Scene III. Before the castle.
Enter Arthur, on the walls.[513]
Arth. The wall is high, and yet will I leap down:
Good ground, be pitiful and hurt me not!
There's few or none do know me: if they did,
This ship-boy's semblance hath disguised me quite.
I am afraid; and yet I'll venture it.5
If I get down, and do not break my limbs,
I'll find a thousand shifts to get away:
As good to die and go, as die and stay. [Leaps down.[514]
O me! my uncle's spirit is in these stones:
Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones! [Dies.10
Enter Pembroke, Salisbury, and Bigot.
Sal. Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmundsbury:[515]
It is our safety, and we must embrace
This gentle offer of the perilous time.
Pem. Who brought that letter from the cardinal?
Sal. The Count Melun, a noble lord of France;[516]15
Whose private with me of the Dauphin's love[517]
Is much more general than these lines import.
Big. To-morrow morning let us meet him then.
Sal. Or rather then set forward; for 'twill be
Two long days' journey, lords, or ere we meet.[518]20
Enter the Bastard.