“Then I stay,” replied Carver.
“I am not disappointed in you,” observed Pole, approvingly.
“If such be your determination when freedom is offered you, you must have taken leave of your senses,” said Osbert. “Constance, I call upon you—and shall not, I am sure, call in vain.”
“I cannot leave the good Cardinal, who has sheltered and protected me, without his consent, even at your bidding, Osbert,” she replied.
“And my consent must be refused,” said Pole. “Alas! misguided man,” he continued to Osbert. “You little know what you have done. Just as the King has assented to your union with Constance, you yourself raise an insuperable obstacle to it. Now Constance is lost to you for ever.”
“It is too true, Osbert!—it is too true,” she cried. “Why did you come hither thus?”
“Ah! why?” he cried, striking his head with his clenched hand. “Perdition on my folly!”
“Save yourself by instant flight—that is the best advice I can give you,” said the Cardinal.
“Desert my friends—never!” exclaimed Osbert. “The die is cast, and I must stand the issue. Constance, by all the love you profess to bear me, I implore you to come with me.”
“Alas! alas! I cannot obey you,” she rejoined.