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A room in the Cardinal’s Palace at Brisighella.

Montanelli is seated at his writing-table giving audience to the Military Governor, Colonel Ferrari, who is standing. A Sergeant is waiting at the door. A crucifix hangs on the wall.

FERRARI. And I once more earnestly assure your Eminence that your refusal is endangering the peace of the town. If you knew what I and my assistants have put up with from this man you would feel differently about the matter. His is an exceptional case; and it calls for exceptional measures.

MONTANELLI. There is no case which calls for injustice; and to condemn a civilian by the judgement of a secret military tribunal is both unjust and illegal.

FERRARI. The case amounts to this, your Eminence. The prisoner is manifestly guilty of several capital crimes. He is known to be an influential member of one of the most pestilent secret societies in the country. He has offered armed resistance to authority and seriously wounded two officials in the discharge of their duty; and he is now a standing menace to the peace and order of the town.

MONTANELLI. Whatever the man has done he has the right to be judged according to law.

FERRARI. The ordinary course of law involves delay, your Eminence; and in this case every moment is precious. There’s a remarkable amount of devilry — I beg pardon; but really this man is enough to try the patience of a saint. It’s hardly credible; but I have to conduct all the interrogations myself; for the regular officer cannot stand it any longer.

MONTANELLI. How is that?

FERRARI. It’s difficult to explain, your Eminence, but you would understand if you had once heard the way he goes on. One might think the interrogating officer were the criminal and he the judge. If your Eminence would only be present at one of the interrogations, I am sure you would agree with me. He needn’t know anything about it. You might overhear him from —

MONTANELLI [interrupting haughtily] lam a minister of religion, Colonel Ferrari, not a police-spy; and eavesdropping forms no part of my professional duties.

FERRARI. I — I didn’t mean to give offence —

MONTANELLI. I think we shall not get any good out of discussing this question further. Bring the prisoner in. I will have a talk with him.

FERRARI. I venture very respectfully to advise your Eminence not to attempt it. The man is perfectly incorrigible. It would be both safer and wiser to overstep the letter of the law for this once, and get rid of him before he does any more mischief. It is with great diffidence that I venture to press the point after what your Eminence has said; but after all I am responsible to Monsignor the Legate for the order of the town —

MONTANELLI. And I am responsible to God and His Holiness that there shall be no underhand dealing in my diocese. Since you press me in the matter, Colonel, I take my stand upon my privilege as Cardinal. I will not allow a secret CourtMartial in this town in peace-time.

FERRARI [resentfully] As your Eminence pleases, [to the Sergeant] Bring the prisoner in. [He sits down].

MONTANELLI. Colonel Ferrari, I propose to see the prisoner alone.

FERRARI [rising stiffly] You do not wish me to be present?

MONTANELLI. I do not wish anybody to be present.

FERRARI. What! No guards!

MONTANELLI. Certainly not.

FERRARI. Then, with your Eminence’s permission, I shall clear out. And I warn you that I take no responsibility for the risk you are going to run.

MONTANELLI. I do not ask you to do so. You will find there is no risk.

FERRARI. Oho! You think so. [lowering his voice] Listen to me, your Eminence. I have been obliged to be rather strict with him — especially as it is a military prison. The other day I thought that perhaps a little indulgence might have a good effect. I offered to relax the discipline considerably if he would behave in a reasonable manner; and how does your Eminence suppose he answered me? He lay looking at me a minute, like a wolf in a cage, and then said quite softly: “Colonel, I can’t get up and strangle you, but my teeth are pretty good: you had better take your throat a little further off.” He is as savage as a wild cat.

MONTANELLI. I am not surprised to hear it. I will give you my answer as to the CourtMartial when I have seen the prisoner.

FERRARI. I have no doubt, your Eminence, he will convince you of the necessity of getting rid of him better than I can.

As he goes to the door, it opens, and the Gadfly enters, escorted by the Sergeant and four soldiers. The Gadfly instantly makes a spring at Ferrari. The soldiers drag him off. The Cardinal rises, white and shocked.

Ferrari. Now, your Eminence, I hope you believe me. You have seen for yourself.

GADFLY [coolly] I am bitterly disappointed, your Eminence. I was within an inch of getting a good bite when these foolish fellows stopped me.

FERRARI. I leave him in your Eminence’s hands. I wish your Eminence a pleasant interview. Exit.

MONTANELLI [to the guards] I wish to be alone with the prisoner. You can wait downstairs.

SERGEANT. But, your Eminence — montanelli [peremptorily] You are to wait downstairs, all of you. Go.

The Sergeant, overawed, takes his men out.

[to Gadfly] Sit down, please.

The Gadfly sits.

Signor Rivarez, I wish to ask you a few questions, and shall be very much obliged to you if you will answer them.

GADFLY. My chief occupation at present is to be asked questions.

MONTANELLI. And — not to answer them? So I have heard, but those questions are put by officials who are investigating your case and whose duty is to use your answers as evidence.

GADFLY [with covert insolence] And those of your Eminence?

