BREMO. I'll crush thy bones betwixt two oaken trees.
AMADINE. Haste, shepherd, haste, or else thou com'st too late.
BREMO. I'll suck the sweetness from thy marrow bones.
AMADINE. Ah, spare, ah, spare to shed my guiltless blood!
BREMO. With this my bat will I beat out
Thy brains. Down, down, I say:
Prostrate thyself upon the ground.
AMADINE. Then, Mucedorus, farewell, my hoped joys, farewell!
Yea, farewell life, and welcome present death. [She kneels.
To thee, O God, I yield my dying ghost.
BREMO. Now, Bremo, play thy part.
How now, what sudden chance is this?
My limbs do tremble, and my sinews shake;
My unweak'ned arms have lost their former force.
Ah, Bremo, Bremo! what a foil hast thou,
That yet at no time ever wast afraid
To dare the greatest gods to fight with thee, [He strikes.
And now want strength for one down-driving blow?
Ah, how my courage fails, when I should strike!
Some new-come spirit abiding in my breast,
Say'th, Spare her, Bremo; spare her, do not kill.
Shall I[178] spare her, which never spared any?
To it, Bremo, to it; essay[179] again.
I cannot wield my weapons in my hand;
Methinks I should not strike so fair a one,
I think her beauty hath bewitch'd my force,
Or else within me altered nature's course.
Ay, woman, wilt thou live in woods with me?
AMADINE. Fain would I live, yet loth to live in woods.
BREMO. Thon shalt not choose; it shall be as I say; And therefore follow me. [_Exeunt.
Enter_ MUCEDORUS solus.