SCENE VI.

_Enter_[103] Friar JACOMO _and_ Friar BARNARDINE.

_F. Jac._ O brother, brother, all the nuns are sick, And physic will not help them: they must die.

_F. Barn._ The abbess sent for me to be confessed: O, what a sad confession will there be!

_F. Jac._ And so did fair Maria send for me: I'll to her lodging: hereabouts she lies. [_Exit._

_Enter_ ABIGAIL.

_F. Barn._ What, all dead, save only Abigail?

_Abig._ And I shall die too, for I feel death coming. Where is the friar that conversed with me.

_F. Barn._ O, he is gone to see the other nuns. 10

_Abig._ I sent for him, but seeing you are come, Be you my ghostly father: and first know, That in this house I lived religiously, Chaste, and devout, much sorrowing for my sins, But ere I came----

_F. Barn._ What then?

_Abig._ I did offend high Heaven so grievously, As I am almost desperate for my sins: And one offence torments me more than all. You knew Mathias and Don Lodowick? 20

_F. Barn._ Yes, what of them?

_Abig._ My father did contract me to 'em both: First to Don Lodowick; him I never loved; Mathias was the man that I held dear, And for his sake did I become a nun.

_F. Barn._ So, say how was their end?

_Abig._ Both jealous of my love, envied each other, And by my father's practice, which is there [_Gives a paper._ Set down at large, the gallants were both slain.

_F. Barn._ O monstrous villainy! 30

_Abig._ To work my peace, this I confess to thee; Reveal it not, for then my father dies.

_F. Barn._ Know that confession must not be revealed, The canon law forbids it, and the priest That makes it known, being degraded first, Shall be condemned, and then sent to the fire.

_Abig._ So I have heard; pray, therefore keep it close. Death seizeth on my heart, ah gentle friar! Convert my father that he may be saved, And witness that I die a Christian. [_Dies._ 40

_F. Barn._ I, and a virgin too; that grieves me most: But I must to the Jew and exclaim on him, And make him stand in fear of me.

_Enter_ Friar JACOMO.

_F. Jac._ O brother, all the nuns are dead, let's bury them.

_F. Barn._ First help to bury this, then go with me And help me to exclaim against the Jew.

_F. Jac._ Why, what has he done?

_F. Barn._ A thing that makes me tremble to unfold.

_F. Jac._ What, has he crucified a child?

_F. Barn._ No, but a worse thing: 'twas told me in shrift, 50 Thou know'st 'tis death an if it be revealed. Come, let's away. [_Exeunt._

ACT THE FOURTH.