SCENE I.

OLD MIRABEL'S _House_.

_Enter_ OLD MIRABEL _and_ DUGARD.

_Dug._ The Lady Abbess is my relation, and privy to the plot.

_Old Mir._ Ay, ay, this nunnery will bring him about, I warrant ye.

_Enter_ DURETETE.

_Dur._ Here, where are ye all?--O, Mr. Mirabel! you have done fine things for your posterity--And you, Mr. Dugard, may come to answer this--I come to demand my friend at your hands; restore him, sir, or---- [_To_ OLD MIRABEL.

_Old Mir._ Restore him! What, d'ye think I have got him in my trunk, or my pocket?

_Dur._ Sir, he's mad, and you are the cause on't.

_Old Mir._ That may be; for I was as mad as he when I begot him.

_Dug._ Mad, sir! What d'ye mean?

_Dur._ What do you mean, sir, by shutting up your sister, yonder, to talk like a parrot through a cage? or a decoy-duck, to draw others into the snare? Your son, sir, because she has deserted him, he has forsaken the world; and, in three words, has----

_Old Mir._ Hanged himself!

_Dur._ The very same--turned friar!

_Old Mir._ You lie, sir! 'tis ten times worse. Bob turned friar!--Why should the fellow shave his foolish crown, when the same razor may cut his throat?

_Dur._ If you have any command, or you any interest over him, lose not a minute: He has thrown himself into the next monastery, and has ordered me to pay off his servants, and discharge his equipage.

_Old Mir._ Let me alone to ferret him out: I'll sacrifice the Abbot, if he receives him; I'll try whether the spiritual or the natural father has the most right to the child.--But, dear Captain, what has he done with his estate?

_Dur._ Settled it upon the church, sir.

_Old Mir._ The church! Nay, then the devil won't get him out of their clutches----Ten thousand livres a year upon the church!--'Tis downright sacrilege--Come, gentlemen, all hands to work: for half that sum, one of these monasteries shall protect you a traitor from the law, a rebellious wife from her husband, and a disobedient son from his own father. [_Exit._

_Dug._ But will ye persuade me that he's gone to a monastery?

_Dur._ Is your sister gone to the Filles Repenties? I tell you, sir, she's not fit for the society of repenting maids.

_Dug._ Why so, sir?

_Dur._ Because she's neither one nor t'other; she's too old to be a maid, and too young to repent. [_Exit_--DUGARD _after him_.