_Gui._ Pray, sir, give me leave. A moment's thought;--ha, but I sweat and tremble, My brain runs this and that way; it will not fix On aught but vengeance.--Malicorn, call the people. [_Shouts within._ But hark, they shout again: I'll on and meet them; Nay, head them to his palace, as my guards. Yet more, on such exalted causes borne, I'll wait him in his cabinet alone, And look him pale; while in his courts without, The people shout him dead with their alarms, And make his mistress tremble in his arms. [_Exeunt._ SCENE II. _Enter King and Council._ [_Shouts without._ _King._ What mean these shouts? _Abb._ I told your majesty, The sheriffs have puffed the populace with hopes Of their deliverer. [_Shouts again._ _King._ Hark! there rung a peal Like thunder: see, Alphonso, what's the cause. _Enter_ GRILLON. _Gril._ My lord, the Guise is come. _King._ Is't possible! ha, Grillon, said'st thou, come? _Gril._ Why droops the royal majesty? O sir! _King._ O villain, slave, wert thou my late-born heir, Given me by heaven, even when I lay a-dying-- But peace, thou festering thought, and hide thy wound;-- Where is he? _Gril._ With her majesty, your mother; She has taken chair, and he walks bowing by her, With thirty thousand rebels at his heels. _King._ What's to be done? No pall upon my spirit; But he that loves me best, and dares the most On this nice point of empire, let him speak. _Alph._ I would advise you, sir, to call him in, And kill him instantly upon the spot. _Abb._ I like Alphonso's counsel, short, sure work; Cut off the head, and let the body walk. _Enter_ QUEEN-MOTHER. _Qu. M._ Sir, the Guise waits. _King._ He enters on his fate. _Qu. M._ Not so,--forbear; the city is up in arms; Nor doubt, if, in their heat, you cut him off, That they will spare the royal majesty. Once, sir, let me advise, and rule your fury. _King._ You shall: I'll see him, and I'll spare him now. _Qu. M._ What will you say? _King._ I know not;-- Colonel Grillon, call the archers in, Double your guards, and strictly charge the Swiss Stand to their arms, receive him as a traitor. [_Exit_ GRILLON. My heart has set thee down, O Guise, in blood,-- Blood, mother, blood, ne'er to be blotted out. _Qu. M._ Yet you'll relent, when this hot fit is over. _King._ If I forgive him, may I ne'er be forgiven! No, if I tamely bear such insolence, What act of treason will the villains stop at? Seize me, they've sworn; imprison me is the next, Perhaps arraign me, and then doom me dead. But ere I suffer that, fall all together, Or rather, on their slaughtered heaps erect My throne, and then proclaim it for example. I'm born a monarch, which implies alone To wield the sceptre, and depend on none. [_Exeunt[13]._ ACT IV. SCENE I._--The Louvre._