SIMON RENARD.
Do you want to see him torn to pieces before your eyes?
THE QUEEN.
Do you know this is infamous, that not one of you stirs? In the name of Heaven, defend me, my lords!
LORD CLINTON.
You? yes, madame. Fabiano? no!
THE QUEEN.
Very well, I will tell you all then, so much the worse for you. Fabiano is innocent. Fabiano never committed the crime for which he was condemned. It was I, and this man here, and the engraver Gilbert. We did it all; we invented it all; we imagined it all. It was all a farce! Contradict me if you dare, Sir Bailiff! Now, gentlemen, will you defend him? He is innocent; I swear it. On my head, on my crown, on my God, on my mother's soul, he is innocent of the crime. It is as true as that you stand there, Lord Clinton! Defend him! Annihilate these wretches as you annihilated Tom Wyatt, my brave Clinton, my old friend, my good Robert! I swear to you that it is false that Fabiano tried to assassinate the Queen.
LORD CLINTON.
There is another Queen whom he tried to assassinate—England!