_Enter_ POSTBOY, _dragging in_ JARVIS: HONEYWOOD _entering soon after_. POSTBOY. Ay, master, we have him fast enough. Here is the incendiary dog. I'm entitled to the reward; I'll take my oath I saw him ask for the money at the bar, and then run for it. HONEYW. Come, bring him along. Let us see him. Let him learn to blush for his crimes. (_Discovering his mistake._) Death! what's here?—Jarvis, Leontine, Olivia! What can all this mean? _Jarvis._ Why, I'll tell you what it means: that I was an old fool, and that you are my master—that's all. HONEYW. Confusion. LEONT. Yes, sir; I find you have kept your word with me. After such baseness, I wonder how you can venture to see the man you have injured. HONEYW. My dear Leontine, by my life, my honour— LEONT. Peace, peace, for shame; and do not continue to aggravate baseness by hypocrisy. I know you, sir, I know you. HONEYW. Why, won't you hear me? By all that's just, I knew not— LEONT. Hear you, sir, to what purpose? I now see through all your low arts; your ever complying with every opinion; your never refusing any request; your friendship is as common as a prostitute's favours, and as fallacious; all these, sir, have long been contemptible to the world, and are now perfectly so to me. HONEYW. Ha! contemptible to the world! That reaches me. _Aside._ LEONT. All the seeming sincerity of your professions, I now find, were only allurements to betray; and all your seeming regret for their consequences, only calculated to cover the cowardice of your heart. Draw, villain! [Illustration: HONEYW.—"_Madam, you seem at least calm enough to hear reason._"—_p._ 314. ] _Enter_ CROAKER _out of breath_. CROAKER. Where is the villain? Where is the incendiary! (_Seizing the_ POSTBOY.) Hold him fast, the dog; he has the gallows in his face. Come, you dog, confess; confess all, and hang yourself. POSTBOY. Zounds, master! what do you throttle me for? CROAKER. (_beating him_). Dog, do you resist? do you resist? POSTBOY. Zounds, master! I'm not he; there's the man that we thought was the rogue, and turns out to be one of the company. CROAKER. How! HONEYW. Mr. Croaker, we have all been under a strange mistake here: I find there is nobody guilty; it was all an error; entirely an error of our own. CROAKER. And I say, sir, that you're in an error: for there's guilt, and double guilt; a plot, a damn'd jesuitical, pestilential plot; and I must have proof of it. HONEYW. Do but hear me. CROAKER. What! you intend to bring 'em off, I suppose? I'll hear nothing. HONEYW. Madam, you seem at least calm enough to hear reason. OLIVIA. Excuse me. HONEYW. Good Jarvis, let me then explain it to you. JARVIS. What signifies explanation, when the thing is done? HONEYW. Will nobody hear me? Was there ever such a set, so blinded by passion and prejudice!—(_To the_ POSTBOY). My good friend, I believe you'll be surprised when I assure you——