University of Virginia Library

SCENE II.

KING EDWARD, CLYFFORD, and ATTENDANTS.
KING EDWARD.
Well! my young soldier,
Hast thou, as I enjoined thee, seen these miscreants,
Who to their harps breathed anarchy and carnage,
Resign their forfeit lives?

CLYFFORD.
Yes! my dread liege,
I have indeed beheld—shield, shield me, Heaven,
From such another spectacle!

KING EDWARD.
Weak boy!
What, choaked with tears! art thou the martial youth,
Whom, for thy father's sake, tho' marriage failed
To give the stamp of honor to thy birth,
I fondly fostered as a future hero?

CLYFFORD.
If I offend, whom I would die to serve,
Pray you, my liege, assign me any torture,
Rather than your reproach!

KING EDWARD.
Then be corrected!
Thy too indulgent sire, the gentle Edmund
Would lead thee, by his homilies on peace,
To be an anchorite:—thy king, my Clyfford,
Must steel thy sinews to the sterner duties
Of discord-quelling power.—But to thy story!
What! did these fierce offenders die so bravely,
Thou couldst have wished their pardon?

CLYFFORD.
From my soul—
O royal Edward! think me not ungrateful
For all thy lavish bounty to my youth,
If when I saw these victims of thy wrath
Perish, amid the groans of suffering thousands,
I wished thy mercy—

KING EDWARD.
Poor, deluded stripling!
These wild enthusiasts have ensnared thy fancy;
And foolish pity for the expiring traitors
Has made thee half a rebel.

CLYFFORD.
No! my liege,
I pitied not the dying: their demeanour
Might waken envy, but not weak compassion:
They died as freedom's martyrs—and they said
The benedictions of their bleeding country
Would waft to Heaven their unrepining spirits.
It was the anguish of their mourning kindred
That pierced my soul—it seemed, that in their death
The vital spirit of their nation perished.

KING EDWARD.
There, Clyfford, thy unconscious lips applaud
The wisdom of severity. The arm,
That strikes against us in the field of war,
Is not so much an object of our fear,
As that more potent voice, which, in the scene
Of festive tumult, arrogantly spreads
Contagious enmity against our rule,
And mutinous defiance. These wild tribes
Of hardy mountaineers will soon become
The docile vassals of our sovereign pleasure,
When their presumptuous rhapsodists no more
Exist, to fire the fascinated people
To frantic insurrection. Quiet now
May guard and fertilize our new domain,
Since these rebellious, these strife-kindling bards
Are all extirpated.

CLYFFORD.
Not all my liege.

KING EDWARD.
What! are we disobeyed? is not our sentence
Justly fulfilled on all the trait'rous tribe?

CLYFFORD.
Of the devoted band, one hoary chief,
Pre-eminent in genius and renown,
The famed Llandorvin, by a pious fraud,
That nature framed to save him, has eluded
His watchful guard, and 'scaped the general doom,
Which sunk to day in everlasting silence
All the lost brothers of his art.

KING EDWARD.
Escaped!
He shall not foil my power—by Salem's cross
Not all the deep recesses of their mountains
Shall screen this fugitive, and whosoe'er
Has stolen the victim from insulted justice,
Shall in atonement share his future death.

CLYFFORD.
Recal that oath!—O noble minded Edward!
For it involves a cruelty, thy nature
Could never execute. Our glorious sovereign,
The pride of Christendom! bears not a sword
To strike at female youth, and filial duty.

KING EDWARD.
What canst thou mean?

CLYFFORD.
The culprit is a daughter:
Of radiant beauty; and, as fame reports,
Endowed with all the mental energy,
That made her sire the darling of his nation.

KING EDWARD.
Bribed she our guard?—Perdition on the traitors!

CLYFFORD.
No! on my life my liege the men are faithful.
This damsel with prevailing supplication
(A savage must have granted her request)
Begged but to pass within her father's prison
The night preceding his appointed death.
How she effected his escape, we know not;
But when the morning came, and all the victims
Were summoned to their fate, the fearless maiden
Boasted, her sire was free; and nobly added
To seal his freedom, if her blood might seal it,
She would exult to meet th'impending doom,
From which she had redeemed him.

KING EDWARD.
Mark! thou novice
In the high task to govern wayward rebels,
Mark! how these fierce enthusiasts of the harp
Subvert all power! How with outrageous fury
They spurn authority, and smile at death.
This artful traitress may have severed from us
The hearts of half our soldiery. Inform me
How they received this daring subterfuge!

CLYFFORD.
As men, my liege, who tho' inured to scenes,
Where lawless war oft leads to wildest outrage,
Yet feel the force of beauty, and of nature.
They praised the noble girl, exclaimed “God bless her,”
And would have sent her crowned with garlands home,
But that stern Mortimer, whose rigid spirit
Can ne'er forgive her countrymen the havoc,
They spread so frequent o'er his neighbouring lands,
Seized on the maid, and resolutely vowed
He would conduct her to your royal presence,
As hostage for her father's peaceful conduct.

KING EDWARD.
He judges better than thy simple youth;
And knows the caution, that our state requires.