 | William Rufus |  |
Scene V.
—The New Forest: a Glade. Enter the Ætheling Henry, William of Breteuil, and Gilbert of Clare.Ætheling Henry.
We're solitary.
Clare.
Ay, these tangled brakes
Confuse companionship.
Ætheling Henry.
Their giddy boughs,
Like sirens' hair, enwind the charmèd sense
Until it lose its function. Let us on.
Breteuil.
We have encountered little sport.
Ætheling Henry.
Rich chance
Wait on our sundered friends, for we to-day
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Clare.
Methinks
I hear across the air the chime of dogs
Rejoicing the green distance.
Breteuil.
I hear nought.
Ætheling Henry.
There leaps a squirrel! 'Tis too small a goal
For arrow's flight. Contemptuous is Fate
To send us such small prey. Beat down the fern!
I caught the glimmer of a couchant side
Gold in the evening beam. A deer! To chase.
[Exeunt.
[Enter from the other side, Robert Fitz-hamon and Gilbert of Laigle.]
Fitz-hamon.
Where is the king?
Laigle.
I cannot even guess.
I saw him turn about a clump of oak
In company with Tirel; when I reached
The spreading corner he was gone.
Fitz-hamon.
The pack
Is just below. But we are in a maze,
And there's no thread to guide us. I will blow
My horn.
Laigle.
Stay! Yonder is a grazing herd,
Soft victims for our onslaught.—Where the dell
Stoops to a stony brook, I hear response.
We have not far to seek.
Fitz-hamon.
Within a wood
We're far and near; perchance may never meet.
Laigle.
We'll work to share our favours with the rest,
And call the dogs around us. In this shade
The air is cloistered. It is very hot.
[Exeunt.
| William Rufus | |