL

ALEXIS IVANACIEVITCH, known as a Student of Medicine

PROFESSOR MARFA

VERA SABOUROFF

SOLDIERS, CONSPIRATORS Etc.

PROLOGUE

SCENE: A Russian inn. Large door opening on snowy landscape at back of stage. PETER SABOUROFF and MICHAEL.

PETER (warming his hands at a stove): Has Vera not come back yet, Michael?

MICHAEL: No, Father Peter, not yet; ‘tis a good three miles to the post office, and she has to milk the cows besides, and that dun one is a rare plaguey creature for a wench to handle.

PETER: Why didn’t you go with her, you young fool? She’ll never love you unless you are always at her heels; women like to be bothered.

MICHAEL: She says I bother her too much already, Father Peter, and I fear she’ll never love me after all.

PETER: Tut, tut, boy, why shouldn’t she? You’re young, and wouldn’t be ill-favoured either, had God or thy mother given thee another face. Aren’t you one of Prince Maraloffski’s gamekeepers; and haven’t you got a good grass farm, and the best cow in the village? What more does a girl want?

MICHAEL: But Vera, Father Peter –

PETER: Vera, my lad, has got too many ideas; I don’t think much of ideas myself; I’ve got on well enough in life without ‘em; why shouldn’t my children? There’s Dmitri! Could have stayed here and kept the inn; many a young lad would have jumped at the offer in these hard times; but he, scatter-brained featherhead of a boy, must needs go off to Moscow to study the law! What does he want knowing about the law? Let a man do his duty, say I, and no one will trouble him.