ELSWORTH. Not a rebel, I trust.
ROSE. Not a traitor, I thank heaven.
ELSWORTH. You confound terms strangely. A traitor is one false to his king.
ROSE. False to his country, sir. A king is a creature of to-day—your country a thing of immortality.
ELSWORTH. Your King is your sovereign, by divine right and true succession.
ROSE. Then, sir, serve the Stuarts. How came the house of Hanover upon the throne? You see, sir, that if you zealous loyalists could shift off James, we, with less belief in the divine right of kings, can shift off George.
Enter MR. APOLLO METCALF.
METCALF. Good day, Mr. Elsworth. Good day, young ladies. "Good day" all, I may say.
ELSWORTH. Have you any news of the war, Mr. Metcalf?
METCALF. News—plenty of it, and mad. The country is depopulated. There isn't a youth with the first hope of a beard upon his chin, who hasn't gone with young Armstrong, to join the army.