Cleone :: :: University of Virginia Library

Glanville, Beaufort Junior.
Beaufort Junior.
What strange suspicion, Glanville, has possess'd
The bosom of Sifroy? Whence had it birth?
Or on what ground could Malice fix her stand,
To throw the darts of Slander on a name
So guarded as Cleone's?

Glanville.
I could wish—
It gives me pain to speak—but I could wish
The conduct of Cleone had not given
So fair a mark.

Beaufort Junior.
So fair a mark!—What! who?
Cleone, say'st thou!—Hath my sister given
So fair a mark to Slander? have a care!
The breath that blasts her fame may raise a storm
Not easily appeas'd.

Glanville.
It grieves me, sir,
That you compel me to disclose, what you
In bitterness of soul must hear. But she
And Prudence have of late been much estrang'd.

Beaufort Junior.
Defame her not—Discretion crowns her brow,
And in her modest eye, sweet Innocence
Smiles on Detraction. Where, where is my sister?
She shall confront thy words—her look alone
Shall prove thy tale a groundless calumny.

Glanville.
You surely know not, sir, that she is fled—

Beaufort Junior.
What say'st thou?—Fled!—Surprize choaks up my words!
It cannot be!—Fled! whither?—Gone! with whom?

Glanville.
With Paulet, sir, Sifroy's young friend.

Beaufort Junior.
Impossible!
I'm on the rack! Tell, I conjure thee, tell
The truth—Where are they gone?

Glanville.
That they conceal.
I only know, that finding their intrigue
Detected, they abscond: and 'tis suppos'd
Will seek for shelter on some foreign shore.

Beaufort Junior.
Where then is Truth, and where is Virtue fled,
Ere while her dear companions?—O my sister!
How art thou fallen?—Thy father too—O parricide!
Had'st thou no pity on his bending age?
On his fond heart—too feeble now to bear
So rude a shock?

Glanville.
Can it not be conceal'd?

Beaufort Junior.
O no!—He comes, impatient to enquire
From his lov'd daughter, whence Sifroy had cause
For his opprobrious charge.—And see, he's here.

[Enter Beaufort Senior.