Act 3 — SCENE II.

Enter King and Council.

[Shouts without.

King. What mean these shouts?

Abb. I told your majesty, The sheriffs have puffed the populace with hopes Of their deliverer.[Shouts again.

King. Hark! there rung a peal Like thunder: see, Alphonso, what's the cause.

Enter Grillon.

Gril. My lord, the Guise is come.

King. Is't possible! ha, Grillon, said'st thou, come?

Gril. Why droops the royal majesty? O sir!

King. O villain, slave, wert thou my late-born heir, 065 Given me by heaven, even when I lay a-dying— But peace, thou festering thought, and hide thy wound;— Where is he?

Gril. With her majesty, your mother; She has taken chair, and he walks bowing by her, With thirty thousand rebels at his heels.

King. What's to be done? No pall upon my spirit; But he that loves me best, and dares the most On this nice point of empire, let him speak.

Alph. I would advise you, sir, to call him in, And kill him instantly upon the spot.

Abb. I like Alphonso's counsel, short, sure work; Cut off the head, and let the body walk.

Enter Queen-Mother.

Qu. M. Sir, the Guise waits.

King. He enters on his fate.

Qu. M. Not so,—forbear; the city is up in arms; Nor doubt, if, in their heat, you cut him off, That they will spare the royal majesty. Once, sir, let me advise, and rule your fury.

King. You shall: I'll see him, and I'll spare him now.

Qu. M. What will you say?

King. I know not;— Colonel Grillon, call the archers in, Double your guards, and strictly charge the Swiss Stand to their arms, receive him as a traitor.[Exit Grillon. My heart has set thee down, O Guise, in blood,— Blood, mother, blood, ne'er to be blotted out.

Qu. M. Yet you'll relent, when this hot fit is over.

King. If I forgive him, may I ne'er be forgiven! No, if I tamely bear such insolence, What act of treason will the villains stop at? Seize me, they've sworn; imprison me is the next, 066 Perhaps arraign me, and then doom me dead. But ere I suffer that, fall all together, Or rather, on their slaughtered heaps erect My throne, and then proclaim it for example. I'm born a monarch, which implies alone To wield the sceptre, and depend on none.[Exeunt[13].