2397Cob. Come Madam, happily escapt, here let us sit,

2398This place is far remote from any path,

2399And here a while our weary limbs may rest,

2400To take refreshing, free from the pursuit

2401Of envious Rochester.

2402La. But where, my Lord, shall we find rest for our

2403disquiet minds?

2404There dwell untamed thoughts that hardly stoop

2405to such abasement of disdained rags:

2406We were not wont to travel thus by night,

2407Especially on foot.

2408Cob. No matter, love, extremities admit no better choice:

2409And were it not for thee, say froward time

2410Impos'd a greater task, I would esteem it

2411As lightly as the wind that blows upon us,

2412But in thy sufferance I am doubly taskt,

2413Thou wast not wont to have the earth thy stool,

2414Nor the moist dewy grasse thy pillow, nor

2415Thy chamber to be the wide Horizon.

2416La. How can it seem a trouble, having you

2417A partner with me, in the worst I feel?

2418No gentle Lord, your presence would give ease

2419To death it self, should he now seize upon me:

2421Behold what my fore-sight hath undertane

2422For fear we faint, they are but homely Cates,

2423Yet sawc'd with hunger, they may seem as sweet

2424As greater dainties we were wont to taste.

2425Cob. Praise be to him, whose plenty sends both this

2426And all things else our mortal bodies need:

2427Nor scorn we this poor feeding, nor the state

2428We now are in, for what is it on earth,

2429Nay under heaven, continues at a stay?

2430Ebbs not the Sea, when it hath overflown?

2431Follows not darknesse when the day is gone?

2432And see we not sometime the eye of heaven

2433Dim'd with ore-flying clouds? There's not that work

2434Of carefull Nature, or of cunning Art,

2435(How strong, how beauteous, or how rich it be)

2436But falls in time to ruine: here, gentle Madam,

2438La. And I encourag'd with your chearfull speech,

2439Will do the like.

2440Cob. Pray God poor Harpool come,

2441If he should fall into the Bishops hands,

2442Or not remember where we bad him meet us,

2443It were the thing of all things else, that now

2444Could breed revolt in this new peace of mind.

2445La. Fear not, my Lord, he's witty to devise,

2446And strong to execute a present shift.

2447Cob. That power be still his guide hath guided us.

2448My drowsie eyes wax heavy; early rising,

2449Together with the travel we have had,

2450Makes me that I could take a nap,

2451Were I perswaded we might be secure.

2452La. Let that depend on me, whilst you do sleep,

2453I'le watch that no misfortune happen us.

2454Cob. I shall, dear wife, be too much trouble to thee.

Urge not that,

2456My duty binds me, and your love commands,

2457I would I had the skill with tuned voice

2458To draw on sleep with some sweet melody,

2459But imperfection and unaptnesse too

2460Are both repugnant: fear inserts the one,

2461The other nature hath denied me use.

2462But what talk I of means, to purchase that

2463Is freely happen'd? Sleep with gentle hand,

2464Hath shut his eye-lids: Oh victorious labour,

2465How soon thy power can charme the bodies sense?

2466And now thou likewise climb'st unto my brain,

2467Making my heavy temples stoop to thee,

2470Lee. A Murther closely done, and in my ground?

2471Search carefully, if any where it were,

2472This obscure thicket is the likeliest place.

2473Ser. Sir, I have found the body stiff with cold

2474And mangled cruelly with many wounds.

2475Lee. Look if thou know'st him, turn his body up:

2476Alack, it is my son, my son and heir,

2477Whom two years since, I sent to Ireland,

2478To practise there the discipline of war,

2479And coming home, for so he wrote to me,

2480Some savage heart, some bloudy devilish hand,

2481Either in hate, or thirsting for his coin,

2482Hath here sluc'd out his bloud. Unhappy hour,

2483A cursed place, but most inconstant fate,

2484That had'st reserv'd him from the bullets fire,

2485And suffered him to scape the wood-kerns fury.

2486Did'st here ordain the treasure of his life,

2487Even here within the armes of tender peace,

2488To be consum'd by treasons wastfull hand?

2489And which is most afflicting to my soul,

2490That this his death and murther should be wrought

2491Without the knowledge by whose means 'twas done.

24922. Ser. Not so, sir, I have found the authors of it,

2493See where they sit, and in their bloudy fists

2494The fatal instruments of death and sin.

2495Lee. Just judgement of that power, whose gracious eye,

2496Loathing the sight of such a heinous fact,

2497Dazling their senses with benumming sleep,

2498Till their unhallowed treachery was known.

2499Awake ye monsters, murtherers awake,

2500Tremble for horror, blush you cannot choose,

2501Beholding this unhumane deed of yours.

2502Cob. What mean you, sir, to trouble weary souls,

2503And interrupt us of our quiet sleep?

2504Lee. Oh develish! can you boast unto your selves

2505Of quiet sleep, having within your hearts

2506The guilt of murder waking, that with cries

2507Deafs the loud thunder, and solicits heaven

2508With more then mandrakes shreeks for your offence?

2509La. What murther? you upbraid us wrongfully.

2510Lee. Can you deny the fact? See you not here,

2511The body of my son by you misdone?

2512Look on his wounds, look on his purple hue:

2513Do we not find you where the deed was done?

2514Were not your knives fast closed in your hands?

2515Is not this cloth an argument beside,

2516Thus stain'd and spotted with his innocent bloud?

2517These speaking characters were there nothing else

2518To plead against ye, would convict you both.

2519To Hartford with them, where the Sizes now are kept,

2520Their lives shall answer for my sons lost life.

2521Cob. As we are innocent, so may we speed.

2522Lee. As I am wrong'd, so may the Law proceed.