And the gross flattery of a gaping crowd,

Envious who first should catch, and first applaud
The stuff or royal nonsense: when I spoke,
My honest, homely words were carped and censured,
For want of courtly style: related actions,
Though modestly reported, passed for boasts:
Secure of merit, if I asked reward,

Thy hungry minions thought their rights invaded,
And the bread snatched from pimps and parasites.
Henriquez answered, with a ready lie,

To save his king's, the boon was begged before.

Seb. What say'st thou of Henriquez? Now, by heaven, Thou mov'st me more by barely naming him,

Than all thy foul, unmannered, scurril taunts.

Dor. And therefore 'twas to gall thee that I named him;

That thing, that nothing, but a cringe and smile;
That woman, but more daubed; or if a man,

Corrupted to a woman; thy man-mistress.

Seb. All false as hell or thou.

Dor. Yes; full as false

As that I served thee fifteen hard campaigns,
And pitched thy standard in these foreign fields:
By me thy greatness grew; thy years grew with it
But thy ingratitude outgrew them both.

Seb. I see to what thou tend'st; but tell me first,
If those great acts were done alone for me:
If love produced not some, and pride the rest?
Dor. Why, love does all that's nob.e here below:
But all th' advantage of that love was thine:
For, coming fraughted back, in either hand
With palm and olive, victory and peace,

I was indeed prepared to ask my own
(For Violante's vows were mine before) :
Thy malice had prevention, ere I spoke ;
And asked me Violante for Henriquez.

Seb. I meant thee a reward of greater worth.

Dor. Where justice wanted, could reward be hoped ? Could the robbed passenger expect a bounty

From those rapacious hands who stripped him first?
Seb. He had my promise ere I knew thy love.
Dor. My services deserved thou shouldst revoke it.
Seb. Thy insolence had cancelled all thy service;
To violate my laws, even in my court,

Sacred to peace, and safe from all affronts;

Ev'n to my face, and done in my despite,
Under the wing of awful majesty

To strike the man I loved!

Dor. Ev'n in the face of heaven, a place more sacred, Would I have struck the man who, prompt by power,

Would seize my right, and rob me of my love:
But, for a blow provoked by thy injustice,
The hasty product of a just despair,

When he refused to meet me in the field,

That thou shouldst make a coward's cause thy own!

Seb. He durst: nay, more, desired and begged with

tears,

To meet thy challenge fairly: 'twas thy fault

To make it public; but my duty, then

To interpose, on pain of my displeasure,
Betwixt your swords.

Dor. On pain of infamy

He should have disobeyed.

Seb. Th' indignity thou didst was meant to me:

Thy gloomy eyes were cast on me with scorn,

As who should say, the blow was there intended;
But that thou didst not dare to lift thy hands

Against anointed power: so was I forced

To do a sovereign justice to myself,

And spurn thee from my presence.

Dor. Thou hast dared

To tell me what I durst not tell myself:

I durst not think that I was spurned, and live;
And live to hear it boasted to my face.

All my long avarice of honour lost,

Heaped up in youth, and hoarded up for age:

Has Honour's fountain then sucked back the stream!
He has; and hooting boys may dry-shod pass,
And gather pebbles from the naked ford.
Give me my love, my honour; give them back—
Give me revenge, while I have breath to ask it.

Seb. Now, by this honoured order which I wear, More gladly would I give than thou dar'st ask it. Nor shall the sacred character of king

Be urged to shield me from thy bold appeal.
If I have injured thee, that makes us equal:
The wrong,
if done, debased me down to thee:
But thou hast charged me with ingratitude;
Hast thou not charged me? Speak.

Dor. Thou know'st I have.

If thou disown'st that imputation, draw,

And prove my charge a lie.

Seb. No; to disprove that lie, I must not draw:

Be conscious to thy worth, and tell thy soul
What thou hast done this day in my defence:
To fight thee, after this, what were it else

Than owning that ingratitude thou urgest?
That isthmus stands between two rushing seas;
Which, mounting, view each other from afar,
And strive in vain to meet.

Dor. I'll cut that isthmus:

Thou know'st I meant not to preserve thy life,

But to reprieve it, for my own revenge.

I saved thee out of honourable malice:

Now draw; I should be loath to think thou dar'st not:
Beware of such another vile excuse.

Seb. Oh, patience, Heaven!

Dor. Beware of patience too;

That's a suspicious word: it had been proper,
Before thy foot had spurned me; now 'tis base:
Yet, to disarm thee of thy last defence,

I have thy oath for my security:

The only boon I begged was this fair combat:

Fight, or be perjured now; that's all thy choice.

Seb. Now can I thank thee as thou wouldst be thanked:

Never was vow of honour better paid,

If my true sword but hold, than this shall be.

[Drawing.

The sprightly bridegroom, on his wedding-night,
More gladly enters not the lists of love.
Why, 'tis enjoyment to be summoned thus.
Go; bear my message to Henriquez' ghost;

And say his master and his friend revenged him.
Dor. His ghost! then is my hated rival dead?
Seb. The question is beside our present purpose;

Thou seest me ready; we delay too long.

Dor. A minute is not much in either's life, When there's but one betwixt us; throw it in, And give it him of us who is to fall.

Seb. He's dead: make haste, and thou may'st yet o'er

take him.

Dor. When I was hasty, thou delay'dst me longer.

I pr'ythee, let me hedge one moment more

Into thy promise: for thy life preserved,

Be kind; and tell me how that rival died,
Whose death, next thine, I wished.

Seb. If it would please thee, thou shouldst never know. But thou, like jealousy, inquir'st a truth,

Which found, will torture thee; he died in fight:
Fought next my person; as in concert fought:
Kept pace for pace, and blow for every blow;
Save when he heaved his shield in my defence,
And on his naked side received my wound:
Then, when he could no more, he fell at once,
But rolled his falling body 'cross their way,
And made a bulwark of it for his prince.

Dor. I never can forgive him such a death!

Seb. I prophesied thy proud soul could not bear it.
Now, judge thyself, who best deserved my love.

I knew you both; and, durst I say, as Heav'n
Foreknew among the shining angel host

Who should stand firm, who fall.

Dor. Had he been tempted so, so had he fall'n; And so had I been favoured, had I stood.

Seb. What had been, is unknown; what is, appears ;

Confess he justly was preferred to thee.

Dor. Had I been born with his indulgent stars,
My fortune had been his, and his been mine.
Oh, worse than hell! what glory have I lost,
And what has he acquired by such a death!
I should have fallen by Sebastian's side;