_Serv._ Sir, I dare not tell him so; [_Knocking again more fiercely._ My hair stands up in bristles when I see him; The dogs run into corners; the spay'd bitch Bays at his back, and howls[20]. _Mal._ Bid him enter, and go off thyself. [_Exit Serv._ SCENE _closes upon the company._ _Enter_ MELANAX, _an hour-glass in his hand, almost empty._ How dar'st thou interrupt my softer hours? By heaven, I'll ram thee in some knotted oak, Where thou shalt sigh, and groan to whistling winds, Upon the lonely plain. Or I'll confine thee deep in the red sea, groveling on the sands, Ten thousand billows rolling o'er thy head. _Mel._ Hoh, hoh, hoh! _Mal._ Laughest thou, malicious fiend? I'll ope my book of bloody characters, Shall rumple up thy tender airy limbs, Like parchment in a flame. _Mel._ Thou can'st not do it. Behold this hour-glass. _Mal._ Well, and what of that? _Mel._ Seest thou these ebbing sands? They run for thee, and when their race is run, Thy lungs, the bellows of thy mortal breath, Shall sink for ever down, and heave no more. _Mal._ What, resty, fiend? Nine years thou hast to serve. _Mel._ Not full nine minutes. _Mal._ Thou liest; look on thy bond, and view the date. _Mel._ Then, wilt thou stand to that without appeal? _Mal.._ I will, so help me heaven! _Mel._ So take thee hell. [_Gives him the bond._ There, fool; behold who lies, the devil, or thou? _Mal._ Ha! one-and-twenty years are shrunk to twelve! Do my eyes dazzle? _Mel._ No, they see too true: They dazzled once, I cast a mist before them, So what was figured twelve, to thy dull sight Appeared full twenty-one. _Mal._ There's equity in heaven for this, a cheat. _Mel._ Fool, thou hast quitted thy appeal to heaven, To stand to this. _Mal._ Then I am lost for ever! _Mel._ Thou art. _Mal._ O why was I not warned before? _Mel._ Yes, to repent; then thou hadst cheated me. _Mal._ Add but a day, but half a day, an hour: For sixty minutes, I'll forgive nine years. _Mel._ No, not a moment's thought beyond my time. Dispatch; 'tis much below me to attend For one poor single fare. _Mal._ So pitiless? But yet I may command thee, and I will: I love the Guise, even with my latest breath, Beyond my soul, and my lost hopes of heaven: I charge thee, by my short-lived power, disclose What fate attends my master. _Mel._ If he goes To council when he next is called, he dies. _Mal._ Who waits? _Enter Servant._ Go, give my lord my last adieu; Say, I shall never see his eyes again; But if he goes, when next he's called, to council, Bid him believe my latest breath, he dies.-- [_Exit Serv._ The sands run yet.--O do not shake the glass!-- [_Devil shakes the glass._ I shall be thine too soon!--Could I repent!-- Heaven's not confined to moments.--Mercy, mercy!