500 Come, I will sing to you; let us go try With her child, born the King of heaven and earth, Whose reign is men's salvation. And you shall see A cradled miniature of yourself asleep, sorrow, 509 Did I not think that after we were dead KING. Dear Henrietta! SCENE III. The Star Chamber. LAUD, Juxon, STRAFFORD, and others, as Judges. PRYNNE as a Prisoner and then BASTWICK. LAUD. Bring forth the prisoner Bastwick: let the clerk Recite his sentence. CLERK. 66 That he pay five thousand Pounds to the king, lose both his ears, be branded With red-hot iron on the cheek and forehead, And be imprisoned within Lancaster Castle During the pleasure of the Court." LAUD. Prisoner, If you have aught to say wherefore this sentence Should not be put into effect, now speak. JUXON. If you have aught to plead in mitigation, BASTWICK. Thus, my lords. If, like the prelates, I 10 Were an invader of the royal power, A public scorner of the word of God, Profane, idolatrous, popish, superstitious, Impious in heart and in tyrannic act, Void of wit, honesty, and temperance; If Satan were my lord, as theirs,—our God Pattern of all I should avoid to do; Were I an enemy of my God and King And of good men, as ye are ;-I should merit Your fearful state and gilt prosperity, 20 Which, when ye wake from the last sleep, shall turn To cowls and robes of everlasting fire. Even as my Master did, Until Heaven's kingdom shall descend on earth, Or earth be like a shadow in the light Of heaven absorbed—some few tumultuous years 30 Will pass, and leave no wreck of what opposes His will whose will is power. LAUD. Officer, take the prisoner from the bar, speak lord! The tongue, which now can No terror, would interpret, being dumb, And hands, which now write only their own Did all the ministers of Heaven's revenge Flinch thus from earthly retribution. I Could suffer what I would inflict. [Exit BASTWICK guarded. Bring up The Lord Bishop of Lincoln. (To STRAFFORD) Know you not That, in distraining for ten thousand pounds Upon his books and furniture at Lincoln, Were found these scandalous and seditious letters Sent from one Osbaldistone, who is fled? I speak it not as touching this poor person; 50 Enter BISHOP WILLIAMS guarded. STRAFFORD. "Twere politic and just that Williams taste The bitter fruit of his connexion with The schismatics. But you, my Lord Archbishop, Who owed your first promotion to his favour, Who grew beneath his smile LAUD. Would therefore beg 61 The office of his judge from this High Court,- WILLIAMS. Peace, proud hierarch! SCENE IV. HAMPDEN, PYM, CROMWELL, his Daughter, and young SIR HARry Vane. HAMPDEN. England, farewell! thou who hast been my cradle, Shalt never be my dungeon or my grave! I held what I inherited in thee, As pawn for that inheritance of freedom Which thou hast sold for thy despoiler's smile: How can I call thee England, or my country?— Does the wind hold? VANE. The vanes sit steady Upon the Abbey towers. The silver lightnings Of the evening star, spite of the city's smoke, Tell that the north wind reigns in the upper air. Mark too that flock of fleecy-winged clouds HAMPDEN. IO Hail, fleet herald Of tempest! that rude pilot who shall guide Beyond the webs of that swoln spider . . . Of atheist priests! And thou 20 Fair star, whose beam lies on the wide Atlantic, |