To my last prayer, I'll thank you as my

as my saint: If you refuse me, madam, I'll not murmur.

Mar. Alas, my Guise! O heaven, what did I say? But take it, take it; if it be too kind,

Honour may pardon it, since 'tis my last.

Gui. O let me crawl, vile as I am, and kiss Your sacred robe.-Is't possible! your hand!

[She gives him her hand.

O that it were my last expiring moment,
For I shall never taste the like again.

Mar. Farewell, my proselyte! your better genius Watch your ambition.

Gui. I have none but you:

Must I ne'er see you more?

Mar. I have sworn you must not:

Which thought thus roots me here, melts my resolves,

[Weeps. And makes me loiter when the angels call me. Gui. O ye celestial dews! O paradise!

O heaven! O joys, ne'er to be tasted more!
Mar. Nay, take a little more: cold Marmoutiere,
The temperate, devoted Marmoutiere

Is gone, a last embrace I must bequeath you.

Gui. And O let me return it with another!
Mar. Farewell for ever; ah, Guise, though now
we part,

In the bright orbs, prepared us by our fates,
Our souls shall meet,-farewell!-and Io's sing above,
Where no ambition, nor state-crime, the happier spi-

rits prove,

But all are blest, and all enjoy an everlasting love. [Exit MARMOutiere.

GUISE solus.

Gui. Glory, where art thou? fame, revenge, am

bition,

Where are you fled? there's ice upon my nerves: My salt, my metal, and my spirits gone,

Palled as a slave, that's bed-rid with an ague,
I wish my flesh were off. [Blood falls from his nose.
What now! thou bleed'st:

Three, and no more!-what then? and why, what then?

But just three drops! and why not just three drops, As well as four or five, or five and twenty?

Enter a Page.

Page. My lord, your brother and the arch-bishop wait you.

Gui. I come;-down, devil!-ha! must I stumble

too?

Away, ye dreams! what if it thundered now,
Or if a raven crossed me in my way?

Or now it comes, because last night I dreamt
The council-hall was hung with crimson round,
And all the cieling plaistered o'er with black.
No more!-Blue fires, and ye dull rolling lakes,
Fathomless caves, ye dungeons of old night,
Phantoms, be gone! if I must die, I'll fall
True politician, and defy you all.

[Exit.

SCENE II.-The Court before the Council-hall.

GRILLON, LARCHANT, Soldiers placed, People crowding.

Gril. Are your guards doubled, captain?

Larch. Sir, they are.

Gril. When the Guise comes, remember your petition.

Make way there for his eminence; give back.-
Your eminence comes late.

Enter two Cardinals, Counsellors, the Cardinal of
GUISE, Arch-bishop of Lyons, last the GUISE.

Gui. Well, colonel, are we friends?

Gril. 'Faith, I think not.

Gui. Give me your hand.

Gril. No, for that gives a heart.

Gui. Yet we shall clasp in heaven. Gril. By heaven, we shall not, Unless it be with gripes.

Gui. True Grillon still.

Larch. My lord.

Gui. Ha! captain, you are well attended: If I mistake not, sir, your number's doubled.

Larch. All these have served against the heretics; And therefore beg your grace you would remember Their wounds and lost arrears *.

Gui. It shall be done.

Again, my heart! there is a weight upon thee,
But I will sigh it off.-Captain, farewell.

[Exeunt Cardinal, GUISE, &c. Gril. Shut the hall-door, and bar the castle-gates:

March, march there closer yet, captain, to the door. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.-The Council-hall.

Gui. I do not like myself to-day.
Arch. A qualm! he dares not.

Card. That's one man's thought; he dares, and that's another's.

Enter GRILLON.

Gui. O Marmoutiere! ha, never see thee more?

* On the evening previous to the assassination, the Seigneur de Larchant accosted the duke as he passed from his own lodging to the king's, accompanied by a body of soldiers, who, he pretended, were petitioners for the duke's interest, to obtain payment of their arrears, and would attend at the door of the council next day, to remind him of their case. This pretext was to account for the unusual number of guards, which might otherwise have excited Guise's suspicion.

Peace, my tumultuous heart! why jolt my spirits
In this unequal circling of my blood?

I'll stand it while I may. O mighty nature!
Why this alarm? why dost thou call me on
To fight, yet rob my limbs of all their use? [Swoons.
Card. Ha! he's fallen, chafe him. He comes again.
Gui. I beg your pardons; vapours, no more.
Gril. The effect

Of last night's lechery with some working whore.
Enter REVOL.

Rev. My lord of Guise, the king would speak with

- you.

Gui. O cardinal, O Lyons !-but no more;
Yes, one wo d more: thou hast a privilege

[To the Cardinal.
To speak with a recluse; O therefore tell her,
If never thou behold'st me breathe again,
Tell her I sighed it last.-O Marmoutiere!

[Exit bowing. Card. You will have all things your own way, my

lord.

By heaven, I have strange horror on my soul.
Arch. I say again, that Henry dares not do it.
Card. Beware, your grace, of minds that bear like
him.

I know he scorns to stoop to mean revenge;
But when some mightier mischief shocks his toure,

Intanto il Duca entrato nel consiglio, e postosi in una sedia vicina al fuoco si sentì un poco di svenimento, o che allora gli sovvenisse il pericolo, nel quale si ritrovava, separato e diviso da tutti i suoi, o che natura, come bene spesso avviene, presaga del mal futuro da se medesima allora si risentisse, o come dissero i suoi malevoli, per essere stato la medesima notte con Madama di Marmoutiere amata grandemente da lui, e essersi soverchiamente debilitato. Davila, Lib, ix.

He shoots at once with thunder on his wings,
And makes it air.—But hark, my lord, 'tis doing!
Guise within.] Murderers, villains!

Arch. I hear your brother's voice; run to the door.
[CARD. and ARCH. run to the door.
Card. Help, help, the Guise is murdered!
Arch. Help, help!

Gril. Cease your vain cries, you are the king's prisoners ;

Take them, Dugast, into your custody.

Card. We must obey, my lord, for heaven calls us.

[Exeunt.

The SCENE draws, behind it a Traverse.

The GUISE is assaulted by eight. They stab him in all parts, but most in the head.

Gui. O villains! hell-hounds! hold.

[Half draws his sword, is held. Murdered, O basely, and not draw my sword!Dog, Lognac,-but my own blood choaks me. Down, villain, down!-I'm gone,-O Marmoutiere! [Flings himself upon him, dies*.

* The murder of Guise was perpetrated in the Anti-chamber, before the door of the king's cabinet. Lognac, a gentleman of the king's chamber, and a creature of the late duke de Joyeuse, commanded the assassins, who were eight in number. The duke never was able to unsheath his sword, being slain with many wounds as he grappled with Lognac. The king himself was in the cabinet, and listened to the murderous scuffle, till the noise of Guise's fall announced its termination. The cardinal of Guise, and the archbishop of Lyons were also within hearing, and were arrested, while they were endeavouring to call their attendants to Guise's assistance. The cardinal was next day murdered by Du Gast, to whose custody he had been committed.