I am ready.

_Bar._ No--not now.

_Lor._ Yet 'twas important.

_Doge_. If 'twas so, I can
Only repeat--I am ready.

_Bar._ It shall not be 230
Just now, though Venice tottered o'er the deep
Like a frail vessel. I respect your griefs.

_Doge_. I thank you. If the tidings which you bring
Are evil, you may say them; nothing further
Can touch me more than him thou look'st on there;
If they be good, say on; you need not _fear_
That they can _comfort_ me.

_Bar._ I would they could!

_Doge_. I spoke not to _you_, but to Loredano.
_He_ understands me.

_Mar._ Ah! I thought it would be so.

_Doge_. What mean you?

_Mar._ Lo! there is the blood beginning 240
To flow through the dead lips of Foscari--
The body bleeds in presence of the assassin.
[_To_ LOREDANO.
Thou cowardly murderer by law, behold
How Death itself bears witness to thy deeds!

_Doge_. My child! this is a phantasy of grief.
Bear hence the body. [_To his attendants_] Signors, if it please you,
Within an hour I'll hear you.

[_Exeunt_ DOGE, MARINA, _and attendants with the
body_. _Manent_ LOREDANO _and_ BARBARIGO.

_Bar._ He must not
Be troubled now.

_Lor._ He said himself that nought
Could give him trouble farther.

_Bar._ These are words;
But Grief is lonely, and the breaking in 250
Upon it barbarous.

_Lor._ Sorrow preys upon
Its solitude, and nothing more diverts it
From its sad visions of the other world,
Than calling it at moments back to this.
The busy have no time for tears.

_Bar._ And therefore
You would deprive this old man of all business?

_Lor._ The thing's decreed. The Giunta[75] and "the Ten"
Have made it law--who shall oppose that law?

_Bar._ Humanity!

_Lor._ Because his son is dead?

_Bar._ And yet unburied.

_Lor._ Had we known this when 260
The act was passing, it might have suspended
Its passa