(observing the bodies) You planned this massacre thoroughly.
Micheletto CorellaIf I had planned it, my Lord, believe me, we would not be having this conversation.
Micheletto Corella
Always. (removes a dagger from a body and throws it aside)
Micheletto Corella
Cardinal Orsini.
Micheletto Corella
I know nothing of him. In this affair, I had but one master. (leans against the wall to catch his breath)
Micheletto Corella
And now, I am like a stray dog- masterless. (glances at Cesare) Unless your kind offer still stands.
You could've... let things take their course, betrayed me. Most of your kind do.
Micheletto Corella
My kind? (pause) I do not have a "kind". (glances at his bloody hands, then back to Cesare) And, I suspect, neither do you.
(sheathes his dagger, approaches) Your name, sweet assassin?
Micheletto Corella
(straightens up)... Micheletto.
You must prove yourself worthy of my trust, then.
Micheletto Corella
(gestures to the pile of corpses) This is not proof enough?
Perhaps... perhaps not. Can you dispose of these corpses?
Micheletto Corella
You would keep them secret?
More than that- I would keep you secret. (pause) Dump them in the Tiber- meet me at the Vatican gates in two hours' time. We shall discuss your future service.
Micheletto Corella
You have news for me?
TTaxidermist
He's ordered the evacuation of Naples.
Micheletto Corella
So, the King will travel with his own troops, yes? (the taxidermist nods, Micheletto removes his knives from the paper)
TTaxidermist
The Sforza armies, too.
Micheletto Corella
... It will take days to gather such an army- three, at least. So, I must hurry. (hangs a large pouch of money in front of the drawing, then heads for the door) This is for your retirement.
TTaxidermist
(bows and clasps his hands) Thank you- thank you.
Micheletto Corella
(warningly) And, for your silence. (the taxidermist hastily nods, Micheletto walks out)
(fully armored) You make a manly figure on your horse, Cardinal- but the French cannon will soon break down your walls, and you will be impotent in the face of them. (Giovanni Sforza smirks)
(calmly) My walls may yet prove stronger than you think, my Lady.
FSFrench soldiers
Part for the King! The King! Make way! (Charles, fully armored but still sick, rides out to join them)
(coldly) We have Italian friends, Cardinal Borgia, but our business... is all French.
To gain entry to the city of Rome. The easy way... or, the hard. You have decorate the walls of Rome with flags and pennants- to welcome us, I presume?
(smirks) Your Highness is indeed welcome... to march on, past Rome.
(furious) I warn you, Cardinal: I shall RAZE your city! Take terrible revenge on YOU, YOUR FAMILY AND THE PAPACY ITSELF!
My cannon will gain me entry! Twelve hours, I have been assured, to batter down those walls!
... Perhaps my cannon will make their statement, first.
Micheletto Corella
CANNONS, FORWARD! (the "cannons" are rolled into the attack position)
(to herself) How did they manage to?...
(looking equally worried) Our battle line is still forming, my Liege.
I must compliment Your Highness on his ingenuity. Chained cannonballs can take apart a regiment, like... a knife through butter. (Charles looks away) Are you not well, Your Highness?
We have the Neapolitan fever.
(nods) Perhaps battle should wait, then- until his full health returns. Or, perhaps he should trace his gracious path home- to fair France. (turns and rides back inside the gates)
Do I give the signal, my Liege?
Do I look like a fool, General?!
Micheletto Corella
You should spare yourself this, Your Eminence.
Why? Why should I spare myself? (he walks through the burned-out nunnery, Micheletto follows with a torch) I should've foreseen this. (he looks up at the fresco he commissioned, with Ursula Bonadeo's face)
Micheletto Corella
... Your Eminence. (Cesare enters the next room to find Micheletto standing over the body of Ursula, with her ears cut off)
...Ursula. (he kneels next to her and touches her bloodstained face) She chose God, Micheletto... and God repaid her with mutilation.
Micheletto Corella
I know little of God, Your Eminence.
(full of grief and rage) God is deaf, God is blind- God is pitiless. (pause) She has released my heart... of all emotions, but one. (looks up at Micheletto) Vengeance.
Micheletto Corella
(nods) Vengeance is sweet.
So, who did this, my friend?
Micheletto Corella
The French. (picks up the remnants of a banner and examines it) This flag belongs to the cavalry of Gascony- these women were sport for army scouts.
Micheletto Corella
They're renowned for their savagery- necklaces of severed ears. (Cesare removes his cloak and covers Ursula's body with it)
We must give them a lesson, then- in outrage. (they walk away) You were once a stray dog, Micheletto- masterless.
Micheletto Corella
I found my master in you.
There must be other stray dogs out there, in Rome.
Micheletto Corella
There are many. Sons of warlord families, condottiere who long have outlived their usefulness.
Search out a dozen of them- whom we can school in the art of vengeance.
AAugustino
Micheletto... we cannot meet again.
Micheletto Corella
Why?
AAugustino
If I were caught, I would be disemboweled and burned-
Micheletto Corella
It's a cruel world!
AAugustino
Too cruel. (Micheletto grabs him and twists him around into a headlock/stranglehold)
Micheletto Corella
I have killed many men in an embrace such as this-
AAugustino
Did you love them, too? (Micheletto twists him sideways, indicating one of the graves)
Micheletto Corella
This grave- this is my father's grave. And I loved him too- when I held his head thus. (releases Augustino angrily) Now you go, and you be married. Some folk say it is better to marry- (kisses Augustino forcefully) than to burn.
(high from the opium) Brother. (limps towards Cesare) Have you come to beg forgiveness for your insult?
(claps him on the shoulder) You are already forgiven.
Imagine... that you're sitting on the edge of a vast well, your feet dangling over the edge. Moving slowly around the walls of the well, like smoke, there's... a world of wonders reaching down, as far as the eye can see.
You see, these wonders... are your life. (pause) I glimpse us, Cesare. Two brothers in harmony, walking together. (smiles) All these visions are the work of tears.
... No. (stops) Tears of the poppy. Everything is there for you to see. Your birth... and, of course, your death. But... but the miracle is, that there's no pain. (laughs shakily) I've been in pain, Cesare, for all my years. (pause) And, you... you are in pain, Brother. I can feel it.
(face contorted with emotion)... Yes. I am in pain.
... You would end your pain. (embraces Cesare)
... Yes. (pause) And I would end yours.
My Brother... what is this? (Cesare's face hardens again)
Only God forgives. (stepping forward, he stabs Juan twice more in the stomach) We're Borgias. We never forgive. (He and Micheletto both grab Juan, holding him upright)
Micheletto Corella
... I stand in awe, Your Eminence.
...You killed your father.
Micheletto Corella
And still, I stand in awe.
Micheletto Corella
(sarcastically, approaching the cage holding Savanarola) Yes?
I have had your kind stoned to death, and their corpses... dragged through the streets.
Micheletto Corella
(kneels in front of the cage, so they are eye-to-eye)... My kind?
Men... who lay with men. (disgustedly) Sodomites, who corrupt young, innocent boys- who artists use as angels. I have cleansed Florence... of her sin.
Micheletto Corella
(calmly) And yet, here I am. (Savanarola grunts noncommittally) Your last chance. Will you confess?
To you... to you, never! (Micheletto stands and walks over to the rack) To your master... yes. And none else.
The Borgias · 70 quotes
