Card. Give order—
Qu. That they stir not on their Lives;
Is this the Duty that you owe your Country?
Is this your Sanctity—and Love to me?
Is’t thus you treat the Glory I have offer’d
To raise you to my Bed?
To rule a Kingdom, be a Nation’s Safety,
To advance in hostile manner to their Walls;
Walls that confine your Countrymen, and Friends,
And Queen, to whom you’ve vow’d eternal Peace,
Eternal Love? And will you court in Arms?
Such rude Addresses wou’d but ill become you.
No, from this hour renounce all Claims to me,
Or Philip’s Interest; for let me tell you, Cardinal,
This Love, and that Revenge, are inconsistent.
Card. But, Madam—
Qu. No more—disband your Rebel Troops,
And strait with me to Abdelazer’s Tent,
Where all his Claims he shall resign to you,
Both in my self, the Kingdom, and the Crown:
You being departed, thousands more will leave him,
And you’re alone the Prop to his Rebellion.
Enter Sebastian.
Sebast. Advance, advance, my Lord, with all your Force,
Or else the Prince and Victory is lost,
Which now depends upon his single Valour;
Who, like some ancient Hero, or some God,
Thunders amongst the thickest of his Enemies,
Destroying all before him in such numbers,
That Piles of Dead obstruct his passage to the living—
Relieve him strait, my Lord, with our last Cavalry and
Hopes.
Card. I’ll follow instantly.—
[Ex. Sebast.
Qu. Sir, but you shall not, unless it be to Death—
Shall you preserve the only Man I hate,
And hate with so much reason?—let him fall
A Victim to an injur’d Mother’s Honour.
—Come, I will be obey’d—indeed I must—[Fawns on him.
Card. When you’re thus soft, can I retain my Anger?
Oh, look but ever thus—in spite of Injuries—
I shall become as tame and peaceable,
As are your charming Eyes, when dress’d in Love,
Which melting down my Rage, leave me defenceless.
—Ah, Madam, have a generous care of me,
For I have now resign’d my Power to you.
[Shouts within.