_Franklin._ I fear me he was murdered in this house 400 And carried to the fields; for from that place Backwards and forwards may you see The print of many feet within the snow. And look about this chamber where we are, And you shall find part of his guiltless blood; For in his slipshoe did I find some rushes, Which argueth he was murdered in this room. _Mayor._ Look in the place where he was wont to sit. See, see! his blood! it is too manifest. _Alice._ It is a cup of wine that Michael shed. 410 _Michael._ Ay, truly. _Franklin._ It is his blood, which, strumpet, thou hast shed. But if I live, thou and thy ’complices Which have conspired and wrought his death shall rue it. _Alice._ Ah, Master Franklin, God and heaven can tell I loved him more than all the world beside. But bring me to him, let me see his body. _Franklin._ Bring that villain and Mosbie’s sister too; And one of you go to the Flower-de-luce, And seek for Mosbie, and apprehend him too. 420 [_Exeunt._ V. i. 58. _Hilts_ is common for ‘hilt,’ _e.g._ in Malory and Shakespeare; ‘_both his hilts_’ is apparently an extension of this use. _Locked_ I take to mean ‘crossed or clashed swords,’ with his adversary. V. i. 105. _game or two at tables_: a sort of backgammon. V. i. 155. Cf. the concluding lines of Ovid’s _Elegy_, already alluded to, i. 60. V. i. 338. ‘Cecily Pounders did help to bear the dead corpse out into a meadow there, commonly called the Amery Croft.’--_Wardmote Book._ SCENE II _An obscure street in London._ _Here enters Shakebag solus._ _Shakebag._ The widow Chambly in her husband’s days I kept; And now he’s dead, she is grown so stout She will not know her old companions. I came thither, thinking to have had harbour As I was wont, And she was ready to thrust me out at doors; But whether she would or no, I got me up, And as she followed me, I spurned her down the stairs, And broke her neck, and cut her tapster’s throat, And now I am going to fling them in the Thames. I have the gold; what care I though it be known! I’ll cross the water and take sanctuary. [_Exit._ SCENE III _Arden’s House at Feversham._ _Here enters the Mayor, Mosbie, Alice, Franklin, Michael, and Susan._ _Mayor._ See, Mistress Arden, where your husband lies; Confess this foul fault and be penitent. _Alice._ Arden, sweet husband, what shall I say? The more I sound his name, the more he bleeds; This blood condemns me, and in gushing forth Speaks as it falls, and asks me why I did it. Forgive me, Arden: I repent me now, And, would my death save thine, thou should’st not die. Rise up, sweet Arden, and enjoy thy love, And frown not on me when we meet in heaven: 10 In heaven I’ll love thee, though on earth I did not. _Mayor._ Say, Mosbie, what made thee murder him? _Franklin._ Study not for an answer; look not down: His purse and girdle found at thy bed’s head Witness sufficiently thou didst the deed; It bootless is to swear thou didst it not.