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SCENE III.
Glanville, Sifroy.Sifroy,
not seeing Glanville.
O Happiness! thou frail, thou fading flower,
Whose culture mocks all human toil, farewel!
But I, blind madman! by the roots have pluck'd
Thy sweetness from my bosom. My dear love!
Where wanders now thy wrong'd, thy helpless virtue?
On what cold stone reclines thy drooping head,
While trickling tears call thy Sifroy inhuman.
Deluded wretch! why did my greedy ear
Catch the rank poison of Suspicion's breath,
And to my tortur'd brain convey distraction?
Glanville,
advancing to him.
Are thus my faithful services repaid?
Are the plain truths my undisguising heart
In friendship told, already deem'd no more
Than vile suggestions of designing falshood?
Sifroy.
Villain, they are!—Thou know'st them false as hell!
Where is my wife?—O traytor! thou hast plung'd
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Glanville.
Rather say,
That he who led astray the willing wife,
Thy folly doats on—he—
Sifroy.
Blasphemer! stop
Thy impious tongue! The breast of that dear saint
Enshrines a soul as spotless as her form.
Said'st thou not, Slanderer! that my love was fled
With Paulet?
Glanville.
True: I did.
Sifroy.
Art thou not sure
That this is false? Hast thou no dreadful cause
To know it cannot be.
Glanville.
None. Thou, perhaps,
Whose bloody errand I indeed have heard
Already is accomplish'd—Thou, 'tis true,
May'st know that they are parted: 'twas the deed
Thou cam'st thus swiftly to perform. But how
Doth that impeach the truth of her elopement?
That thou hast murder'd him, acquits not her.
Sifroy.
That I have murder'd!—I!—Pernicious wretch!
What dark designs, by blackest fiends inspir'd,
Lurks in thy treacherous soul? Tremendous Power!
Have I then sinn'd beyond all hope of mercy?
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On my devoted head, flow from his hand?
But all thy ways are just! To him I gave
That credit which I ow'd my injur'd love—
He now, by thy supreme decree, stands forth
Th' avenger of my crime.
[Enter Beaufort Senior, with officers, &c.
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