BEDFORD. O wondrous good! But wilt thou venter, Hodge? HODGE. Will I?— O noble Lord, I do accord, In anything I can, And do agree, to set thee free, Do fortune what she can. BEDFORD. Come, then, let’s change our apparel straight. CROMWELL. Go, Hodge; make haste, least they chance to call. HODGE. I warrant you I’ll fit him with a suit. [Exit Earl & Hodge.] CROMWELL. Heavens grant this policy doth take success, And that the Earl may safely scape away. And yet it grieves me for this simple wretch, For fear they should offer him violence: But of two evils, tis best to shun the greatest, And better is it that he lives in thrall, Than such a Noble Earl as he should fall. Their stubborn hearts, it may be, will relent, Since he is gone to whom their hate is bent.— My Lord, have you dispatched? [Enter Bedford like the Clown, and Hodge in his cloak and his Hat.] BEDFORD. How doost thou like us, Cromwell? is it well? CROMWELL. O, my Lord, excellent: Hodge, how doost feel thy self? HODGE. How do I feel my self? why, as a Noble man should do. O, how I feel honor come creeping on! My Nobility is wonderful melancholy: Is it not most Gentlemen like to be melancholy? CROMWELL. Yes, Hodge; now go sit down in his study, and take state upon thee. HODGE. I warrant you, my Lord; let me alone to take state upon me: but hark you, my Lord, do you feel nothing bite about you? BEDFORD. No, trust me, Hodge. HODGE. Aye, they know they want their pasture; it’s a strange thing of this vermine, they dare not meddle with Nobility. CROMWELL. Go, take thy place, Hodge; I’ll call them in.— [Hodge sits in the study, and Cromwell calls in the States.] All is done, enter and if you please. [Enter the States and Officers, with Halberts.] GOVERNOUR. What, have you won him? will he yield himself? CROMWELL. I have, an’t please you, and the quiet Earl Doth yield himself to be disposed by you. GOVERNOUR. Give him the money that we promised him; So let him go, whether it please himself. CROMWELL. My business, sir, lies unto Mantua, Please you to give me safe conduct thether. GOVERNOUR. Go and conduct him to the Mantua Port, And see him safe delivered presently. [Exit Cromwell and Bedford.] Go draw the curtains, let us see the Earl.— O, he is writing; stand apart awhile. HODGE. Fellow William, I am not as I have been: I went from you a Smith, I write to you as a Lord. I am, at this present writing, among the Polonian Sasiges. I do commend my Lordship to Raphe & to Roger, to Bridget & to Doritie, & so to all the youth of Putney. GOVERNOUR. Sure, these are the names of English Noblemen, Some of his special friends, to whom he writes: But stay, he doth address himself to sing. [Here he sings a song.] My Lord, I am glad you are so frolic and so blithe: Believe me, noble Lord, if you knew all, You’d change your merry vein to sudden sorrow.