THE SOLDIERS (loudly): Ha! Ha! Ha!

FIRST SOLDIER: Silence! You will wake the prisoner; he is asleep.

SECOND SOLDIER: What matter? He will get sleep enough when he is buried. I warrant he’d be glad if we could wake him when he’s in the grave.

THIRD SOLDIER: Nay! For when he wakes there it will be judgment day.

SECOND SOLDIER: Ay, and he has done a grievous thing; for, look you, to murder one of us who are but flesh and blood is a sin and to kill a Duke goes being near against the law.

FIRST SOLDIER: Well, well, he was a wicked Duke.

SECOND SOLDIER: And so he should not have touched him; if one meddles with wicked people, one is like to be tainted with their wickedness.

THIRD SOLDIER: Ay, that is true. How old is the prisoner?

SECOND SOLDIER: Old enough to do wrong, and not old enough to be wise.

FIRST SOLDIER: Why, then, he might be any age.

SECOND SOLDIER: They say the Duchess wanted to pardon him.

FIRST SOLDIER: Is that so?

SECOND SOLDIER: Ay, and did much entreat the Lord Justice, but he would not.

FIRST SOLDIER: I had thought, Pietro, that the Duchess was omnipotent.

SECOND SOLDIER: True, she is well-favoured; I know none so comely.

THE SOLDIERS: Ha! Ha! Ha!

FIRST SOLDIER: I meant I had thought our Duchess could do anything.

SECOND SOLDIER: Nay, for he is now given over to the Justices, and they will see that justice be done; they and stout Hugh the headsman; but when his head is off, why then the Duchess can pardon him if she like; there is no law against that.

FIRST SOLDIER: I do not think that stout Hugh, as you call him, will do the business for him after all. This Guido is of gentle birth, and so by the law can drink poison first, if it so be his pleasure.

THIRD SOLDIER: Faith, to drink poison is a poor pleasure.

SECOND SOLDIER: What kind of poison is it?

FIRST SOLDIER: Why, of the kind that kills.

SECOND SOLDIER: What sort of a thing is poison?

FIRST SOLDIER: It is a drink, like water, only not so healthy: if you would taste it there is some in the cup there.

SECOND SOLDIER: By Saint James, if it be not healthy, I will have none of it!

THIRD SOLDIER: And if he does not drink it?

FIRST SOLDIER: Why, then, they will kill him.

THIRD SOLDIER: And if he does drink it?

FIRST SOLDIER: Why, then, he will die.

SECOND SOLDIER: He has a grave choice to make. I trust he will choose wisely.

Knocking comes at the door.

FIRST SOLDIER: See who that is.

THIRD SOLDIER goes over and looks through the wicket.

THIRD SOLDIER: It is a woman, sir.

FIRST SOLDIER: Is she pretty?

THIRD SOLDIER: I can’t tell. She is masked, lieutenant.