_Lady Car_ Me! Follow me, Strafford, and be saved! The King? [_To the_ KING.] Well--as you ordered, they are ranged without, The convoy ... [_seeing the_ KING'S _state._] [_To_ STRAFFORD.] You know all, then! Why, I thought It looked best that the King should save you,--Charles Alone; 't is a shame that you should owe me aught. Or no, not shame! Strafford, you 'll not feel shame At being saved by me? _Hol._ All true! Oh Strafford, She saves you! all her deed! this lady's deed! And is the boat in readiness? You, friend, Are Billingsley, no doubt. Speak to her, Strafford! See how she trembles, waiting for your voice! The world 's to learn its bravest story yet. _Lady Car._ Talk afterward! Long nights in France enough, To sit beneath the vines and talk of home. _Straf._ You love me, child? Ah, Strafford can be loved As well as Vane! I could escape, then? _Lady Car._ Haste! Advance the torches, Bryan! _Straf._ I will die. They call me proud: but England had no right, When she encountered me--her strength to mine-- To find the chosen foe a craven. Girl, I fought her to the utterance, I fell, I am hers now, and I will die. Beside, The lookers-on! Eliot is all about This place, with his most uncomplaining brow. _Lady Car._ Strafford! _Straf._ I think if you could know how much I love you, you would be repaid, my friend! _Lady Car._ Then, for my sake! _Straf._ Even for your sweet sake, I stay. _Hol._ For _their_ sake! _Straf._ To bequeath a stain? Leave me! Girl, humor me and let me die! _Lady Car._ Bid him escape--wake, King! Bid him escape! _Straf._ True, I will go! Die and forsake the King? I 'll not draw back from the last service. _Lady Car._ Strafford! _Straf._ And, after all, what is disgrace to me? Let us come, child! That it should end this way! Lead then! but I feel strangely: it was not To end this way. _Lady Car._ Lean--lean on me! _Straf._ My King! Oh, had he trusted me--his friend of friends! _Lady Car._ I can support him, Hollis! _Straf._ Not this way! This gate--I dreamed of it, this very gate. _Lady Car._ It opens on the river: our good boat Is moored below, our friends are there. _Straf._ The same: Only with something ominous and dark, Fatal, inevitable. _Lady Car._ Strafford! Strafford! _Straf._ Not by this gate! I feel what will be there! I dreamed of it, I tell you: touch it not! _Lady Car._ To save the King,--Strafford, to save the King!