BIRON

My deer friends D'Avuergne and Laffin, We need no conjurations to conceal: Our close intendments, to advance our states Even with our merits; which are now neclected; Since Britain is reduced, and breathless war Hath sheathed his sword, and wrapped his Ensigns up; The King hath now no more use of my valour, And therefore I shall now no more enjoy The credit that my service held with him; My service that hath driven through all extremes, Through tempests, droughts, and through the deepest floods; Winter's of shot: and over rocks so high That birds could scarce aspire their ridgy tops; The world is quite inverted: virtue thrown At Vices feet: and sensual peace confounds, Valour, and cowardice: Fame, and Infamy; The rude and terrible age is turned again: When the thick air hid heaven, and all the stars, Were drowned in humour, tough, and hard to peirse, When the read Sun held not his fix place; Kept not his certain course, his rise and set Nor yet distinguished with his definite bounds; Nor in his firm conversions, were discerned The fruitful distances of time and place, In the well varied seasons of the year; When th'incomposd incursions of floods Wasted and eat the earth; and all things showed Wild and disordered: nought was worse then now; We must reform and have a new creation Of State and government; and on our Chaos Will I fit brooding up another world. I who through all the dangers that can siege The life of man, have forcest my glorious way To the repairing of my countries ruins, Will ruin it again, to readvance it; Roman Camyllus, safte the State of Room With far less merit, then Byron hath France; And how short of this is my recompense. The king shall know, I will have better price Set on my services; in spite of whom I will proclaim and ring my discontents Into the farthest ear of all the world. My Princely friend, Enough of these eruptions; our graven Councillor Well knows that great affairs will not be forged But upon Anvils that are linde with wool; We must ascend to our intentions top Like Clouds that be not seen till they be up? Dear friend, we must not be more true to kings, Then Kings are to their subjects, there are schools, Now broken open in all parts of the world, First founded in ingenious Italy, Where some conclusions of estate are held, That for a day preserve a Prince, and ever, Destroy him after: from thence men are taught, To glide into degrees of height by craft, And then lock in themselves by villainy: But God, who knows kings are not made by art, But right of Nature, nor by treachery propped, But simple virtue, once let fallen from heaven, A branch of that green tree, whose root is yet Fast fixed above the stars: which sacred branch, We well may liken to that Laurel spray, That from the heavenly Eagles golden seres, Fell in the lap of great Augustus wife: Which spray once set, grew up into a tree, Whereof were Girlands made, and Emperor's, Had their estates and foreheads crowned with them: And as the arms of that tree did decay, The raze of great Augustus wore away, Nero being last of that imperial line, The tree and Emperor together died. Religion is a branch, first set and blessed By heavens high finger in the hearts of kings, Which whilelome grew into a goodly tree, Bright Angels sat and sung upon the twigs, And royal branches for the heads of Kings, Were twisted of them but since S uint-ey'd nuye: And pale suspicion, dashed the heads of kingdoms, One gainst another: two abhorred twins, With two foul tails: stern War and Liberty, Entered the world. The tree that grew from heaven. Is overrun with moss; the cheerful music, That heretofore hath sounded out of it, Begins to cease; and as she casts her leaves, (By small degrees) the kingdoms of the earth Decline and wither: and look whensoever That the pure sap in her, is dried up quite; The lamp of all authority goes out, And all the blaze of Princes is extinkt; Thus as the Poet sends a messenger Out to the stage, to show the sum of all, That follows after: so are Kings revolts, And playing both ways with religion, Forerunners of afflictions imminent, Which (Like a Chorus) subjects must lament. Thanks Princely friend, And whatsoever good shall come of me, Pursued by all the Catholic Princes aids With whom I join, and whose whole states proposed, To win my valour, promise me a throne: All shall be equal with my self; thine own. Attend him in. Welcome D'escuris, In what health rests our royal Sovereign. From whence hears he that any storms are rising? This is strange, That when the enemy is t'attempt his frontiers, He calls me from the frontiers; does he think, It is and Actium worthy of my valour To turn my back, to and approaching foe? I will not come I swear: Tell him that I besecch his Majesty, To pardon my repair till th'end be known Of all these levies now in Italy. By heaven it is not fit: if all my service Makes me know any thing: beseech him therefore, To trust my judgement in these doubtful charges, Since in assured assaults it hath not failed him. Gods precious, you're importunate passed measure, And (I know) further, then your charge extends, I'll satisfy his highness, let that serve; For by this flesh and blood, you shall not bear, Any