_Hol._ In Charles? Rather believe in Pym! And here he comes in proof! Appeal to Pym! Say how unfair ... _Straf._ To Pym? I would say nothing! I would not look upon Pym's face again. _Lady Car._ Stay, let me have to think I pressed your hand! [STRAFFORD _and his_ Friends _go out._ (_Enter_ HAMPDEN _and_ VANE.) _Vane._ O Hampden, save the great misguided man! Plead Strafford's cause with Pym! I have remarked He moved no muscle when we all declaimed Against him: you had but to breathe--he turned Those kind calm eyes upon you. [_Enter_ PYM, _the_ Solicitor-General ST. JOHN, _the_ Managers _of the Trial,_ FIENNES, RUDYARD, _etc._ _Rud._ Horrible! Till now all hearts were with you: I withdraw For one. Too horrible! But we mistake Your purpose, Pym: you cannot snatch away The last spar from the drowning man. _Fien._ He talks With St. John of it--see, how quietly! [_To other_ Presbyterians.] You 'll join us? Strafford may deserve the worst: But this new course is monstrous. Vane, take heart! This Bill of his Attainder shall not have One true man's hand to it. _Vane._ Consider, Pym! Confront your Bill, your own Bill: what is it? You cannot catch the Earl on any charge,-- No man will say the law has hold of him On any charge; and therefore you resolve To take the general sense on his desert, As though no law existed, and we met To found one. You refer to Parliament To speak its thought upon the abortive mass Of half-borne-out assertions, dubious hints Hereafter to be cleared, distortions--ay, And wild inventions. Every man is saved The task of fixing any single charge On Strafford: he has but to see in him The enemy of England. _Pym._ A right scruple! I have heard some called England's enemy With less consideration. _Vane._ Pity me! Indeed you make me think I was your friend! I who have murdered Strafford, how remove That memory from me? _Pym._ I absolve you, Vane. Take you no care for aught that you have done! _Vane._ John Hampden, not this Bill! Reject this Bill! He staggers through the ordeal: let him go, Strew no fresh fire before him! Plead for us! When Strafford spoke, your eyes were thick with tears! _Hamp._ England speaks louder: who are we, to play The generous pardoner at her expense, Magnanimously waive advantages, And, if he conquer us, applaud his skill? _Vane._ He was your friend. _Pym._ I have heard that before. _Fien._ And England trusts you. _Hamp._ Shame be his, who turns The opportunity of serving her She trusts him with, to his own mean account-- Who would look nobly frank at her expense!