SCENE II.

_Hyde Park._

_Enter LORD GAYVILLE impetuously, looking at his Watch._

_Lord G._ Not here! I am sure I marked the hour as well as the place, precisely in my note. [_Walks about._] Had I been told three days ago, that I should have been the appellant in a premeditated duel, I should have thought it an insult upon my principles--That Clifford should be the cause of my transgressing the legal and sacred duties, we have ever both maintained--oh, it would have seemed a visionary impossibility--But he comes, to cut reflections short--

_Enter CLIFFORD._

_Lord G._ I waited for you, sir.

_Cliff._ [_Bows in Silence._]

_Lord G._ That ceremonial would grace an encounter of punctilio, but applies ill to the terms upon which I have called you here.

_Cliff._ What terms are those, my lord?

_Lord G._ Vengeance! Ample, final vengeance! Draw, sir.

_Cliff._ No, my lord; my sword is reserved for more becoming purposes: It is not the instrument of passion; and has yet been untried in a dispute with my friend.

_Lord G._ But why is it not ready for a different trial, the vindication of perfidy, the blackest species of perfidy, that ever the malignant enemy of mankind infused into the human breast--perfidy to the friend who loved and trusted you, and in the nearest interests of his heart.

_Cliff._ Take care, my lord; should my blood boil like yours, and it is rising fast, you know not the punishment that awaits you. I came temperate, your gross provocation and thirst of blood make temperance appear disgrace--I am tempted to take a revenge--

_Lord G._ [_Draws._] The means are ready. Come, sir, you are to give an example of qualities generally held incompatible--bravery and dishonour.

_Cliff._ Another such a word, and by Heaven!--How have I deserved this opinion?

_Lord G._ Ask your conscience--Under the mask of friendship you have held a secret intercourse with the woman I adore; you have supplanted me in her affections, you have robbed me of the very charm of my life--can you deny it?

_Cliff._ I avow it all.

_Lord G._ Unparalleled insolence of guilt!

_Cliff._ Are you sure there is nothing within the scope of possibility that would excuse or atone--

_Lord G._ Death--Death only--no abject submission--no compromise for infamy--chuse instantly--and save yourself from the only stretch of baseness left--the invention of falsehood to palliate.--

_Cliff._ [_In the utmost Agitation, and drawing his Sword._] Falsehood!--You shall have no other explanation.--[_After a Struggle within himself, CLIFFORD drops the Point, and exposes his Breast._]

_Lord G._ Stand upon your defence, sir--What do you mean?

_Cliff._ You said nothing but my life would satisfy you, take it, and remember me.

_Lord G._ I say so still--but upon an equal pledge--I am no assassin.

_Cliff._ [_With great Emotion._] If to strike at the heart of your friend, more deeply than that poor instrument in your hand could do, makes an assassin, you have been one already.

_Lord G._ That look, that tone, how like to innocence! Had he not avowed such abominable practices--

_Cliff._ I avow them again: I have rivalled you in the love of the woman you adore--her affections are riveted to me. I have removed her from your sight; secured her from your recovery--

_Lord G._ Damnation!

_Cliff._ I have done it to save unguarded beauty; to save unprotected innocence; to save--a sister.

_Lord G._ A sister!

_Cliff._ [_With Exultation._] Vengeance! Ample, final vengeance! [_A Pause._] It is accomplished--over him--and over myself--my victory is complete.

_Lord G._ Where shall I hide my shame!

_Cliff._ We'll share it, and forget it here.

[_Embraces._

_Lord G._ Why did you keep the secret from me?

_Cliff._ I knew it not myself, till the strange concurrence of circumstances, to which you were in part witness a few hours since, brought it to light. I meant to impart to you the discovery, when my temper took fire--Let us bury our mutual errors in the thought, that we now for life are friends.

_Lord G._ Brothers, Clifford--Let us interchange that title, and doubly, doubly ratify it. Unite me to your charming sister; accept the hand of Lady Emily in return--her heart I have discovered to be yours----We'll leave the world to the sordid and the tasteless; let an Alscrip, or a Sir Clement Flint, wander after the phantom of happiness, we shall find her real retreat, and hold her by the bonds she covets, virtue, love, and friendship.

_Cliff._ Not a word more, my lord, the bars against your proposal are insuperable.

_Lord G._ What bars?

_Cliff._ Honour! Propriety--and pride.

_Lord G._ Pride, Clifford!

_Cliff._ Yes, my lord; Harriet Clifford shall not steal the hand of a prince; nor will I--though doting on Lady Emily with a passion like your own, bear the idea of a clandestine union in a family, to whom I am bound by obligation and trust. Indeed, my lord, without Sir Clement's consent, you must think no more of my sister.

_Lord G._ Stern stoic, but I will, and not clandestinely; I'll instantly to Sir Clement.

_Cliff._ Do not be rash; Fortune, or some better agent, is working in wonders--Meet me presently at your uncle's; in the mean while promise not to stir in this business.

_Lord G._ What hope from delay?

_Cliff._ Promise--

_Lord G._ I am in a state to catch at shadows----I'll try to obey you.

_Cliff._ Farewell!----

[_Exeunt._