Scene + 

V + 

Enter Ferneze, Martin del Bosco, Knights, and Basso. + 

Ferneze + 

Welcome, great basso; how fares Calymath? + 

What wind drives you thus into Malta-road? + 

Basso + 

The wind that bloweth all the world besides⁠— + 

Desire of gold. + 

Ferneze + 

Desire of gold, great sir? + 

That’s to be gotten in the Western Ind: + 

In Malta are no golden minerals. + 

Basso + 

To you of Malta thus saith Calymath: + 

The time you took for respite is at hand, + 

For the performance of your promise passed, + 

And for the tribute-money I am sent. + 

Ferneze + 

Basso, in brief, ’shalt have no tribute here, + 

Nor shall the heathens live upon our spoil: + 

First will we raze the city walls ourselves, + 

Lay waste the island, hew the temples down, + 

And, shipping off our goods to Sicily, + 

Open an entrance for the wasteful sea, + 

Whose billows, beating the resistless banks, + 

Shall overflow it with their refluence. + 

Basso + 

Well, governor, since thou hast broke the league + 

By flat denial of the promised tribute, + 

Talk not of razing down your city walls; + 

You shall not need trouble yourselves so far, + 

For Selim Calymath shall come himself, + 

And with brass bullets batter down your towers, + 

And turn proud Malta to a wilderness + 

For these intolerable wrongs of yours; + 

And so, farewell. + 

Ferneze + 

Farewell. + 

Exit Basso. + 

And now, ye men of Malta, look about, + 

And let’s provide to welcome Calymath: + 

Close your portcullis, charge your basilisks, + 

And as you profitably take up arms, + 

So now courageously encounter them; + 

For by this answer broken is the league, + 

And naught is to be looked for now but wars, + 

And naught to us more welcome is than wars. + 

Exeunt. + 