reply to him, but this from me. I will not go, For now I see th'instructions lately sent me, That something is discovered, are too true, And my head rules none of those neighbour Nobles, That every Purs vant brings beneath the axe: If they bring me out, they shall see isle hatch Like to the Blackthorn, that puts forth his leaf, Not with the golden fawnings of the Sun, But sharpest showers of hail, and blackest frosts: Blows, batteries, breaches, showers of steel and blood, Must be his downright messengers for me, And not the misling breath of policy: He, he himself, made passage to his Crown Through no more armies, battles, massacres, Then I will ask him to arrive at me; He takes on him, my executions, And on the demolitions, that this arm, Hath shaken out of forts and Citadels, Hath he advanced the Trophies of his valour; Where I, in those assumptions may scorn, And speak contemptuously of all the world, For any equal yet, I ever found; And in my rising, not the Syrian Star That in the Lyons mouth, undaunted shines, And makes his brave ascension with the Sun, Was of the Egyptians, with more zeal beheld, And made a rule to know the circuit And compass of the year; then I was held When I appeared from battle; the whole sphere, And full sustainer of the state we bear; I have Alcides-like gone under the earth And on these shoulders born the weight of France: And (for the Fortune's of the thankless King) My father (all know) set him in his throne, And if he urge me, I may pluck him out. Enter Mess: Another Pursuivant? and one so quick? He takes next course with me, to make him stay: But, let him in, let's here what he importunes. Enter Janin. No other tooch me: say how fares the King? Still on that hante? Sir, if my loyalty, stick in him no faster But that the light breath of report may lose it, (So I rest still unmoved) let him be shaken. I rely On no men back nor belly; but the King Must think that merit, by ingratitude cracked, Requires a firmer sementing then words. And he shall find it a much harder work To solder broken hearts then shiuerd glasses. I fly with no such aim, nor am opposed, Against my Sovereign; but the worthy height I have wrought by my service, I will hold, Which if I come away, I cannot do; For if the enemy should invade the Frontier, Whose charge to guard, is mine, with any spoil, (Although the King in placing of another Might well excuse me) Yet all foreign Kings That can take note of no such secret quittance, Will lay the weakness here, upon my wants; And therefore my abided is resolute. Who shall infringe it? I know, all the Court, Have better apprehension of my valour; Then that they dare lay violent hands on me; If I have only means to draw this sword, I shall have pour enough to set me free, From seizure, by my proudest enemy. Exit. I must beseech your Majesties excuse, That (Ielouse of mine honour) I have used, Some of mine own commandment in my stay, And came not with your heighness soonest summons. Be what port it will, At which your will, will make me be arrived, I am not come to justify my self, To ask you pardon nor accuse my friends, Being friend and worthy fautor of my self, I am no foe of yours, nor no empayrer, Since he can no way worthily maintain His Princes honour that neglects his own: And if your will have been to my true reason, (Maintaining still the truth of loyalty) A check to my free nature and mine honour, And that on your free justice I presum,worser To cross your will a little, I conceine, You will not think this forfeit worth my head; May this right hand be thunder to my breast, If I stand guilty of the slenderest fact, Wherein the left of those two can be proved, For could my tender conscience but have touched, At any such unnatural relapse; I would not with this confidence have run, Thus headlong in the furnace of a wrath, Blown, and thrice kindled: having way enough, In my election both to shun and sleight it. You must then have used. A power beyond my knowledge, and a will, Beyond your justice. For a little stay More then I used would hardly have been worthy, Of such and open expedition; In which to all the censures of the world, My faith and Innocence had been foully foiled; Which (I protest) by heavens bright witnesses That shine far, far, from mixture with our fears. Retain as perfect roundness as their spheres; I my Lord if I may make the match. The Duke Espernon and my self will play, With you and Count Soissons ; How Like you my arrival? Well I must bear it now, though but with th'head, The shoulders bearing nothing. Oh the most base fruits of a settled peace! In men, I mean; worse then their dirty fields, Which they manure much better themselves: For them they plant, and sow, and ere they grow, Weedy, and choked with thorns, they grub and proyne, And make them better, then when cruel war, Frighted from thence the sweaty labourer: But men themselves, in steed of bearing fruits, Grow rude, and foggy, overgrown with weeds, Their spirits, and freedoms smootherd in their ease; And as their tyrants and their ministers, Grow wild in prosecution of their lustest, So they grow prostitute, and lie (Like whores) Down and take up, to their abhorred dishonours: The friendless