Exit Lopez.
QUEEN
Thrive my black plots, the mischiefs I have set
Must not so die. Ills must new ills beget.
Enter Malateste and Balthazar.
BALTHAZAR
Now! What hot poisoned custard must I put my spoon into now?
QUEEN
None, for mine honour is now thy protection.
MALATESTE
Which, noble soldier, she will pawn for thee
But never forfeit.
BALTHAZAR
'Tis a fair gage <31>, keep it.
QUEEN
Oh Balthazar! I am thy friend, and marked thee.
When the King sentenced thee to banishment
Fire sparkled from thine eyes of rage and grief.
Rage to be doomed so for a groom so base,
And grief to lose thy Country. Thou hast killed none,
The milk-sop is but wounded, thou are not banished.
BALTHAZAR If I were, I lose nothing, I can make any country mine. I have a private coat for Italian Stilettos, I can be treacherous with the Walloon, drunk with the Dutch, a chimney-sweeper with the Irish, a gentleman with the Welsh and true arrant thief with the English. What then is my country to me?
QUEEN
The King, who rap'd with fury, banished thee,
Shall give thee favours, yield but to destroy
What him distempers.