Must shortly pay your tribute to the grave. Nor that we doubt your majesty hath cause To apprehend a danger; only 'tis wish'd, Those who inform'd you were examin'd strictly, And Plangus sent for to answer for himself. Slanders, like mists, still vanish at the sight Of innocents, who bring their lies to light. EPH. If an oration could have made him clear, No doubt my fears are vain, and we shall lie Still sleeping in security as great And lasting as Plangus and his accomplices Can wish upon us, nor wake till we are bound In the securest chains, death's fetters. That I am old is true, and Plangus knows it. He would have catch'd a cannon-bullet sooner Else 'tween his naked hands, than have provok'd My fury: but [old] age hath froze[n] me To an icy numbness: yet shall he know My veins have fire as well as his, and when Incens'd, my eyes shoot as much poison too. What you allege about his battle 'gainst the Argives As an excuse, it is a proof against him. Though thieves rob others, yet they fight themselves For those that rob, when strangers set on them, And all unite against a common enemy. Had Plangus' private interest not held Him to us, no doubt he'd [have] left us naked Of all defence; but an intestine fury, To see the Argives bear away the fruits Of all his labours, all his treasons, Shot him into despair, and made him play A game was almost lost, rather than give all o'er. Besides, that action hath endear'd him to the people; Gain'd him the soldiers' hearts with so great ease, The danger's nothing in respect o' th' rise He takes from hence to climb up to his ends. And for the virtue that hath gull'd us all, I'd blush to speak it, that a son of mine Should ever be so base to seek a cloak For what he doth, but that I have disclaim'd All my relations to him, and would adopt A cannibal sooner for a son than he. The evidence we have is what we wish were less, Then might I hug my Plangus, and he me; But since the Fates and his own ills deny That intercourse, what can remain, But that we should proceed to sentence Speedy as themselves, and stop the ill, which may Strike when 'tis night, or while 'tis call'd to-day? He knows his guilt too well, and hath denied To come, that so he might be justified: Once disobey'd as father, the next thing Will be rebellion to me as his king. SCENE VIII. _Enter_ LIBACER. RIN. As sure as death, this is one of the rogues That hath his roguery to act, and comes in like Something that hath brought news in th' latter end Of a play. Now shall we have some strange discovery-- How the rogue stares!