may be injured and oppressed; The guiltless led to slaughter, the deserver Given to the beggar; right be wholly wronged, And wrong be only honoured; till the strings Of every men heart, crack; and who will stir, To tell authority, that it does err. All men cling to it, though they see their bloods In their most deer associates and Allies, Poured into kennels by it: and who dares But look well in the breast, whom that impairs? How all the Court now looks askew on me? Go by without saluting, shun my sighed, Which (Like a march sun) agues breeds in them, From whence of late, 'twas health to have a beam. Yet here's one views me, and I think will speak My Lord, be sure the King cannot complain Of any thing in me, but my true service, Which in so many dangers of my death, May so approve my spotless loyalty; That those quite opposite horrors you assure, Must look out of his own ingratitude; Or the malignant envies of my foes, Who pour me out in such a Styg and flood, To drown me in my self, since their desert Are far from such a deluge; and in me Hid Like so many rivers in the Sea. What says the honest captain of my guard? 'Tis welcome then: See what thou hast brought, He wills us to retire our selves my Lord, And makes as if it were almost too late, What says my captain; shall we go or no? I pray the why? Why, dost thou think, my coming here hath brought me To such and unrecoverable danger? All these together are indeed oh tentfull, Which by another Like, I can confirm: The matchless Earl of Essex who some make, (In their most sure divinings of my death) A parallel with me in life and fortune, Had one horse likewise that the very hour, He suffered death, (being well the night before) Died in his pasture. Noble happy beasts, That die, not having to their wills to live: They use no deprecations, nor complaints. Nor suit for mercy: amongst them the Lion, Serves not the Lion; nor the horse the horse, As man serves man: when men show most their spirits, In valour and their utmost dares to do; They are compared to Lions, Wolves, and Boars, But by conversion; None will say a Lion, Fights as he had the Spirrit of a man. Let me then in my danger now give cause, For all men to begin that Simile. For all my huge engagement, I provide me, This short sword only; which if I have time, To show my apprehendor, he shall use, Power of ten Lions if I get not lose. A good safe fight believe me; Other war Thirsts blood, and wounds, and his thirst quenched, is thankless; Some idle talk. For Courtship sake, you know does not amiss. That you shall, I cast away a carded now, makes me think, Of the deceased worthy King of Spain. The King of hearts (my Lord) Whose name yields well the memory of that King, Who was indeed the worthy King of hearts, And had, both of his subjects hearts, and strangers, Much more then all the Kings of Christendom. He won them chiefly, With his so general Piety and Justice: And as the little, yet great Macedon, Was said with his humane philosophy, To teach the rapeful Hyrcans, marriage; And bring the barbarous Sogdians, to nourish, Not kill their aged Parents; as before, the incestuous Persians to reverence Their mother's, not to use them as their wives; The Indians to adore the Grecian Gods, The Scythians to inter, not eat their Parents; So he, with his divine Philosophy, (Which I may call his, since he chiefly used it) In Turkey, India, and through all the world, Expelled profane idolatry; and from earth, Raised temples to the highest: whom with the word, He could not win, he justly put to sword, It Religion, And her full propagation that he sought; If gold had been his end, it had been hoarded, When he had fetched it in so many fleets: Which he spent not on Median Luxury, Banquets, and women; Calidonian wine, Nor deer Hyrcanian fish but employed it, To propagate his Empire; and his Empire Desired t'extend so, that he might withal, Extend Religion through it, and all nations, Reduce to one firm constitution, Of Piety, Justice, and one public weal; To which end he made all his matchless subjects Make tents their castles, and their garrisons; True Catholics contrimen; and their allies, Heretics, strangers, and their enemies. There was in him the magnanimity. Is't so? Play, pray you play, Good my Lord. This nail is driven already passed the head, You much have ouerchargd, and honest man: And I beseech you yield my Inocence justice, (But with my single valour) gainst them all, That thus have poisoned your opinion of me, And let me take my vengeance by my sword: For I protest, I never thought and Actium, More then my tongue hath uttered. Kings hate to hear what they command men speak, Ask life, and to desert of death you yield. Where Medicines loath, it yrcks men to be healed, Me to resign my sword? what king is he, Hath used it better for the realm then I? My sword, that all the wars within the length, Breadth and the whole dimensions of great France, Hath sheathd betwixt his hilt and horrid point? And fixed you all in such a flourishing Peace? My sword that never enemy could enforce, Bereft me by my friends? Now, good my Lord, Beseech the King, I may resign my sword, To his hand only. The golden chamber? where the greatest Kings Have