I'm in your debt for your last exercise; Come the next Sabbath, and I will content you. [He whispers in his ear.

Enter BUCKINGHAM.

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, Those men you talk of came into my mind.. What, go you toward the Tower?

Buck. I do, my lord; but long I cannot stay there:

I shall return before your lordship thence.

Hast. 'Tis like enough, for I stay dinner there. Buck. [Aside.] And supper too, although thou know'st it not.

Come, will you go?

Hast.

I'll wait upon your lordship. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.-Pomfret Castle.

Enter Sir RICHARD RATCLIFF, with halberds, carrying RIVERS, GREY, and VAUGHAN to death.

Riv. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this: To-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 damnéd blood-suckers.

Vaug. 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 hacked to death;
And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,
We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink.
Grey. Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon our
heads,

For standing by when Richard stabbed her son.
Riv. Then cursed she Hastings, then cursed she

Buckingham,

Then cursed she Richard. O, remember, God,
To hear her prayers for them, as now for us!
And for my sister and her princely sons,
Be satisfied, dear God, with our true blood,
Which, as thou know'st, unjustly must be spilt.
Rat. Make haste; the hour of death is expiate.
Riv. Come, Grey,-come, Vaughan,-let us all
embrace :

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

SCENE IV.-London.

A Room in the Tower. BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, the Bishop of ELY, RATCLIFF, LOVEL, with others, at a table.

Hast. My lords, at once: 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 fitting for that royal time? Stan. It is, and wants but nomination.

Ely. To-morrow, then, I judge a happy day. Buck. Who knows the lord protector's mind herein ?

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 yours,
Nor I of his, my lord, than you of mine.
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 delivered
His gracious pleasure any way therein :

But you, my noble lords, may name the time;
And in the duke's behalf I'll give my voice,
Which, I presume, he'll take in gentle part.
Ely. In happy time, here comes the duke himself.
Enter GLOSTER.

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 not you come upon your cue, my lord, William Lord Hastings had pronounced your part,— I mean, your voice,-for crowning of the king.

Glo. Than my Lord Hastings no man might be bolder;

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.

Glo. Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you.

[Drawing him aside. Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business, And finds the testy gentleman so hot,

As he will lose his head ere give consent
His master's son, as worshipful he terms it,
Shall lose the royalty of England's throne.
Buck. Withdraw you hence, my lord, I'll follow
you.

[Exit GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM following. Stan. We have not yet set down this day of triumph.

To-morrow, in mine opinion, is too sudden;
For I myself am not so well provided
As else I would be were the day prolonged.

Re-enter Bishop of ELY.

Ely. Where is my lord the Duke of Gloster? I have sent for these strawberries.

Hast. His grace looks cheerfully and smooth to-day;

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
That can less 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 showed to-day?

Hast. Marry, that with no man here he is offended;

For, were he, he had shown 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 damnéd witchcraft, and that have prevailed Upon my body with their hellish charms?

Hast. The tender love I bear your grace, my lord, Makes me most forward in this noble presence To doom the offenders, whatsoe'er they be: I say my lord, they have deservéd death.

Glo. Then be your eyes the witness of this ill:
See how I am bewitched; behold mine arm
Is, like a blasted sapling, withered up:

And this is Edward's wife, that monstrous witch,
Consorted with that harlot strumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have markéd me.
Hast. If they have done this thing, my gracious
lord,-

Glo. If thou protector of this damnéd strumpet,
Tellest thou me of 'ifs'? Thou art a traitor:
Off with his head! Now, by Saint Paul I swear
I will not dine until I see the same.

Lovel and Ratcliff, look that it be done:

The rest, that love me, rise and follow me.
[Exeunt all but HASTINGS, RATCLIFF, and LOVEL.
Hast. Woe, woe for England! not a whit for me;
For I, too fond, might have prevented this.
Stanley did dream the boar did raze his helm;
But I disdained it, and did scorn to fly :

Three times to day my foot-cloth horse did stumble,
And startled, when he looked upon the Tower,
As loth to bear me to the slaughter-house.
O, now I want the priest that spake to me:
I now repent I told the pursuivant,