MONTANELLI [quietly] Mine, whether you answer them or not, will remain between you and me. If they should trench upon your political secrets, of course you will not answer. Otherwise, though we are complete strangers to each other, I hope that you will answer frankly, as a personal favour to me.

GADFLY [icily] I am entirely at your Eminence’s service.

MONTANELLI. First, then, you are said to have been smuggling firearms into this district. What are they wanted for?

GADFLY. To kill rats with.

MONTANELLI. That is a terrible answer. Are all your fellow men rats in your eyes if they cannot think as you do?

GADFLY. Some of them.

MONTANELLI [suddenly, after a pause] What is that on your hand?

GADFLY [glancing at his left hand] Old marks from the teeth of some of the rats.

MONTANELLI. Excuse me: I was speaking of the other hand. That is a fresh hurt.

GADFLY [holding up his right hand with the wrist badly cut and bruised] It is a mere trifle, as you see. When I was arrested the other day, thanks to your Eminence [he makes a little bow], one of the soldiers stamped on it.

MONTANELLI [taking the hand and examining it] How does it come to be in such a state now, after three weeks? It is all inflamed.

GADFLY. Possibly the pressure of the iron has not done it much good.

MONTANELLI [frowning] Have they been putting irons on a fresh wound?

GADFLY. Naturally, your Eminence; that’s what fresh wounds are for. Old wounds are not much use. They will only ache: you can’t make them burn properly.

MONTANELLI [looks at him closely, then rises and opens a drawer full of surgical appliances] Give me the hand. [He bathes the injured place and bandages it carefully] I will speak about the irons. Now I want to ask you another question. What do you propose to do?

GADFLY. That is very simply answered, your Eminence. To escape if I can; and if I can’t, to die.

MONTANELLI. Why “to die”?

GADFLY. Because if the Governor doesn’t succeed in getting me shot, I shall be sent to the galleys; and for me that comes to the same thing. I haven’t got the health to live through it.

MONTANELLI [after a pause] Suppose you succeed in escaping, what will you do with your life?

GADFLY. I have already told your Eminence; I shall kill rats.

MONTANELLI. That is to say, that if I let you escape from here now — supposing I had the power to do so — you would use your freedom to foster violence and bloodshed instead of preventing them?

GADFLY [raising his eyes to the crucifix on the wall]

“Not peace but a sword” — at least I should be in good company. For my own part, though, I prefer pistols.

MONTANELLI [rising] Signor Rivarez, I am old, and no doubt have not much longer to live. I would go down to my grave without blood on my hands. But Heaven has put upon me the terrible duty of deciding whether you shall live or die. Everything I know of your career seems to me bad and mischievous: but during this last fortnight you have shown that you are a brave man, and that you can be faithful to your friends. You must have in you something better than you show outside. To that better self in you I appeal, and solemnly entreat you, on your conscience, to tell me truthfully: in my place what would you do?

GADFLY [with sudden, violent passion] At least I would decide my own actions for myself, and take the consequences of them. I would not come sneaking to other people, in the cowardly Christian way, asking them to make up my mind for me. We atheists understand that if a man has a thing to bear he must bear it as best he can: if he sinks under it, why, so much the worse for him! But a Christian comes whining to his God, or his Saints; or, if they won’t help him, to his enemies — he can always find a back to shift his burdens on to. Heavens and earth, man, haven’t I enough as it is, without your laying your responsibilities on my shoulders? [He breaks off, panting, then bursts out again] “Sign your own death sentence, please; I’m too tenderhearted to do it myself”: that’s what you’re saying to me now. Oh! it would take a Christian to hit on that — a gentle, compassionate Christian, that turns pale at the sight of a scuffle and a couple of bullet wounds. I might have known when you began to play the angel of mercy that the real thing was going to begin! Why do you look at me that way? Consent, man, of course; and go to your dinner: the thing’s not worth all this fuss. Tell your colonel he can have me shot, or hanged, or whatever comes handiest — roasted alive, if it’s any amusement to him — and be done with it!

Montanelli, with austere dignity, strikes the bell. The soldiers enter instantly, showing that they have been waiting immediately outside. Ferrari follows them.

MONTANELLI. You can take back the prisoner.

GADFLY [with mock sweetness as he is led out] Good afternoon, Colonel Ferrari. So sorry to have frightened you.

He is taken out.

MONTANELLI [to Ferrari] Do you honestly believe that the presence of Rivarez in the prison here is a serious danger to the peace of the district?

FERRARI. Most certainly I do, your Eminence.

MONTANELLI. You think that, to prevent the risk of bloodshed, it is absolutely necessary that he should somehow be got rid of before Corpus Domini?

FERRARI. I can only repeat that if he is here on Thursday, I do not expect the festival to pass over without a fight, and I think it likely to be a serious one.

MONTANELLI [forcibly, after an impressive pause] Colonel Ferrari: do you believe in God?

FERRARI. !!!! Your Eminence!!

