They know what freedom is."
One scene of the play which he made wonderfully exciting was where the licentious Lord Clifford steals into his cottage and offers violence to Mariamne. Unexpectedly, as if he sprang up out of the earth just in time to save his wife, Cade appears. He seemed an avatar of avenging Providence as, hurling the base lord back, he loomed above him, with uplifted dagger, his grand physical and moral superiority saying, as plainly as speech,
"Heaven, not heraldry, makes noble men."
With a fierce laugh he hisses out the words in a staccato of stinging sarcasm,—
"This is a noble death! The bold Lord Clifford
Stabbed by a peasant, for no braver feat
Than toying with his wife! Is 't not, my lord,
A merry jest?
Clifford. Thou wilt not slay me, fellow?