QUEEN.
'Tis spoken like yourself. Enough of this—
What would the king?
MARQUIS.
The king? I can, it seems,
Retaliate quickly on my rigid judge
And what I have deferred so long to tell,
Your majesty, perhaps, would willingly
Longer defer to hear. But still it must
Be heard. The king requests your majesty
Will grant no audience to the ambassador
Of France to-day. Such were my high commands—
They're executed.
QUEEN.
Marquis, is that all
You have to tell me from him?
MARQUIS.
Nearly all
That justifies me thus to seek your presence.
QUEEN.
Well, marquis, I'm contented not to hear
What should, perhaps, remain a secret from me.
MARQUIS.
True, queen! though were you other than yourself,
I should inform you straight of certain things—
Warn you of certain men—but this to you
Were a vain office. Danger may arise
And disappear around you, unperceived.
You will not know it—of too little weight
To chase the slumber from your angel brow.
But 'twas not this, in sooth, that brought me hither,
Prince Carlos——
QUEEN.
What of him? How have you left him?
MARQUIS.
E'en as the only wise man of his time,
In whom it is a crime to worship truth—
And ready, for his love to risk his life,
As the wise sage for his. I bring few words—
But here he is himself.
[Giving the QUEEN a letter.
QUEEN (after she has read it).
He says he must
Speak with me——