Sieg. (eagerly).‍Oh! am I?—say!

Prior. You have said so, and know best.

Sieg.‍Father! I have spoken520

The truth, and nought but truth, if not the whole;

Yet say I am not guilty! for the blood

Of this man weighs on me, as if I shed it,

Though, by the Power who abhorreth human blood,

I did not!—nay, once spared it, when I might

And could—aye, perhaps, should (if our self-safety

Be e'er excusable in such defences