_Doge_. We?

_Lor._ "The Ten" in council.

_Doge_. What! have they met again, and met without
Apprising me?

_Lor._ They wished to spare your feelings,
No less than age.

_Doge_. That's new--when spared they either?
I thank them, notwithstanding.

_Lor._ You know well 200
That they have power to act at their discretion,
With or without the presence of the Doge.

_Doge_. 'Tis some years since I learned this, long before
I became Doge, or dreamed of such advancement.
You need not school me, Signor; I sate in
That Council when you were a young patrician.

_Lor._ True, in my father's time; I have heard him and
The Admiral, his brother, say as much.
Your Highness may remember them; they both
Died suddenly.[54]

_Doge_. And if they did so, better 210
So die than live on lingeringly in pain.

_Lor._ No doubt: yet most men like to live their days out.

_Doge_. And did not they?

_Lor._ The Grave knows best: they died,
As I said, suddenly.

_Doge_. Is that so strange,
That you repeat the word emphatically?

_Lor._ So far from strange, that never was there death
In my mind half so natural as theirs.
Think _you_ not so?

_Doge_. What should I think of mortals?

_Lor._ That they have mortal foes.

_Doge_. I understand you;
Your sires were mine, and you are heir in all things. 220

_Lor._ You best know if I should be so.

_Doge_. I do.
Your fathers were my foes, and I have heard
Foul rumours were abroad; I have also read
Their epitaph, attributing their deaths
To poison. 'Tis perhaps as true as most
Inscriptions upon tombs, and yet no less
A fable.

_Lor._ Who dares say so?

_Doge_. I!----'Tis true
Your fathers were mine enemies, as bitter
As their son e'er can be, and I no less
Was theirs; but I was _openly_ their foe: 230
I never worked by plot in Council, nor
Cabal in commonwealth, nor secret means
Of practice against life by steel or drug.
The proof is--your existence.

_Lor._ I fea