and you, friend, that cry, look you, gentlemen, this very morning was under another woman's petticoats, and not your wife's.

2 Cit. How the devil does he know this?

Mel. Therefore, fight lustily for the cause of heaven, and to make even tallies for your sins; which, that you may do with a better conscience, I absolve you both, and all the rest of you: Now, go on merrily; for those, that escape, shall avoid killing; and those, who do not escape, I will provide for in another world.

[Cry within, on the other side of the stage, Vive le Roi, vive le Roi!

Enter GRILLON, and his Party.

Gril. Come on, fellow soldiers, Commilitones; that's my word, as 'twas Julius Cæsar's, of pagan memory. 'Fore God, I am no speech maker; but there are the rogues, and here's bilbo, that's a word and a blow; we must either cut their throats, or they cut ours, that's pure necessity, for your comfort: Now, if any man can be so unkind to his own body, for I meddle not with your souls,-as to stand still like a good christian, and offer his weasand to a butcher's whittle,-I say no more, but that he may be saved, and that's the best can come on him.

[Cry on both sides, Vive le Roi, vive Guise! They fight.

Mel. Hey, for the duke of Guise, and property! Up with religion and the cause, and down with those arbitrary rogues there! Stand to't, you associated cuckolds. [Citizens go back.] O rogues! O cowards!-Damn these half-strained shopkeepers, got between gentlemen and city wives; how naturally they quake, and run away from their own fa

thers! twenty souls a penny were a dear bargain of them.

[They all run off, MELANAX with them; the 1st and 2d Citizens taken.

Gril. Possess yourselves of the place, Maubert, and hang me up those two rogues, for an example. 1 Cit. O spare me, sweet colonel; I am but a young beginner, and new set up.

Gril. I'll be your customer, and set you up a little better, sirrah;-go, hang him at the next signpost:-What have you to say for yourself, scoundrel? why were you a rebel?

2 Cit. Look you, colonel, 'twas out of no ill meaning to the government; all that I did, was pure obedience to my wife.

Gril. Nay, if thou hast a wife that wears the breeches, thou shalt be condemned to live: Get thee home for a hen-pecked traitor.What, are we encompassed? Nay, then, faces this way; we'll sell our skins to the fairest chapmen.

Enter AUMALE and Soldiers, on the one side, Citizens on the other. GRILLON, and his Party, are disarmed.

1 Cit. Bear away that bloody-minded colonel, and hang him up at the next sign-post: Nay, when I am in power, I can make examples too.

Omn. Tear him piece-meal; tear him piece-meal. [Pull and haul him.

Gril. Rogues, villains, rebels, traitors, cuckolds! 'Swounds, what do you make of a man? do you think legs and arms are strung upon a wire, like a jointed baby? carry me off quickly, you were best, and hang me decently, according to my first sentence.

2 Cit. Look you, colonel; you are too bulky to be carried off all at once; a leg or an arm is one man's burden: give me a little finger for a sample

of him, whereby I'll carry it for a token to my sovereign lady.

Gril. "Tis too little, in all conscience, for her; take a bigger token, cuckold. Et tu, Brute, whom I saved? O the conscience of a shopkeeper!

2 Cit. Look you, colonel, for your saving of me, I thank you heartily, whereby that debt's paid; but for speaking treason against my anointed wife, that's a new reckoning between us.

Enter GUISE, with a General's Staff in his Hand; MAYENNE, Cardinal, Archbishop, MALICORN, and Attendants.

Omn. Vive Guise!

Gui. [Bowing, and bareheaded.] I thank you, countrymen: the hand of heaven In all our safeties has appeared this day. Stand on your guard, and double every watch, But stain your triumph with no christian blood; French we are all, and brothers of a land.

Card. What mean you, brother, by this godly talk, Of sparing Christian blood? why, these are dogs; Now, by the sword that cut off Malchus' ear, Mere dogs, that neither can be saved nor damned. Arch. Where have you learnt to spare inveterate foes?

Gui. You know the book.

Arch. And can expound it too:

But Christian faith was in the nonage then,
And Roman heathens lorded o'er the world.
What madness were it for the weak and few,
To fight against the many and the strong?
Grillon must die, so must the tyrant's guards,
Lest, gathering head again, they make more work.
Mal. My lord, the people must be fleshed in blood,
To teach them the true relish; dip them with you,
Or they'll perhaps repent.

Gui. You are fools; to kill them, were to shew I

feared them;

The court, disarmed, disheartened and besieged,
Are all as much within my power, as if
I griped them in my fist.

May. "Tis rightly judged:

And, let me add, who heads a popular cause,
Must prosecute that cause by popular ways:
So, whether you are merciful or no,

You must affect to be.

Gui. Dismiss those prisoners.-Grillon, you are free;

I do not ask your love, be still my foe.

Gril. I will be so: but let me tell you, Guise, As this was greatly done, 'twas proudly too: I'll give you back your life when next we meet; "Till then I am your debtor.

Gui. That's till dooms-day.

[GRILLON and his Party exeunt one way, Rabble the other.

Haste, brother, draw out fifteen thousand men,
Surround the Louvre, lest the prey should 'scape.
I know the king will send to treat;

We'll set the dice on him in high demands,
No less than all his offices of trust;

He shall be pared, and cantoned out, and clipped
So long, he shall not pass.

Card. What! do we talk

Of paring, clipping, and such tedious work,
Like those that hang their noses o'er a potion,
And qualm, and keck, and take it down by sips!
Arch. Best make advantage of this popular rage,
Let in the o'erwhelming tide on Harry's head;
In that promiscuous fury, who shall know,
Among a thousand swords, who killed the king?
Mal. O my dear lord, upon this only day

Depends the series of your following fate:

Think your good genius has assumed my shape,
In this prophetic doom.

Gui. Peace, croaking raven!—

I'll seize him first, then make him a led monarch;
I'll be declared lieutenant-general

Amidst the three estates, that represent
The glorious, full, majestic face of France,
Which, in his own despite, the king shall call:
So let him reign my tenant during life,
His brother of Navarre shut out for ever,
Branded with heresy, and barred from sway;
That, when Valois consumed in ashes lies,
The Phoenix race of Charlemain may rise. [Exeunt.

SCENE V.-The Louvre.

Enter King, Queen-Mother, Abbot, and GRILLON,
King. Dismissed with such contempt?
Gril. Yes, 'faith, we past like beaten Romans
underneath the fork.

King. Give me my arms.
Gril. For what?

King. I'll lead you on.

Gril. You are a true lion, but my men are sheep; If you run first, I'll swear they'll follow you.

King. What, all turned cowards? not a man in France

Dares set his foot by mine, and perish by me? Gril. Troth, I can't find them much inclined to perishing.

King. What can be left in danger, but to dare? No matter for my arms, I'll go barefaced, And seize the first bold rebel that I meet.

Abb. There's something of divinity in kings, That sits between their eyes, and guards their life.