SEGASTO.
Sirrah, away with him, and hang him ’bout the middle.
MOUSE.
Yes, forsooth, I warrant you. Come on, sir; ah, so like a sheepbiter a looks.
Enter Amadine and a boy with a Bear’s Head.
AMADINE.
Dread sovereign and well beloved sire,
On benden knees I crave the life of this
Condemned shepherd, which tofore preserved
The life of thy sometime distressed daughter.
KING OF ARAGON.
Preserved the life of my sometime distressed daughter?
How can that be? I never knew the time
Wherein thou wast distress’d: I never knew the day
But that I have maintained thy estate,
As best beseem’d the daughter of a king;
I never saw the shepherd until now.
How comes it then, that he preserv’d thy life?
AMADINE.
Once walking with Segasto in the woods,
Further than our accustom’d manner was,
Aright before us down a steep-fall hill,
A monstrous ugly bear did hie him fast,
To meet us both: now whether this be true,
I refer it to the credit of Segasto.
SEGASTO.
Most true, an’t like your majesty.
KING OF ARAGON.
How then?
AMADINE.
The bear being eager to obtain his prey,
Made forward to us with an open mouth,
As if he meant to swallow us both at once;
The sight whereof did make us both to dread,
But specially your daughter Amadine,
Who—for I saw no succour incident
But in Segasto’s valour—desperate grew,
And he most coward-like began to flie,
Left me distress’d to be devour’d of him—
Segasto, how say you? Is it not true?
KING OF ARAGON.
His silence verifies it to be true. What then?