ROSAMUND. I am blithe and fain, Sire; and I loved thee never more than now. ALBOVINE. Nor ever I thee. Now I find thee mine, And now no daughter of mine enemy’s. ROSAMUND. No. Thou hast no enemy left on earth alive— No soul unslain that hates thee. ALBOVINE. That were much. What man may say it? and least of all may kings. ROSAMUND. What hast thou done that man should hate thee—man Or woman? ALBOVINE. Which of us may answer, Nought? ROSAMUND. Thou might’st have made me—me, my father’s child— Harlot and slave: thou hast made me wife and queen. ALBOVINE. Thee have I loved; ay, and myself in thee, Who hast made me more than king and lord, being thine. ROSAMUND. Courtesy sets on kings a goldener crown That sits upon them seemlier. ALBOVINE. Courtesy! Truth. Hark thee, boy, and let thy Hildegard Hearken. Is she, thy queen, a peer of mine? ALMACHILDES. She wears no crown but heaven’s about her head— No gold that was not born upon her brows Transfigures or disfigures them. She is not A peer of thine. ROSAMUND. He answers well. ALBOVINE. He answers Ill—as the spirit of shamelessness might speak. ALMACHILDES. Shameless are they that lie. I lie not. ALBOVINE. Boy, Tempt not the rod. ALMACHILDES. The rod that man may wield No man may fear: the slave who fears it is not Man. ALBOVINE. Art thou crazed with wine? ALMACHILDES. Am I thy king? ALBOVINE. My thrall thou knowest thou art not, or thy tongue Durst challenge not mine anger. ROSAMUND. Thrall and free, Woman and man, yea, queen and king, are born More wide apart than earth or hell and heaven. Sirs, let no wrangling breath distune the peace That shines and glows about us, and discerns A banquet from a battle. Thou, my lord, Hast bidden away the dust of death which fell Between us at thy bidding, and is now Nothing—a dream blown out at waking. Thou, My lord’s young chosen of warriors, be not wroth, Albeit thy wrath be noble, though my lord See fit to try my love as gold is tried By fire: it burns not thee. Strike hand in hand: Ye have done so after battle. ALBOVINE. Drink again. I pledge thee, boy.