Your highness to consider of the thing,

And rather choose to seek your country's good
Than pity or relieve these upstart heretics.

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Cath. I hope these reasons may serve my princely son

To have some care for fear of enemies.

Char. Well, madam, I refer it to your majesty, And to my nephew here, the Duke of Guise:

What you determine, I will ratify.

Cath. Thanks to my princely son.-Then tell me, Guise,

What order will you set down for the massacre?

Guise. Thus, madam. They

That shall be actors in this massacre,

Shall wear white crosses on their burgonets,
And tie white linen scarfs about their arms :
He that wants these, and is suspect1 of heresy,
Shall die, be he king or emperor. Then I'll have
A peal of ordnance shot from the tower, at which
They all shall issue out, and set 2 the streets;
And then,

The watch-word being given, a bell shall ring,
Which when they hear, they shall begin to kill,
And never cease until that bell shall cease;
Then breathe a while.

Enter the ADMIRAL'S Serving-Man.

Char. How now, fellow! what news?

1 So Dyce.-Old ed. "suspected."

2 Beset.

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40

Serv.-M. An it please your grace, the Lord High

Admiral,

Riding the streets, was traitorously shot;

And most humbly1 entreats your majesty

To visit him, sick in his bed.

Char. Messenger, tell him I will see him straight.

[Exit Serv.-M.

What shall we do now with the Admiral?
Cath. Your majesty were best go visit him,
And make a show as if all were well.

Char. Content; I will go visit the Admiral.
Guise. And I will go take order for his death.

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[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

The ADMIRAL discovered in bed. Enter KING CHARLES.

Char. How fares it with my Lord High Admiral?
Hath he been hurt with villains in the street?

I vow and swear, as I am king of France,
To find and to repay the man with death,
With death delayed and torments never us'd,
That durst presume, for hope of any gain,
To hurt the nobleman their sovereign loves.

1 Old ed. "humble."

2 Not marked in old ed.

3 Old ed. "Enter the Admirall in his bed," a stage-direction meaning that a bed containing the Admiral should be thrust upon the stage. Cf. a stage-direction in Heywood's Golden Age:-"Enter the foure oid Beldams, drawing out Danae's bed, she in it."

Dyce reads "his."

Adm. Ah, my good lord, these are the Guisians,
That seek to massacre our guiltless lives!

Char. Assure yourself, my good Lord Admiral,
I deeply sorrow for your treacherous wrong;
And that I am not more secure myself

Than I am careful you should be preserv'd.—
Cousin, take twenty of our strongest guard,
And, under your direction, see they keep
All treacherous violence from our noble friend;
Repaying all attempts with present death
Upon the cursed breakers of our peace.—
And so be patient, good Lord Admiral,
And every hour I will visit you.

Adm. I humbly thank your royal majesty.
[Exit CHARLES.

The bed is drawn in.

SCENE VI.

Enter1 GUISE, ANJOU, DUMAIne, Gonzago, Retes, MOUNTSORRELL, and Soldiers, to the massacre.

Guise. Anjou, Dumaine, Gonzago, Retes, swear,

By the argent crosses in your burgonets,

To kill all that you suspect of heresy.

Dum. I swear by this, to be unmerciful.

Anj. I am disguis'd, and none knows who I am, And therefore mean to murder all I meet.

Gon. And so will I.

1 Scene: a street.

Retes. And I.

Guise. Away, then! break into the Admiral's house. Retes. I, let the Admiral be first despatch'd.

Guise. The Admiral,

Chief standard-bearer to the Lutherans,

Shall in the entrance 1 of this massacre

Be murder'd in his bed.

Gonzago, conduct them thither; and then
Beset his house, that not a man may live.

10

Anj. That charge is mine.-Switzers, keep you the

streets;

And at each corner shall the king's guard stand.

Gon. Come, sirs, follow me.

[Exit GONZAGO with others.

Anj. Cousin, the captain of the Admiral's guard,
Plac'd by my brother, will betray his lord.
Now, Guise, shall Catholics flourish once again;
The head being off, the members cannot stand.

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Retes. But look, my lord, there's some in the Admiral's

house.

GONZAGO and others enter the ADMIRAL's house; the ADMIRAL discovered in bed.

Anj. In lucky time: come, let us keep this lane, And slay his servants that shall issue out,

Gon. Where is the Admiral?

Adm. O let me pray before I die!

1 Commencement. Dyce quotes from Heywood's Four Prentises of

London:

"Take them to guard: this entrance to our warres

Is full of spirit, and begets much hope."

Gon. Then pray unto our Lady; kiss this cross.

Adm. O God, forgive my sins!

[Stabs him.
[Dies.

Guise. Gonzago, what, is he dead?

Gon. I, my lord.

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Guise. Then throw him down.1

the great sum h

[The body of the ADMIRAL is thrown down.

Anj. Now, cousin, view him well:

It maybe 'tis some other, and he escap'd.

Guise. Cousin, 'tis he; I know him by his look: See where my soldier shot him through the arm; He miss'd him near, but we have struck him now. Ah, base Chatillon and degenerate,

Chief Standard-bearer to the Lutherans,

Thus, in despite of thy religion,

The Duke of Guise stamps on thy lifeless bulk!

Anj. Away with him! cut off his head and

hands,

And send them for a present to the Pope; 2

And, when this just revenge is finished,
Unto Mount Falcon 3 will we drag his corse;

40

1 From the upper stage.

2" Then a certain Italian of Gonzague's band cut off the Admiral's head, and sent it, preserved with spices, to Rome to the Pope and the Cardinal of Lorraine. Others cut off his hands."-Three Parts of Commentaries, &c., Book x. p. 14.

3 "So the old ed.; and so indeed our early authors usually wrote the

name:

'O, may they once as high as Haman mount,

And from Mount Faulcon give a sad account,' &c.

Sylvester's Du Bartas's."—Dyce.