thought them honoured to receive a place: And I have had it; am I come to stand In rank and habit here of men arraigned, Where I have sat assistant, and been honoured, With glorious title of the chiefest virtuous, Where the Kings chief Solicitor hath said, There was in France, no man that ever lived, Whose parts were worth my imitation; That, but mine own worth; I could imitate none: And that I made my self inimitable, To all that could come after; whom this Court Hath seen to fit upon the Flower de Lice In recompense of my renowned service. Must I be sat on now, by petty Judges? These Scarlet robes, that come to fit and fight Against my life; dsmay my valour more, Then all the bloody Cassocks Spain hath brought To field against it. All this (my Lord) I answer, and deny: And first for Picoté ; he was my prisoner, And therefore I might well confer with him: But that our conference tended to the Archduke, Is nothing so; I only did employ him To Captain La Fortune, for the reduction Of Seurre, to the service of the King. Who used such speedy diligence therein, That shortly 'twas assut'd his Majesty, With mine own; Wishing to live no longer, being denied, With such suspicion of me, and set will, To rack my furious humour into blood. And for two months space, I did speak, and wright, More then I ought; but have done ever well, And therefore your informers have been false. And (with intent to tyrani e) subornd. They must be lings then, and men corrupted. I hold La Fin, And honoured Gentleman, my friend and kinsman. I know it cannot be. Is he so near? And kept so close from me? can all the world, Make him a treacher. Enter La Fin. Oh all ye virtuous powers, in earth and heaven, That have not put on hellish flesh and blood, From whence these monstrous issues are produced, That cannot bear in execrable concord, And one prodigious subject; contraries; Nor (as the I'll that of the world admire) Is severed from the world) can cut your selves From the consent and sacred hermonie Of life, yet live; of honour, yet be honoured; As this extravagant, and errant roge, From all your fair Decorums, and joust laws, Finds pour to do: and Like a loathsome wen, Sticks to the face of nature, and this Court; Thicken this air, and turn your plaguy rage, Into a shape as dismal as his sin. And with some equal horror tear him of From sighed and memory: let not such a court, To whose fame all the Kings of Christendom, Now laid their ears; so crack her royal Trump, As to found through it, that here vaunted justice Was God in such and incest: is it justice To tempt, and witch a man, to break the law, And by that witch condemn him? let me draw Poison into me with this cursed air, If he bewitched me, and transformed me not; He bit me by the ear, and made me drink Enchanted waters; let me see and Image That uttered these distinct words; Thou shalt die, Oh wicked King ; and if the devil gave him Such pour upon and Image; upon me How might he tyrannise? that by his vows And oaths so Stygian, had my Nerves and will, In more awe then his own: what man is he That is so high, but he would higher be? So roundly sighted, but he may be found, To have a blind side, which by craft, pursued, Confederacy, and simply trusted treason, May wrest him passed his Angel, and his reason? Sometimes, the very Gloss in any thing, Will seem a stain; the fault not in the light, Nor in the guilty object, but our sighed. My gloss, raised from the richness of my stuff, Had too much splendour for the Owly eye, Of politic and thankless royalty: I did deserve too much; a pleurisy Of that blood in me is the cause I die. Virtue in great men must be small and sleight: For poor stars rule, where she is exquisite, 'Tis tyrannous, and impious policy, To put to death by fraud and treachery; Sleight is then roy ll, when it makes men live, And if it urge faults, urges to forgive. He must be guiltless, that condemns the guilty, Like things, do nourish Like, and not destroy them: Minds must be found, that judge affairs of weight, And seeing hands, cut corrosives from your sighed. A Lord intelligencer? hangman-like, Thrust him from human fellowship, to the deserts Blow him with curses; shall your justice call Treachery her Father? would you wish her weigh My valour with the hiss of such a viper? What I have done to shun the mortal shame, Of so unjust and opposition; My envious stars cannot deny me this, That I may make my Judges witnesses; And that my wretched Fortune's have reserved For my last comfort; ye all know (my Lords) This body gashed with five and thirty wounds, Whose life and death you have in your award, Holds not a vein that hath not opened been, And which I would not open yet again, For you and yours; this hand that writ the lines Alledgd against me; hath enacted still, More good then there it only talked of ill. I must confess my choler hath transferred My tender spleen to all intemperate speech: But reason ever did my deeds attend. In worth of praise, and imitation, Had I born any will to let them lose, I could have fleshed them with bade services, In England lately, and in Swizerland: There are a hundred Gentlemen by name, Can witness my demeanour in the first; And in the last Ambassage