MONTANELLI [rising and looking at him searchingly] Do you believe in God?

FERRARI [also rising] Your Eminence, I am a Christian man, and have never yet been refused absolution.

MONTANELLI [lifting the cross on his breast] Then swear on the cross of the Redeemer Who died for you, that you have been speaking the truth to me.

Ferrari gazes at him blankly.

You have asked me to give my consent to a man’s death. Kiss the cross, if you dare; and tell me that you believe there is no other way to prevent greater bloodshed. And remember that if you tell me a lie you are imperilling your immortal soul.

FERRARI [after a pause, bends down and puts the cross to his lips] I believe it.

A priest, Montanelli’s secretary, enters.

MONTANELLI. Why am I interrupted?

PRIEST. The woman, your Eminence.

MONTANELLI. What woman?

PRIEST. The woman who wrote to your Eminence this morning. On a matter of life and death. Your Eminence’s orders were that she should be admitted instantly.

MONTANELLI. Tell her that my present business is also of life and death. She must wait.

FERRARI. One moment, your Eminence. It may be the same business. I should like to see this woman, if your Eminence will be so good as to admit her before I leave the room.

MONTANELLI. Colonel Ferrari: must I again remind you that my palace is not a police office.

FERRARI [bluntly] Your Eminence: it is a place where men are sentenced to death. Will your Eminence take this whole business, fighting and all, on yourself from beginning to end?

MONTANELLI. You know that that is impossible.

Ferrari. Well, will you leave it altogether in my hands?

MONTANELLI. No: I must bear the burden of my own duties.

FERRARI. Then Church and State are partners; and they must treat one another reasonably. This woman can come to no harm if she deserves your protection. If your Eminence will not let me see or hear, I must have her watched: that is all.

MONTANELLI [to the Priest] Let her come in.

PRIEST [opening the door] You are to come in.

Gemma enters.

Ferrari [rising] Ah, I thought so. That is all I wanted, your Eminence. This is Signora Gemma Bolla. If we knew as much about this sedition as Signora Bolla does, we should make short work of it. I take my leave of your Eminence.

The Cardinal dismisses him with a gesture. Gemma watches him as he goes to the door. On the threshold he stops and turns.

Oh, by the way, your Eminence, I was forgetting what I came for. I have not had your Eminence’s final answer about the CourtMartial.

GEMMA. I beg your Eminence not to give that answer until you have heard what I have to say to you.

MONTANELLI. In that case, Colonel Ferrari, the lady’s business is public and concerns us both. You had better wait.

GEMMA. No: it is private — deeply private business.

Private business concerning your Eminence personally.

MONTANELLI. In that case, since no private considerations can alter my public duty, you can take my final answer now, Colonel. I consent to the CourtMartial.

GEMMA. What are you doing —

Ferrari [cutting her short exultantly] I thank your Eminence. Your orders shall be carried out at once.

He goes out.

GEMMA. I am glad to see that Cardinal Montanelli is more attached to his duty than Canon Montanelli, Father Director of the Theological Seminary in Pisa, and confessor to Arthur Burton.

MONTANELLI [turning white] What do you know of Arthur Burton?

GEMMA. I know that he confessed to only two priests in all his life. The one was a police spy. The other was his own father, the betrayer of his mother.

MONTANELLI [controlling himself] What do you want with me, my daughter?

GEMMA. Have you seen Rivarez?

MONTANELLI. Yes.

GEMMA. You know then that he does not believe in priests?

MONTANELLI. I know that he does not believe in anything.

GEMMA. Not even in women?

MONTANELLI. A man who does not believe in priests, my daughter, is not likely to believe in women.

GEMMA. Arthur Burton believed in women until his girl comrade struck him in the face because he trusted a political secret to a priest.

MONTANELLI. And drove him to his death by that act. Thank God, it was not the priest’s sin that broke his heart!

GEMMA. Are you sure that he is dead?

MONTANELLI. He drowned himself.

GEMMA. Did you find his body?

MONTANELLI. He left word that it would not be found.

GEMMA. How did he know that it would not be found?

MONTANELLI [trembling] Signora Bolla: you are doing a thing to me that a man born of a woman should hesitate to do to his worst enemy. You are turning the greatest sorrow of my life into a political weapon to save your fellow conspirator. You are trying to persuade me that Rivarez learnt his wickedness from Arthur.

GEMMA. Cardinal: Rivarez is Arthur.

MONTANELLI [springing up] In God’s name, no!

GEMMA. As surely as it was this hand that struck him. He chose this dangerous duty because he longed to see you. He loves you.

MONTANELLI. No, no, no.

GEMMA. Your duty was nothing to you when you brought him into the world. Is it so sacred now that you must send him out of it?

MONTANELLI. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. It is the vengeance of God that has fallen on me as it fell upon David. I have defiled his sanctuary, and taken the body of the Lord into polluted hands. He has been very patient with me; but now it has come. “For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun: the child that is born unto thee shall surely die!”

He falls insensible. Gemma runs to him and stoops over his body.