Laska My liege lord, the taller.
The other, please your grace, is her poor handmaid,
Long since betrothed to me. But the maid's froward—
[[917]] Yet would your grace but speak—

Emerick. Hum, master steward!
I am honoured with this sudden confidence. 485
Lead on. [to Laska, then to Rudolph.
Lord Rudolph, you'll announce our coming.
Greet fair Sarolta from me, and entreat her
To be our gentle hostess. Mark, you add
How much we grieve, that business of the state
Hath forced us to delay her lord's return. [490]

Lord Rudolph (aside). Lewd, ingrate tyrant! Yes, I will announce thee.

Emerick. Now onward all. [Exeunt attendants.
A fair one, by my faith!
If her face rival but her gait and stature,
My good friend Casimir had his reasons too.
'Her tender health, her vow of strict retirement, [495]
Made early in the convent—His word pledged—'
All fictions, all! fictions of jealousy.
Well! If the mountain move not to the prophet,
The prophet must to the mountain! In this Laska
There's somewhat of the knave mixed up with dolt. 500
Through the transparence of the fool, methought,
I saw (as I could lay my finger on it)
The crocodile's eye, that peered up from the bottom.
This knave may do us service. Hot ambition
Won me the husband. Now let vanity [505]
And the resentment for a forced seclusion
Decoy the wife! Let him be deemed the aggressor
Whose cunning and distrust began the game! [Exit.

FOOTNOTES:

[906:1] This line was borrowed unconsciously from the Excursion. ['Why should a tear be in an old man's eye?' Excursion, Bk. I, l. 598 (1814).]

Refers (i. e. 'strangers' in l. 163) to the tears which he feels starting in his eye. The following line was borrowed from Mr. Wordsworth's Excursion. 1817, 1828, 1829.

[908:1] For the best account of the War-wolf or Lycanthropus, see Drayton's Moon-calf, Chalmers' English Poets, vol. iv, p. 133.

[911:1]