BUTLER.
Forever.
He is as poor as we.

MACDONALD.
As poor as we?

DEVEREUX.
Macdonald, we'll desert him.

BUTLER.
We'll desert him?
Full twenty thousand have done that already;
We must do more, my countrymen! In short—
We—we must kill him.

BOTH (starting back)
Kill him!

BUTLER.
Yes, must kill him;
And for that purpose have I chosen you.

BOTH.
Us!

BUTLER.
You, Captain Devereux, and thee, Macdonald.

DEVEREUX (after a pause).
Choose you some other.

BUTLER.
What! art dastardly?
Thou, with full thirty lives to answer for—
Thou conscientious of a sudden?