 | Marie de Méraine |  |
SCENE I.
A public place in the neighbourhood of the Palace.Groups of Citizens and others, including women and children.
1st Cit.
This way he passes.
3d Cit.
Who? the king?
2d Cit.
To-day,
The king; to-morrow, what the Pope thinks fit.
4th Cit.
[Who has recently entered.]
'Tis true: he meets the legate's threat with scorn,
Mocks holy counsel!
2d Cit.
And upon us all
Draws the dread curse of Rome.
3d Cit.
Ay, sirs, ourselves!
There lies the point.
1st Cit.
We're cursed because the king,
For love of Lady Marie, his new queen,
Resists the Church's will, and takes not back
His lawful wife.
Many voices.
Most true; we are, we are!
Enter Fontaine, Tournet, and La Roche.
Tour.
What mutter these base knaves?
La Roche.
Their highnesses
Seem anger'd with the king.
Fon.
[Turning to the crowd.]
Impossible!
The king who freed the serfs, abased the nobles!
Ye're not such ingrates!
2d Cit.
'Tis my thought he freed
The serf from other tyrants, that himself
Might bear the rod alone.
3d Cit.
[To Fontaine.]
Say, knightly sir,
How shall we 'scape the interdict? What means it?
Fon.
More woes than tongue can speak or reason bear.
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The penitent, no absolution find;
The living, no religious office bless;
The dead, no consecrated earth receive;
The purgatorial fire, no prayers nor alms
Avert or shorten! But your loyalty
These ills affright not?
3d Cit.
Shall we bear the doom
This impious king provokes?
1st Cit.
We'll not endure it.
We'll cross his path, and tell him so!
The Crowd.
Ay, tell him!
2d Cit.
[To 1st Citizen.]
Thou shalt be spokesman, brother! See, he comes!
1st Cit.
Pardie! 'Tis later than I thought. That dial—
La Roche.
Let him not hence. Thou'lt gain promotion, friend!
3d Cit.
They're here.
Enter Philip and Guérin, preceded and followed by Retainers.
Budge not, stand thus [Folding his arms]
; none doff his cap.
Come forth; give thy lung play.
[To 1st Citizen, whom he drags to the front. Cries of “Long live Queen Ingerburge!”
An Officer.
Back, sirs! The king.
Back, citizens, I say!
Phil.
Why halt we? How!
Hew us a pathway through these brambles, straight.
[Officers drive back the crowd.
1st Cit.
Back, back!
[The King, Guérin, and retainers pass out.
I kept my cap on though he frowned.
2d Cit.
We are too few; let each man seek his friend,
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Before the palace.
[Citizens rush out.
Fon.
Long ere then the knell
Ye dread to hear shall boom along your streets.
I marked the legate's face this morn. 'Twas calm
After he left the king. Beware such calm!
[Fontaine, Tournet, and La Roche go out on the opposite side.
| Marie de Méraine | |