The Cardinal's Conscience

"...O my conscience! / I would pray now" (5.4.25-26)

"About this hour I appointed Bosola / To fetch the body: when he hath serv'd my turn, / He dies."
(5.4.28-30)

While by the end of the play an audience typically expects to grasp the nature of the characters, the final act in Webster's work only confuses me more when it comes to the Cardinal. At times, he seems repentant for his treachery. Yet in a matter of lines, his resolve again strengthens; he moves forward with his plot without a moral conscience. Ferdinand's madness seems to imply that something within his character has cracked. I think the realization of what he's done is too much more for him to handle. The Cardinal never shows any real signs of breaking down. We're never quite sure whether he grasps the consequences of the atrocities he's committed.