SCENE II.

_Enter King and Council._ [_Shouts without._

_King._ What mean these shouts?

_Abb._ I told your majesty, The sheriffs have puffed the populace with hopes Of their deliverer. [_Shouts again._

_King._ Hark! there rung a peal Like thunder: see, Alphonso, what's the cause.

_Enter_ GRILLON.

_Gril._ My lord, the Guise is come.

_King._ Is't possible! ha, Grillon, said'st thou, come?

_Gril._ Why droops the royal majesty? O sir!

_King._ O villain, slave, wert thou my late-born heir, Given me by heaven, even when I lay a-dying-- But peace, thou festering thought, and hide thy wound;-- Where is he?

_Gril._ With her majesty, your mother; She has taken chair, and he walks bowing by her, With thirty thousand rebels at his heels.

_King._ What's to be done? No pall upon my spirit; But he that loves me best, and dares the most On this nice point of empire, let him speak.

_Alph._ I would advise you, sir, to call him in, And kill him instantly upon the spot.

_Abb._ I like Alphonso's counsel, short, sure work; Cut off the head, and let the body walk.

_Enter_ QUEEN-MOTHER.

_Qu. M._ Sir, the Guise waits.

_King._ He enters on his fate.

_Qu. M._ Not so,--forbear; the city is up in arms; Nor doubt, if, in their heat, you cut him off, That they will spare the royal majesty. Once, sir, let me advise, and rule your fury.

_King._ You shall: I'll see him, and I'll spare him now.

_Qu. M._ What will you say?

_King._ I know not;-- Colonel Grillon, call the archers in, Double your guards, and strictly charge the Swiss Stand to their arms, receive him as a traitor. [_Exit_ GRILLON. My heart has set thee down, O Guise, in blood,-- Blood, mother, blood, ne'er to be blotted out.

_Qu. M._ Yet you'll relent, when this hot fit is over.

_King._ If I forgive him, may I ne'er be forgiven! No, if I tamely bear such insolence, What act of treason will the villains stop at? Seize me, they've sworn; imprison me is the next, Perhaps arraign me, and then doom me dead. But ere I suffer that, fall all together, Or rather, on their slaughtered heaps erect My throne, and then proclaim it for example. I'm born a monarch, which implies alone To wield the sceptre, and depend on none. [_Exeunt[13]._