And I in better state than ere I was.

Purs. God hold it, to your honour's good content! Hast. Gramercy, fellow: There, drink that for

me.

Purs. I thank your honour.

[Throws him his Purse.

[Exit Pursuivant.

Enter a Priest.

Priest. Well met, my lord; I am glad to see your honour.

Hast. I thank thee, good Sir John, with all my

heart.

I am in your debt for your last exercise;

Come the next sabbath, and I will content you.

Enter BUCKINGHAM.

310

Buck. What, talking with a priest, lord chamberlain ?

Your friends at Pomfret, they do need the priest;
Your honour hath no shriving work in hand.

Hast. Good faith, and when I met this holy man,
The men you talk of came into my mind.
What, go you toward the Tower?

Buck. I do, my lord; but long I shall not stay

there :

I shall return before your lordship thence.

320

Hast. Nay, like enough, for I stay dinner there. Buck. And supper too, although thou know'st it

not.

Come, will you go?

[Aside.

Hast. I'll wait upon your lordship.

[Exeunt.

SCENE

SCENE III.

Before Pomfret-Castle. Enter Sir RICHARD RATCLIFF, conducting Lord RIVERS, Lord RICHARD GREY, and Sir THOMAS VAUGHAN, to Execution.

Rat. Come, bring forth the prisoners.

Riv. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee thisTo-day shalt thou behold a subject die,

For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.

Grey. God keep the prince from all the pack of

you!

A knot you are of damned blood-suckers.

330

Vaugh. You live, that shall cry woe for this hereafter.

Rat. Dispatch; the limit of your lives is out. Riv. O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison, Fatal and ominous to noble peers!

Within the guilty closure of thy walls,

Richard the second here was hack'd to death:

And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,

We give thee up our guiltlesss blood to drink. Grey. Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon our heads,

When she exclaim'd on Hastings, you, and I, 340 For standing by when Richard stabb'd her son.

Riv. Then curs'd she Hastings, curs'd she Buck

ingham,

Then curs'd she Richard:-0, remember, God,

To hear her prayer for them, as now for us!

As

As for my sister, and her princely sons—

Be satisfied, dear God, with our true bloods,
Which, as thou know'st, unjustly must be spilt!
Rat. Make haste, the hour of death is now expir'd.
Riv. Come, Grey-come, Vaughan-let us here

embrace:

349

Farewel, until we meet again in heaven. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

The Tower. BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, Bishop of ELY, CATESBY, LOVEL, with others, at a Table.

Hast. Now, noble peers, the cause why we are met Is to determine of the coronation :

In God's name, speak, when is the royal day?
Buck. Are all things ready for that royal time?
Stan. They are, and wants but nomination.
Ely. To-morrow then I judge a happy day.
Buck. Who knows the lord protector's mind here-
in ?

Who is most inward with the noble duke?

Ely. Your grace, we think, should soonest know his mind.

Buck.

:

We know each other's faces for our
hearts-

He knows no more of mine, than I of your's; 361
Nor I of his, my lord, than you of mine:-
H

Lord

Lord Hastings, you and he are near in love.

Hast. I thank his grace, I know he loves me well: But, for his purpose in the coronation,

I have not sounded him, nor he deliver'd
His gracious pleasure any way therein :

But you, my noble lord, may name the time
And in the duke's behalf I'll give my voice,
Which, I presume, he'll take in gentle part.

Enter GLOSTER.

370

Ely. In happy time, here comes the duke himself. Glo. My noble lords and cousins, all good morrow: I have been long a sleeper; but, I trust, My absence doth neglect no great design, Which by my presence might have been concluded. Buck. Had you not come upon your cue, my lord, William lord Hastings had pronounc'd your part— I mean, your voice-for crowning of the king.

Glo. Than my lord Hastings, no man might be

bolder;

381

His lordship knows me well, and loves me well.-
My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn,
I saw good strawberries in your garden there;
I do beseech you, send for some of them.
Ely. Marry, and will, my lord, with all my heart.

[Exit ELY.
Glo. Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you.
Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business;
And finds the testy gentleman so hot,

That he will lose his head, ere give consent

390

His master's child, as worshipfully he terms it,
Shall lose the royalty of England's throne.
Buck. Withdraw yourself awhile, I'll go with you.
[Exeunt GLOSTER, and BUCKINGHAM.
Stan. We have not yet set down this day of tri-
umph.

To-morrow, in my judgment, is too sudden;
For I myself am not so well provided,
As else I would be, were the day prolong'd.

Re-enter Bishop of ELY.

Ely. Where is my lord protector? I have sent For these strawberries.

Hast. His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning;

401

There's some conceit or other likes him well,
When he doth bid good-morrow with such spirit.
I think, there's ne'er a man in Christendom,
Can lesser hide his love, or hate, than he;
For by his face straight shall you know his heart.
Stan. What of his heart perceive you in his face,
By any likelihood he shew'd to-day?

Hast. Marry, that with no man here he is offended; For, were he, he had shewn it in his looks.

Re-enter GLOSTER, and BUCKINGHAM.

Glo. I pray you all, tell me what they deserve,
That do conspire my death with devilish plots
Of damned witchcraft; and that have prevail'd
Upon my body with their hellish charms?

Hij

411

Hast.