University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE SIXTH.

Henry, Ormond.
Hen.
Return'st thou here so soon?

Or.
One doubt alone
Remains unsatisfied: hence I return ...

Hen.
Thou witless traitor! darest thou in my sight
Appear again?

Or.
Alas! what has befallen?

Hen.
Say, didst thou hope that I should not discover,
From whence thy fraudulent proposals sprung?
And further, hopest thou that they should remain
Unpunish'd?

Or.
Whence so unexpectedly
Art thou thus changed? ... Erewhile thou spakest to me ...

Hen.
Erewhile I wished to see, to what a length
Thy hostile and insidious stratagems,
Beneath a mask of peace, would carry thee.—
But didst thou ever think that I would deign
To supplicate in your deceitful realm
Assistance for myself, or for my son
A perilous asylum?

Or.
If I was
The artificer of fraud with thee, think'st thou
That it was now my fault?

Hen.
It was the fault
Both of thyself, and her who sent thee here,
And of thy hated function ...

Or.
Rather say
Of the abhorred court in which I'm stationed:
The crime was hatch'd in this perfidious soil.
Should I have ever, of my own accord,
Presumed to tamper with thee? In such guilt
Mary involved me; to whose will, in all things,
Elizabeth commanded me to yield.
That which she will'd I said: and now, of this,
A double treachery, accuses me
To thee.—Oh no, I shall not be deceived;
May heaven permit, henceforth, that I engage
In no transaction with a race like this.
Whatever here may be the consequence,
I feel that I am innocent; such now
Do I proclaim myself; and such elsewhere
I shall proclaim myself with loftier voice.