Qu. M. Pray, mark the form of the conspiracy:
Guise gives it out, he journeys to Champaigne,
But lurks indeed at Lagny, hard by Paris,
Where every hour he hears and gives instructions.
Mean time the Council of Sixteen assure him,
They have twenty thousand citizens in arms.
Is it not so, Polin?
Pol. True, on my life;
And, if the king doubts the discovery,
Send me to the Bastile till all be proved.
Qu. M. Call colonel Grillon; the king would speak with him.
Ab. Was ever age like this?[Exit Polin.
Qu. M. Polin is honest;
Beside, the whole proceeding is so like
The hair-brained rout, I guessed as much before.
Know then, it is resolved to seize the king,
When next he goes in penitential weeds
Among the friars, without his usual guards;
Then, under shew of popular sedition,
For safety, shut him in a monastery,
And sacrifice his favourites to their rage.
Ab. When is this council to be held again?
Qu. M. Immediately upon the duke's departure.
Ab. Why sends not then the king sufficient guards,
To seize the fiends, and hew them into pieces?
Qu. M. 'Tis in appearance easy, but the effect
Most hazardous; for straight, upon the alarm,
The city would be sure to be in arms;
Therefore, to undertake, and not to compass,
Were to come off with ruin and dishonour.
038 You know the Italian proverb—Bisogna copriersi[6],—
He, that will venture on a hornet's nest,
Should arm his head, and buckler well his breast.
Ab. But wherefore seems the king so unresolved?