Stew. I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman
entirely.
95Count. Faith, I do: her father bequeathed her to me;
and she herself, without other [advantage], may lawfully make
title to as much love as she finds: there is more owing her
than is paid; and more shall be paid her than she'll demand.
Stew. Madam, I was very late more near her than I
100think she wished me: alone she was, and did communicate
to herself her own words to her own ears; she thought, I
dare vow for her, they touched not any stranger sense. Her
matter was, she loved your son: Fortune, she said, was no
goddess, that had put such difference betwixt their two
105estates; Love no god, that [would] [not] extend his [might],
only where qualities were [level; ... queen] of virgins, that
would suffer her poor [knight] [surprised], [without rescue in]
the first assault, or ransom afterward. This she delivered
in the most bitter touch of sorrow that e'er I heard [virgin]
110exclaim in: which I [held] my duty speedily to acquaint you
withal; sithence, in the loss that may happen, it concerns
you something to know it.
Count. You have discharged this [honestly]; keep it to
yourself: many likelihoods informed me of this before,
115which hung so tottering in the balance, that I could [neither]
believe nor misdoubt. Pray you, leave me: stall this in
your bosom; and I thank you for your honest care: I will
speak with you further anon. [Exit Steward.
[Even] so it was with me when I was young:
If [ever] we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn
Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong;
Our blood to us, this to our blood is born;
It is the show and seal of nature's truth,