Volume Viii Part 51 (1/2)

a.s.sail them, stay not.

SAL. Stay, and a.s.say them first!

I say to you, fair queen, this fact is foul.

Let not provoking words whet dull-edg'd swords, But try if we can blunt sharp blades with words.

Fitzwater's nephew, Bruce, I see thee there, And tell thee it is shame for such a boy To lead a many able men to fight.

And, modest-looking maid, I see you too: An unfit sight to view virginity Guarded with other soldiers than good prayers.

But you will say the king occasions it: Say what you will, no king but would take cause Of just offence.

Yield you, young Bruce, your mother is in hold.

Yield you, young maid, your father is in hold.

MAT. Will the queen keep me from the l.u.s.tful king, Then will I yield.

QUEEN. A plague upon this counterfeiting quean.

MAT. G.o.d's blessed mercy! will you still be mad, And wrong a n.o.ble virgin with vile speech?

SAL. Let me alone. Matilda, maiden fair, Thou virgin spouse, true Huntington's just heir, Wilt thou come hither? and I do protest, The queen and I, to mitigate this war, Will do what thou wouldst have.

MAT. I come.

BRUCE. You shall not go. Sound, drums, to war!

Alack, alack, for woe!

Well, G.o.d for us! sith it will needs be so.

[_Alarum, fight, stay_.

SAL. What stay you for?

BRUCE. Matilda's cries do stay us.

MAT. Salisbury, I come in hope of thy defence.

BRUCE. First will I die, ere you shall yield yourself To any coward lord that serves the king.

SAL. Coward, proud boy! Thou find'st me no such beast, And thou shalt rue in earnest this rude jest.

[_Fight again_. MATILDA _taken, led by the hair by two Soldiers_.

SAL. Rude hands! how hale you virtuous honour forth!

You do not well: away!

Now, by my faith, ye do not well, I say.

Take her, fair queen, use her as she deserves: She's fair, she's n.o.ble, chaste, and debonair.

I must, according to due course of war, See that our soldiers scatter not too far, Lest, what care won, our negligence may lose.

[_Exit_.

QUEEN. Is this the Helen, this the paragon, That makes the English Ilion[329] flame so fast?

MAT. I am not she; you see I am not she: I am not ravish'd yet, as Helen was.