PANDULPH. Your mind is all as youthful as your blood. Now hear me speak with a prophetic spirit; For even the breath of what I mean to speak Shall blow each dust, each straw, each little rub, Out of the path which shall directly lead Thy foot to England’s throne; and therefore mark. John hath seiz’d Arthur; and it cannot be That, whiles warm life plays in that infant’s veins, The misplac’d John should entertain an hour, One minute, nay, one quiet breath of rest. A sceptre snatch’d with an unruly hand Must be boisterously maintain’d as gain’d. And he that stands upon a slipp’ry place Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up. That John may stand, then, Arthur needs must fall. So be it, for it cannot be but so. LOUIS. But what shall I gain by young Arthur’s fall? PANDULPH. You, in the right of Lady Blanche your wife, May then make all the claim that Arthur did. LOUIS. And lose it, life and all, as Arthur did. PANDULPH. How green you are and fresh in this old world! John lays you plots; the times conspire with you; For he that steeps his safety in true blood Shall find but bloody safety and untrue. This act so evilly borne shall cool the hearts Of all his people, and freeze up their zeal, That none so small advantage shall step forth To check his reign, but they will cherish it; No natural exhalation in the sky, No scope of nature, no distemper’d day, No common wind, no customed event, But they will pluck away his natural cause And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs, Abortives, presages, and tongues of heaven, Plainly denouncing vengeance upon John. LOUIS. Maybe he will not touch young Arthur’s life, But hold himself safe in his prisonment. PANDULPH. O, sir, when he shall hear of your approach, If that young Arthur be not gone already, Even at that news he dies; and then the hearts Of all his people shall revolt from him, And kiss the lips of unacquainted change, And pick strong matter of revolt and wrath Out of the bloody fingers’ ends of John. Methinks I see this hurly all on foot; And, O, what better matter breeds for you Than I have nam’d! The bastard Faulconbridge Is now in England ransacking the church, Offending charity. If but a dozen French Were there in arms, they would be as a call To train ten thousand English to their side, Or as a little snow, tumbled about, Anon becomes a mountain. O noble Dauphin, Go with me to the King. ’Tis wonderful What may be wrought out of their discontent, Now that their souls are topful of offence. For England go. I will whet on the King. LOUIS. Strong reasons makes strong actions. Let us go. If you say ay, the King will not say no. [_Exeunt._] ACT IV SCENE I. Northampton. A Room in the Castle. Enter Hubert and two Executioners. HUBERT. Heat me these irons hot; and look thou stand Within the arras. When I strike my foot Upon the bosom of the ground, rush forth And bind the boy which you shall find with me Fast to the chair. Be heedful. Hence, and watch.