.
This were murder,
Not justice. The most guilty should be heard.

BUTLER.
His guilt is clear, the emperor has passed judgment,
And we but execute his will.

GORDON.
We should not
Hurry to realize a bloody sentence.
A word may be recalled, a life never can be.

BUTLER.
Despatch in service pleases sovereigns.

GORDON.
No honest man's ambitious to press forward
To the hangman's service.

BUTLER.
And no brave man loses
His color at a daring enterprise.

GORDON.
A brave man hazards life, but not his conscience.

BUTLER.
What then? Shall he go forth anew to kindle
The unextinguishable flame of war?

GORDON.
Seize him, and hold him prisoner--do not kill him.

BUTLER.
Had not the emperor's army been defeated
I might have done so. But 'tis now passed by.

GORDON.
Oh, wherefore opened I the stronghold to him?

BUTLER.
His destiny, and not the place destroys him.

GORDON.
Upon these ramparts, as beseemed a soldier--
I had fallen, defending the emperor's citadel!

BUTLER.
Yes! and a thousand gallant men have perished!

GORDON.
Doing their duty--that adorns the man!
But murder's a black deed, and nature curses it.

BUTLER (brings out a paper).
Here is the manifesto which commands us
To gain possession of his person. See--
It is addressed to you as well as me.
Are you content to take the consequences,
If through our fault he escape to the enemy?

GORDON.
I? Gracious God!

BUTLER.
Take it on yourself.
Come of it what may, on you I lay it.

GORDON.
Oh, God in heaven!

BUTLER.
Can you advise aught else
Wherewith to execute the emperor's purpose?
Say if you can. For I desire his fall,
Not his destruction.

GORDON.
Merciful heaven! what must be
I see as clear as you. Yet still the heart
Within my bosom beats with other feelings!

BUTLER.
Mine is of harder stuff! Necessity
In her rough school hath steeled me. And this Illo,
And Terzky likewise, they must not survive him.

GORDON.
I feel no pang for these. Their own bad hearts
Impelled them, not the influence of the stars.
'Twas they who strewed the seeds of evil passions
In his calm breast, and with officious villany
Watered and nursed the poisonous plants. May they
Receive their earnests to the uttermost mite!

BUTLER.
And their death shall precede his!
We meant to have taken them alive this evening
Amid the merrymaking of a feast,
And keep them prison