is no truth
In keeping faith with murderers; they must perish
In the same net which they laid privily
Against a faithful city.

_Enter_ GYCIA, _tottering in, with the keys._

_Zetho._ Hail, noble daughter! Thou hast saved the State.
I knew thou wouldst not fail us.

_Gycia._ See, good Zetho,
The proof that I have done my part to you.
There are the master keys of all the doors
Within the palace. When I closed the last,
A few brief minutes since, there was no sound
Nor light in hall or chamber; every court
Was silent as the grave.

_Bard._ Ay, as the grave
It is, or will be soon.

_Gycia._ What mean you, sir,
I pray you? I am but a timid woman,
Full of foreboding fears and dread of ill,
And such a doubt doth overspread my soul,
Hearing thy words, I think I shall go mad.
Nay, Zetho, he is safe; I have your promise
Thou wouldst not harm him. An o'erwhelming force,
Thou saidst, should so surround them that resistance
Were vain, and ere the dawn they should go hence
Without one drop of bloodshed.

_Zetho._ Ay, my daughter,
Such was the promise.

_Bard._ And it will be kept.

[_Bell strikes midnight._

Hark, 'tis the hour! An overwhelming force

[_A red glare rising higher and higher is seen through the
windows of the Senate-chamber. Confused noises and shouts heard
without._

Surrounds them, but no drop of blood is shed.
All will go hence ere dawn.

_Gycia._ Oh, cruel man,
And most perfidious world! Oh, my Asander!
To die thus and through me!

[_A violent knocking is heard at the door._

_Enter_ THEODORUS _in great agitation, and_ IRENE, _who throws
herself on her knees, weeping._ GYCIA _falls swooning in Zetho's
arms._

_Zetho._ Whence cam'st thou, Theodorus?

_Theo._ Straight, my lord,
From Gycia's palace.

_Zetho._ Say, what didst thou there?
And what of horror has befallen thee
That makes thine eyes stare thus?

_Theo._ Most noble Zetho,
When from the banquet scarce an hour ago
I passed, came one who offered me a letter
And bade me read. 'Twas from this woman here,
My sister, and it told of some great peril
By fire, which she, within the prison locked,
Expected with the night. Wheref