Pierre Death, honorable death! Renault Death's the best thing we ask, or you can give. All Conspirators Duke No shameful bonds, but honorable death. Break up the council. Captain, guard your prisoners. Pierre Come, where's my dungeon? lead me to my straw: Jaffler Hold one moment. Pierre Who's he disputes the judgment of the Senate? Jaffier on By Heaven, you stir not! [Strikes JAFFIER. I must be heard, I must have leave to speak. But use me as thou wilt, thou canst not wrong me, Pierre What whining monk art thou? what holy cheat, Jaffier Not know me, Pierre ? Pierre No, know thee not: what art thou? Jaffier Jaffier, thy friend, thy once loved, valued friend, Pierre Thou Jaffier! thou my once loved, valued friend? By Heavens, thou liest! The man so called, my friend, Dear to my eyes and tender to my heart: But thou, a wretched, base, false, worthless coward, I have not wronged thee, by these tears I have not, Look back and see my sad, sincere submission! What shall I do what say to make thee hear me? Hast thou not wronged me? dar'st thou call thyself And swear thou hast not wronged me? Whence these chains? Jaffier All's true, yet grant one thing, and I've done asking. Pierre What's that? Jaffier To take thy life on such conditions The Council have proposed: thou and thy friends Pierre Life! ask my life? confess! record myself For some new friend, treacherous and false as thou art! No, this vile world and I have long been jangling, And cannot part on better terms than now, When only men like thee are fit to live in't. Jaffier By all that's just Pierre Swear by some other powers, For thou hast broke that sacred oath too lately. Then, by that hell I merit, I'll not leave thee, Pierre Not leave me! Jaffier No; thou shalt not force me from thee. And raise me to thy arms with dear forgiveness. All, all, and more, much more: my faults are numberless. Pierre And wouldst thou have me live on terms like thine? Jaffier No; 'tis to me that's granted. The safety of thy life was all I aimed at, I scorn it more, because preserved by thee: And as when first my foolish heart took pity All I received in surety for thy truth Were unregarded oaths, and this, this dagger, Given with a worthless pledge thou since hast stolen, Swearing by all those powers which thou hast violated, Just as thou wilt, because 'tis what I'm tired with. Jaffier O Pierre ! Pierre No more. Jaffier My eyes won't lose the sight of thee, But languish after thine, and ache with gazing. Pierre Leave me!-Nay, then thus, thus I throw thee from me, [Exeunt PIERRE and Conspirators, guarded. EPITAPH ON CHARLES II. BY LORD ROCHESTER. [1647-1680.] HERE lies our Sovereign Lord the King, Whose word no man relies on; Who never said a foolish thing, Nor ever did a wise one. [Charles retorted that this was quite natural, as his words were his own and his acts were his ministers'.] A CHARACTER OF KING CHARLES II. BY LORD HALIFAX. [GEORGE SAVILE, Marquis of Halifax, a leading English statesman of the later seventeenth century, and one of the ablest pamphleteers of any age, was born about 1630, of two powerful families, Savile and Coventry. For his part in the Restoration he was raised from baronet to viscount; and, though soon alienating the king by his independence, was admitted to the Privy Council because the government dared not leave so formidable a master of debate and of ridicule outside. Though taking part in weighty business and embassies, he was not trusted with the scandalous secrets of the now Catholic government, and was ousted by Danby in 1676; but in 1679 was made an earl, and again admitted after Danby's fall. He was always a moderate, -a "Trimmer," as the name went, opposed the Test Bill of 1675, and in 1679 the Exclusion Bill to bar out Catholics from the succession, aimed at James II., and alone secured its rejection by a narrow majority. This cost him the good-will of the great middle class, without gaining that of James, whose hands his restrictive measures would tie as king. On James's accession he was first given a powerless office; then, on refusing to vote for the repeal of the Test and Habeas Corpus Acts, dismissed from the Council. He nevertheless disfavored William's invasion, and tried to stop it by securing concessions from James; failing, and James fleeing, he joined in placing William on the throne. The ruling orders and High Church class wished a regency, but Halifax voted against it, and thereby alienated the other half of the country, though he did so because William absolutely refused anything short of a complete kingship. He was made a marquis and Lord Privy Seal by William; but the whole nation now distrusted him, his political usefulness was at an end, and he shortly resigned. He died in 1695. His most famous pamphlets were "A Letter to a Dissenter," to keep the Nonconformists from accepting James's offer of joint relief for them and the Catholics; "The Anatomy of an Equivalent" (i.e., for letting the king dispense with the test laws by his own prerogative); and the "Character of a Trimmer." His "Advice to his Daughter" and other papers are also of high quality.] I. OF HIS RELIGION. A CHARACTER differeth from a picture only in this; every part of it must be like, but it is not necessary that every feature should be comprehended in it as in a picture, only some of the most remarkable. This prince at his first entrance into the world had adversity for his introducer; which is generally thought to be no ill one, but in his case it proved so, and laid the foundation of most of those misfortunes or errors that were the causes of the great objections made to him. The first effect it had was in relation to his religion. The ill-bred familiarity of the Scotch divines had given him a distaste of that part of the Protestant religion. He was left, |