CLAVJGO: A TRAGEDY. 44? 



Sop. What ails you ? Good God ! what is the matter with you ? 



Mar. You have so alarmed me, that I have scarcely strength to ask for 

 a glass of water Sophia! brother! What does the letter contain? Look 

 how he trembles ! how all animation forsakes him ! 



Sop. Brother my brother ! (Beaumarchais sinks speechless into a chair, 

 and lets the letter fall. ) Brother ! (takes up the letter, and reads.} 



Mar. Let me see it ! 1 must (attempts to rise.) Alas ! I feel it. It is 

 the last, sister in mercy, the last, swift death-stroke. He has betrayed 

 us! 



Beau. (Springing up.} He has betrayed us ! (striking his forehead and 

 breast.) Here ! here ! all is as dead, as withered in my soul, as if a thun- 

 derbolt had struck my brain. Maria ! Maria ! you are betrayed ! and I 

 stand here ! Whither ? what ? I see nothing nothing ! no way ! no 

 deliverance ! (Sinks into his chair.) 



Enter Guilbert. 



Sop. Guilbert ! Advise ! Help ! We are lost ! 



Guilb. Wife! 



Sop. Read! Read! The ambassador informs our brother that Clavigo 

 has indicted him capitally, of having stolen into his house under a false 

 name, of having presented a pistol to him in bed, and compelled him to write 

 a disgraceful explanation ; and if he does not instantly quit the kingdom, 

 they will drag him to prison, from whence the ambassador himself perhaps 

 may not be able to free him. 



Beau. (Starting up.} Yes, they shall! they shall! shall drag me to 

 prison. But they shall tear me from his corpse ! tear me from the place 

 where I shall have glutted in his gore ! Ah ! I burn with a fierce parching 

 thirst for his blood! I thank thee, O God of heaven! that thou sendest men, 

 in the midst of insupportable and fiery trials, a cordial, a restorative ! 

 Oh ! how my heart swells with vengeance ! how this glorious feeling, 

 this eagerness for his blood, eats up all dull irresolution, all thoughts of 

 my own destruction wrenches me from myself! Revenge! How joyous 

 I feel ! my very entrails yearn after him, to clutch him, to annihilate 

 him ! 



Sop. You are terrible, brother ! 



Beau. So much the better. Ah ! no sword, no weapon ! Be mine the 

 bliss with these hands to strangle him! wholly mine this thought; I have 

 destroyed him. 



Mar. My heart ! my heart ! 



Beau. I could not save you ; but you shall be revenged ! my nostrils 

 widen to scent out his footsteps, my teeth crunch for his flesh, my palate 

 aches for his blood ! Am I become a rabid animal ! I glow in every vein, 

 every nerve trembles with convulsive eagerness to reach him ! I should 

 hate that man eternally who would now rob me of him by poison, or 

 snatch him from me like an assassin ! O, help me Guilbert, to seek him 

 out ! Where is Buenco ? Help me to find him ! 



Guilb. Save yourself! Save yourself! You have lost your senses ! 



Mar. Fly, my brother ! 



Sop. Take him away he will destroy his sister ! 

 Enter Buenco. 



Buen. Come, Sir ! away ! I foresaw this I warned you of it. And 

 now ! they are in pursuit of you you are lost, if you do not leave the 

 town this instant! 



Beau. Never more ! Where is Clavigo ? 



Buen. I do not know. 



Beau. You do know ; on my knees I entreat you, tell me. 



Sop. For God's sake, Buenco ! 



Mar. Ah ! air ! air ! (falls back) Clavigo ! 



