SCENE X.--VORTIGERN’S PALACE.
_Enter_ VORTIGERN _and First Baron_.
_1st Bar._ Speed, my most gracious lord! think on your safety. They course your troops, and dreadful is the carnage.
_Vor._ Where are my sons?
_1st Bar._ Let not your tongue curse me when I shall say.
_Vor._ Speak, quick!
_1st Bar._ With all their troops they join’d the enemy, And bore with them their mother.
_Enter Officer._
_Vor._ Well, sir; and what more tidings do you bring?
_Off._ To London’s lofty walls they’ve follow’d us.
_Vor._ I care not an’ they follow’d to the grave. Speak, vassal! coward, speak! where is Rowena?
_Off._ Alas! I fear me, sir, she’s ta’en a prisoner.
_Vor._ Then all, indeed, is lost!--Thou sweetest death! Bury but in this bosom thy fell dart, And I will bless thee for the gentle deed.
_Off._ Shall I go forth, my lord, and man the walls?
_Vor._ Do as thou wilt. Good friend, I’d speak with thee.
_Off._ What, sir, are your commands?
_Vor._ Thou art an old, and ever faithful servant.
_Off._ My means have not kept pace with my desires.
_Vor._ I know thee well. Wouldst thou not serve me, friend?
_Off._ Ay, my good lord: but put me to the test, And you shall see me smile on death himself.
_Vor._ I take thee at thy word. Hold here my sword, And but one friendly office render me: Flinch not, strike deep and home: there lies my heart.
_Off._ O! if each drop that were to issue from thee, Was a most costly jewel, and the whole Were my reward, by heav’n I would not do’t!
_Vor._ Thou coward! what, afraid? O! shame, fie on’t!
_Off._ Consider, sir, your queen yet lives.
_Vor._ My friend, thou’rt in the right. To arms, then,--out. Bring me my burnish’d shield, my weighty axe, And man the northern gate; let every bell Sound forth its brazen peal, until they rouse Our tombed fathers from their silent graves, To come and aid us at this pinch of time: Ring till the very steeples totter down. Mark well my orders; he that flinches, dies. If aught of murmur’s heard, choak it with death. Away, away! the grave or victory!
END OF THE FOURTH ACT.