_Gril._ My lord, I know not what to answer you; I'm friends,--and I am not,--and so farewell. [_Exit._ _King._ You have your orders; yet before you go, Take this embrace: I court you for my friend, Though Grillon would not. _Gui._ I thank you on my knees; And still, while life shall last, will take strict care To justify my loyalty to your person. [_Exit._ _Qu. M._ Excellent loyalty, to lock you up! _King._ I see even to the bottom of his soul; And, madam, I must say the Guise has beauties, But they are set in night, and foul design: He was my friend when young, and might be still. _Ab._ Marked you his hollow accents at the parting? _Qu. M._ Graves in his smiles. _King._ Death in his bloodless hands.-- O Marmoutiere! now I will haste to meet thee: The face of beauty, on this rising horror, Looks like the midnight moon upon a murder; It gilds the dark design that stays for fate, And drives the shades, that thicken, from the state. [_Exuent._ ACT III. SCENE I. _Enter_ GRILLON _and_ POLIN._ _Gril._ Have then this pious Council of Sixteen Scented your late discovery of the plot? _Pol._ Not as from me; for still I kennel with them. And bark as loud as the most deep-mouthed traitor, Against the king, his government, and laws; Whereon immediately there runs a cry Of,--Seize him on the next procession! seize him. And clap the Chilperick in a monastery! Thus it was fixt, as I before discovered; But when, against his custom, they perceived The king absented, strait the rebels met, And roared,--they were undone. _Gril._ O, 'tis like them; 'Tis like their mongrel souls: flesh them with fortune, And they will worry royalty to death; But if some crabbed virtue turn and pinch them, Mark me, they'll run, and yelp, and clap their tails, Like curs, betwixt their legs, and howl for mercy. _Pol._ But Malicorn, sagacious on the point, Cried,--Call the sheriffs, and bid them arm their bands; Add yet to this, to raise you above hope, The Guise, my master, will be here to-day.-- For on bare guess of what has been revealed, He winged a messenger to give him notice; Yet, spite of all this factor of the fiends Could urge, they slunk their heads, like hinds in storms. But see, they come. _Enter Sheriffs, with the Populace._ _Gril._ Away, I'll have amongst them; Fly to the king, warn him of Guise's coming, That he may strait despatch his strict commands To stop him. [_Exit_ POLIN. _1 Sher._ Nay, this is colonel Grillon, The blunderbuss o'the court; away, away, He carries ammunition in his face. _Gril._ Hark you, my friends, if you are not in haste, Because you are the pillars of the city, I would inform you of a general ruin. _2 Sher._ Ruin to the city! marry, heaven forbid!