First Offi. Farewel! God send your highness rest! meantime
We'll pray for your recovery.
Sec. Offi. And heaven will hear our prayers.
(Omnes.) Amen, amen!
Ethw. Pray heaven to order all things for the weal
Of my good realm, and I shall be well pleased
To live or die. Adieu! (Exeunt all but Ethw. Selred, and Ethelbert. After a pause, in which Ethw. seems agitated and uneasy.)
But go thou too.(Exit Selred.
(raising himself on the couch, and taking both the hands of Ethelbert, which he presses in his, looking up in his face expressively for some time before he speaks.)
I still must be a king: to you, my friend,
Let me put off all seeming and constraint,
And be a poor weak man. (a pause.) Thou speakest not.
Thy face is sad and solemn. Well I see
Thou look'st upon me as a dying wretch—
There is no hope.
Eth. Much will it profit thee
To be prepared as tho' there were no hope;
For if thou liv'st thou'lt live a better man,
And if thou diest, may heaven accept it of thee!
Ethw. O that it would! But, my good Ethelbert,
To be thus seized in my high career,
