Page:CromwellHugo.djvu/101

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ACT FIRST. THE CONSPIRATORS
89

He must have seen the scaffold in his dreams.
Rochester [to the other two, in an undertone.
Our friends, the saints, wear a forbidding mien!
We are but three, and by St. Paul! their force
Is most disquieting.—
[He looks toward the door.
Is most disquieting.—Aha! but here
Are reinforcements come: Lord Rosebery,
Clifford—and Sedley—and Lord Drogheda.—
Ormond [rising.]And th' illustrious Jenkins, whom the tyrant lists,
The while he doth his virtue persecute
Because he fears it.


Scene 7.—The Same; Sedley, Lord Drogheda, Lord Rosebery, Sir Peters Downie, Lord Clifford, wrapped in cloaks and with hats of the Puritan type; Doctor Jenkins (an old man, dressed in black), and other Royalists.


[The Cavaliers enter noisily; Doctor Jenkins alone displays a grave and stern demeanour.

Rosebery [gaily.]Because he fears it. Rochester! Lord Ormond!
And Davenant! how hot it is, my lords!
Carr [in a corner, aside.
Lord Ormond! Rochester!
Ormond [to Lord Rosebery, in an undertone and with a displeased expression.
Lord Ormond! Rochester! Speak not so loud.
Rosebery [glancing askance at the Roundheads, in an undertone.
Ah! I saw not yon crows.
Ormond [in an undertone.] Ah! I saw not yon crows. Beware, my lord,
Lest you be food for them some day!

[The Cavaliers approach the table at which Ormond,