[Count Pama crosses himself and falls on his knees.] C. Pama. O blessed saints and martyrs! Open, earth! And hide my recreant knighthood in thy gulf! Yet, mercy, Madam! for till this strange day Who e'er saw spinning wool, like village-maid, A royal scion? C. Wal. [kneeling]. My beloved mistress! Eliz. Ah! faithful friend! Rise, gentles, rise, for shame; Nay, blush not, gallant sir. You have seen, ere now, Kings' daughters do worse things than spinning wool, Yet never reddened. Speak your errand out. C. Pama. I from your father, Madam-- Eliz. Oh! I divine; And grieve that you so far have journeyed, sir, Upon a bootless quest. C. Pama. But hear me, Madam-- If you return with me (o'erwhelming honour! For such mean bodyguard too precious treasure) Your father offers to you half his wealth; And countless hosts, whose swift and loyal blades From traitorous grasp shall vindicate your crown. Eliz. Wealth? I have proved it, and have tossed it from me: I will not stoop again to load with clay. War? I have proved that too: should I turn loose On these poor sheep the wolf whose fangs have gored me, God's bolt would smite me dead. C. Pama. Madam, by his gray hairs he doth entreat you. Eliz. Alas! small comfort would they find in me! I am a stricken and most luckless deer, Whose bleeding track but draws the hounds of wrath Where'er I pause a moment. He has children Bred at his side, to nurse him in his age-- While I am but an alien and a changeling, Whom, ere my plastic sense could impress take Either of his feature or his voice, he lost. C. Pama. Is it so? Then pardon, Madam, but your father Must by a father's right command-- Eliz. Command! Ay, that's the phrase of the world: well--tell him, But tell him gently too--that child and father Are names, whose earthly sense I have forsworn, And know no more: I have a heavenly spouse, Whose service doth all other claims annul. C. Wal. Ah, lady, dearest lady, be but ruled! Your Saviour will be there as near as here. Eliz. What? Thou too, friend? Dost thou not know me better? Wouldst have me leave undone what I begin? [To Count Pama] My father took the cross, sir: so did I: As he would die at his post, so will I die: He is a warrior: ask him, should I leave This my safe fort, and well-proved vantage-ground, To roam on this world's flat and fenceless steppes? C. Pama. Pardon me, Madam, if my grosser wit Fail to conceive your sense. Eliz. It is not needed. Be but the mouthpiece to my father, sir; And tell him--for I would not anger him-- Tell him, I am content--say, happy--tell him I prove my kin by prayers for him, and masses For her who bore me. We shall meet on high. And say, his daughter is a mighty tree, From whose wide roots a thousand sapling suckers, Drink half their life; she dare not snap the threads, And let her offshoots wither. So farewell. Within the convent there, as mine own guests, You shall be fitly lodged. Come here no more.