‘Should we not have rather—to counter and invalidate them?’
‘Ay, if we were resolved to meet with Master Doughty’s fate.’
‘So would our England at least have known us for her true lovers; so would the professed passion of our hearts for her have been vindicated. Now I return to her in shame, a discredited champion, whom she will never wish to trust again.’
‘O, this is foolish! What could we do in reason but what we have done? Treachery to our friends would not have sweetened England’s name.’
The paragon sighed profoundly.
‘That may be so,’ said he: ‘yet would I fain have struck one blow for her in our own right way, though I died for it.’
‘No need to talk of dying.’
‘What; would you miss me, sweetheart?’
‘Peace, thou dear old croaker!’
‘And my good master would miss me. Sometimes I think we should never have left him.’