University of Virginia Library

SCENE, a Room in Sifroy's House.
Glanville, Isabella.
Glanville.
Betray'd! by whom betray'd? By thy vain fear.
How curst is he who treads on Danger's path,
Entangled with a woman! Fool! alone
I had been safe.

Isabella.
Yet hear me—On my life,
No word from me hath 'scap'd. We may perchance
Be yet secure.

Glanville.
Perchance! And do our lives
Depend on fickle chance? But speak—proceed—
Whence are thy fears?

Isabella.
In close concealment hid,
This moment I o'erheard a whisper'd scheme
Of seizing thee—

Glanville.
Confusion! Can it be?
Can Ragozin, the villain, have betray'd me?

Isabella.
I fear he hath. Where is he?

Glanville.
Not return'd
From Baden wood, to ascertain the deed
That crowns our business. Were but that secure,
My tortur'd soul, torn on the rack of doubt,
Might yet feel peace. How wears the time?

Isabella.
Two hours
Are wanting yet to midnight.

Glanville.
Where's Sifroy?

Isabella.
With Beaufort. But perplexing doubts distract
His reason, that all power to act forsakes him.
Still farther to alarm—deep stain'd with gore,
The sword of Paulet's found, and other marks
That speak him murder'd

Glanville.
That's beyond my wish:
And tells but what I wanted to proclaim.

Isabella.
Proclaim! What mean'st thou? Doth it not conduce
To our detection? Doth it not confirm
Their dark suspicions?

Glanville.
The short line, alas,
Of thy weak thought, in vain would sound the depth
Of my designs. But rest thee well assur'd
I have foreseen, and am prepar'd to meet
All possible events.

Isabella.
O grant, good Heaven,—
Great God! how dreadful 'tis to be engag'd
In what we dare not pray that Heaven may prosper!

Glanville.
Curse on thy boding tongue! Let me not hear
Its superstitious weakness—Hush! who comes?
No more—'tis Ragozin—Now sleep distrust—
First let me learn if he hath done the deed—
If not, I am betray'd—and will awake
In vengeance on his falseshood.

[Enter Ragozin.