Chapter 7

_Enter_ HARMAN _Senior,_ FISCAL, VAN HERRING, BEAMONT, COLLINS, _and_ JULIA.

_Beam._ You have led us here a fairy's round in the moonshine, to seek a bridegroom in a wood, till we have lost the bride.

_Col._ I wonder what's become of her?

_Har. Sen._ Got together, got together, I warrant you, before this time; you Englishmen are so hot, you cannot stay for ceremonies. A good honest Dutchman would have been plying the glass all this while, and drunk to the hopes of Hans in Kelder till 'twas bed-time.

_Beam._ Yes, and then have rolled into the sheets, and turned o' the t'other side to snore, without so much as a parting blow; till about midnight he would have wakened in a maze, and found first he was married by putting forth a foot, and feeling a woman by him; and, it may be, then, instead of kissing, desired yough Fro to hold his head.

_Col._ And by that night's work have given her a proof, what she might expect for ever after.

_Beam._ In my conscience, you Hollanders never get your children, but in the spirit of brandy; you are exalted then a little above your natural phlegm, and only that, which can make you fight, and destroy men, makes you get them.

_Fisc._ You may live to know, that we can kill men when we are sober.

_Beam._ Then they must be drunk, and not able to defend themselves.

_Jul._ Pray leave this talk, and let us try if we can surprise the lovers under some convenient tree: Shall we separate, and look them?

_Beam._ Let you and I go together then, and if we cannot find them, we shall do as good, for we shall find one another.

_Fisc._ Pray take that path, or that; I will pursue this. [_Exeunt all but the_ FISCAL.

_Fisc._ So, now I have diverted them from Harman, I'll look for him myself, and see how he speeds in his adventure.

_Enter_ HARMAN _Junior._

_Har. Jun._ Who goes there?

_Fisc._ A friend: I was just in quest of you, so are all the company: Where have you left the bride?

_Har. Jun._ Tied to a tree and gagged, and--

_Fisc._ And what? Why do you stare and tremble? Answer me like a man.

_Har. Jun._ Oh, I have nothing left of manhood in me! I am turned beast or devil. Have I not horns, and tail, and leathern wings? Methinks I should have by my actions. Oh, I have done a deed so ill, I cannot name it.

_Fisc._ Not name it, and yet do it? That's a fool's modesty: Come, I'll name it for you: You have enjoyed your mistress.

_Har. Jun._ How easily so great a villany comes from thy mouth! I have done worse, I have ravished her.

_Fisc._ That's no harm, so you have killed her afterwards.

_Har. Jun._ Killed her! why thou art a worse fiend than I.

_Fisc._ Those fits of conscience in another might be excusable; but in you, a Dutchman, who are of a race that are born rebels, and live every where on rapine,--would you degenerate, and have remorse? Pray, what makes any thing a sin but law? and, what law is there here against it? Is not your father chief? Will he condemn you for a petty rape? the woman an Amboyner, and, what's less, now married to an Englishman! Come, if there be a hell, 'tis but for those that sin in Europe, not for us in Asia; heathens have no hell. Tell me, how was't? Pr'ythee, the history.

_Har. Jun._ I forced her. What resistance she could make she did, but 'twas in vain; I bound her, as I told you, to a tree.

_Fisc._ And she exclaimed, I warrant--

_Har. Jun._ Yes; and called heaven and earth to witness.

_Fisc._ Not after it was done?

_Har. Jun._ More than before--desired me to have killed her. Even when I had not left her power to speak, she curst me with her eyes.

_Fisc._ Nay, then, you did not please her; if you had, she ne'er had cursed you heartily. But we lose time: Since you have done this action, 'tis necessary you proceed; we must have no tales told.

_Har. Jun._ What do you mean?

_Fisc._ To dispatch her immediately; could you be so senseless to ravish her, and let her live? What if her husband should have found her? What if any other English? Come, there's no dallying; it must be done: My other plot is ripe, which shall destroy them all to-morrow.

_Har. Jun._ I love her still to madness, and never can consent to have her killed. We'll thence remove her, if you please, and keep her safe till your intended plot shall take effect; and when her husband's gone, I'll win her love by every circumstance of kindness.

_Fisc._ You may do so; but t'other is the safer way: But I'll not stand with you for one life. I could have wished that Towerson had been killed before I had proceeded to my plot; but since it cannot be, we must go on; conduct me where you left her.

_Har. Jun._ Oh, that I could forget both act and place! [_Exeunt._