Your proclamations, and the wiser pity
So great a potentate's abuse, by one
Who juggles merely with the fawns and youth
Of an instructed compliment; such spoils,
Such slaughters as the rapine of your soldiers
Already have committed, is enough

To show your zeal in a conceited justice.

Yet, great king, wake not yet my master's ven

geance;

But shake that viper off which gnaws your entrails!
I and my fellow-subjects are resolv'd,
If you persist, to stand your utmost fury,
Till our last blood drop from us.

War. O, sir, lend

No ear to this traducer of my honour!-
What shall I call thee, thou gray-bearded scandal,
That kick'st against the sovereignty to which
Thou owest allegiance?-Treason is bold-faced,
And eloquent in mischief. Sacred king,
Be deaf to his known malice.

Dur. Rather yield

Unto those holy motions which inspire
The sacred heart of an anointed body!
It is the surest policy in princes

To govern well their own, than seek encroachment
Upon another's right.

Craw. The king is serious,

Deep in his meditation[s].
Dat. Lift them up

To heaven, his better genius!

War. Can you study While such a devil raves?

K. Ja. Well, bishop,

Oh, sir!

You 'll not be drawn to mercy ?

Dur. Construe me

In like case by a subject of your own.

My resolution's fix'd; king James, be counsell'd, A greater fate waits on thee.

[Exeunt DURHAM and Soldiers from the walls. K. Ja. Forage through

The country; spare no prey of life or goods.

War. Oh, sir, then give me leave to yield to na

ture.

I am most miserable; had I been

Born what this clergyman would, by defame,
Baffle belief with, I had never sought

The truth of mine inheritance with rapes
Of women, or of infants murder'd, virgins
Deflower'd, old men butcher'd, dwellings fired,
My land depopulated, and my people
Afflicted with a kingdom's devastation.
Show more remorse, great king, or I shall never
Endure to see such havoc with dry eyes.
Spare, spare my dear, dear England!
K. Ja. You fool your piety,
Ridiculously careful of an interest
Another man possesseth. Where's your faction?
Shrewdly the bishop guess'd of your adherents,
When not a petty burgess of some town,
No, not a villager hath yet appear'd

In your assistance; that should make you whine,
And not your country's sufferance, as you term it.

Dal. The king is angry.

Craw. And the passionate duke

Effeminately dolent.2

War. The experience

In former trials, sir, both of mine own
Or other princes cast out of their thrones,
Hath so acquainted me how misery
Is destitute of friends or of relief,
That I can easily submit to taste

Lowest reproof, without contempt or words.

Enter FRION.

K. Ja. An humble-minded man!-Now, what in

telligence

Speaks master secretary Frion.

Fri. Henry

Of England hath in open field o'erthrown
The armies who opposed him in the right
Of this young prince.

K. Ja. His subsidies you mean.

More, if you have it?

Fri. Howard, Earl of Surrey,

Back'd by twelve earls and barons of the north,
A hundred knights and gentlemen of name,
And twenty thousand soldiers, is at hand
To raise your siege. Brooke, with a goodly navy,
Is admiral at sea; and Dawbeney follows
With an unbroken army for a second.

War. "Tis false! they come to side with us.
K. Ja. Retreat;

We shall not find them stones and walls to cope with.
Yet, duke of York (for such thou sayst thou art),
I'll try thy fortune to the height; to Surrey,

By Marchmont, I will send a brave defiance

For single combat.

Once a king will venture

His person to an earl, with condition

Of spilling lesser blood.

And James resolv'd.

Surrey is bold,

War. Oh, rather, gracious sir,
Create me to this glory, since my cause
Doth interest this fair quarrel; valued least,
I am his equal.

K. Ja. I will be the man.

March softly off; where victory can reap
A harvest crown'd with triumph, toil is cheap. [Exeunt.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

The English Camp near Ayton, on the Borders.

Enter SURREY, DURHAM, Soldiers with drums and

colours.

Sur. Are all our braving enemies shrunk back, Hid in the fogs of their distemper'd climate, Not daring to behold our colours wave In spite of this infected air? Can they Look on the strength of Cundrestine defaced? The glory of Heydon-hall devasted? that Of Edington cast down? the pile of Fulden O'erthrown? and this, the strongest of their forts, Old Ayton-Castle, yielded and demolish'd, And yet not peep abroad? The Scots are bold, Hardy in battle; but it seems the cause They undertake, considered, appears Unjointed in the frame on 't.

Dur. Noble Surrey,

Our royal master's wisdom is at all times
His fortune's harbinger; for when he draws
His sword to threaten war, his providence
Settles on peace, the crowning of an empire.

[A trumpet without.

Sur. Rank all in order: 't is a herald's sound; Some message from king James. Keep a fix'd sta

1

tion.

Enter MARCHMONT and another, in heralds' coats.

March. From Scotland's awful majesty we come

Unto the English general.
Sur. To me?

Say on.

March. Thus, then; the waste and prodigal

Effusion of so much guiltless blood,
As in two potent armies, of necessity,
Must glut the earth's dry womb, his sweet compassion
Hath studied to prevent; for which to thee,
Great earl of Surrey, in a single fight,
He offers his own royal person: fairly
Proposing these conditions only,-that
If victory conclude our master's right,
The earl shall deliver for his ransom

The town of Berwick to him, with the Fishgarths;
If Surrey shall prevail, the king will pay
A thousand pounds down present for his freedom,
And silence further arms: so speaks king James.

Sur. So speaks king James! so like a king he

speaks.

Heralds, the English general returns
A sensible devotion from his heart,
His very soul, to this unfellow'd grace:
For let the king know, gentle heralds, truly,
How his descent from his great throne, to honour
A stranger subject with so high a title
As his compeer in arms, hath conquer'd more
Than any sword could do; for which (my loyalty
Respected) I will serve his virtues ever
In all humility: but Berwick, say,
Is none of mine to part with. In affairs
Of princes, subjects cannot traffic rights
Inherent to the crown. My life is mine,
That I dare freely hazard; and (with pardon
To some unbribed vainglory) if his majesty
Shall taste a change of fate, his liberty
Shall meet no articles. If I fall, falling
VOL. I.-25