I adjure No other testimonies then the Seigneurs De Vio, and Sillery ; who amply know, In what sort, and with what fidelity I boar my self; to reconcile and knit, In one desire so many wills disioynde, And from the Kings allegiance quite withdrawn. My acts ask many men, though done by one. And I were but one, I stood for thousands, And still I hold my worth, though not my place: Nor sleight me, Judges, though I be but one, One man, in one sole expedition, Reduced into imperial pour of Room, Armenia, Pontus, and Arabia, Syria, Albania, and Iberia, Conquered the Hyreanians ; and to Caucasus, His arm extended; the Numidians And Afric to the shores Meridional, His pour subjected; and that partly of Spain Which stood from those parts that Sertorius ruled, Even to the Atlantic Sea he conquered. the Albanian kings, he from the kingdoms chaced, And at the Caspian Sea, their dwellings placed: Of all the Earth's globe, by pour and his advice, The round-eyd Ocean saw him victor thrice: And what shall let me (but your cruel doom,) To add as much to France, as he to Room, And to leave Justice neither Sword nor word, To use against my life; this Senate knows, That what with one victorious hand I took, I gave to all your uses, with another: With this I took, and propped the falling kingdom, And gave it to the King: I have kept Your laws of state from fire; and you your selves, Fixed in this high Tribunal; from whose height The vengeful Saturnals of the League Had hurled ye headlong; do ye then return This retribution? can the cruel King, The kingdom, laws, and you, (all saved by me) Destroy their savour? what (aye me) I did Adverse to this; this damned Enchanter did, That took into his will, my motion; And being bank-route both of wealth and worth, Pursued with quarrels, and with suits in law; Feared by the kingdom; threatened by the king; Would raise the loathed dunghill of his ruins, Upon the monumental heap of mine: Torn with possessed whirlwinds may he die, And dogs bark at his murthorous memory, I won it from them all: the Chancellor I answered to his uttermost improvements: I moved my other Judges to lament My insolent misfortunes; and to loath The pocky soul, and state-bawd, my accuser, I made reply to all that could be said, So eloquently, and with such a charm, Of graven enforcements, that me thought I sat, Like Orpheus casting reigns on savage beasts; At the arms end (as it) I took my bar And set it far above the high tribunal, Where Like a Cedar on Mount Lebanon, I Grew, and made my judges show Like Box-trees And Boxtrees right, their wishes would have made them, Whence boxes should have grown, till they had struck My head into the budget: but ahlas, I held their bloody arms, with such strong reasons; And (by your leave) with such a yrck of wit: That I fetched blood upon the Chancellors cheeks, Me thinks I see his countenance as he sat; And the most lawierly delivery Of his set speeches: shall I play his partly? Enter Soiss: Esp I will i'faith, Behold a wicked man: A man debauched, A man, contesting with his King; A man, On whom (my Lords) we are not to connive, Though we may condole: A man: That Laesa Maiestate sought a lease, Of Plus quam satis. A man that vi et armis Assailed the King; and would per fas et nefas, Aspire the kingdom: here was lawyers learning. This or the Like, I swear I pen no speeches. Acquittal? they have reason; were I dead I know they can not all supply my place; Is't possible the King should be so vain, To think he can shake me with fear of death? Or make me apprehend that he intends it? Thinks he to make his firmest men, his clouds? The clouds (observing their Aerial nature's) Are born aloft, and then to moisture hanged, Fallen to the earth; where being made thick, and cold, They lose both all their heat, and levity; Yet then again recovering heat and lightness, Again they are advanced: and by the Sun Made fresh and glorious; and since clouds are rapt With these uncertainties: now up, now down, Am I to flit so with his smile, or frown? Yield to his reasons? Oh how friends reasons, and their freedoms stretch, When pour sets his wide tenters to their sides! How, Like a cure, by mere opinion, It works upon our blood? Like the ancient Gods Are Modern Kings, that lived passed bounds themselves, Yet set a measure down, to wretched men By many Sophisms, they made good, deceit; And, since they passed in pour, surpassed, in right: When Kings wills pass; the stars wink, and the Sun, Suffers eclipse: rude thunder yields to them His horrid wings: sits smooth as glass engazd, And lightning sticks betwixt heaven and earth amazed: Men's faiths are shaken: and the pit of truth Overflows with darkness, in which Justice sits, And keeps her vengeance tied to make it fierce; And when it comes, the increased horrors show, Heavens plague is sure, though full of state, and slow. What sounds are these my Lord? hark, hark, me thinks I hear the cries of people. Sfoot, one cried the Duke. I pray harken, Again, or burst your selves with silence, no: What contriman's the common headsman here? The great devil he is, The bitter wizerd told me, a Burgonian, Should be my headsman; strange concurrences: 'Sdeath whose here? Enter 4. Ushers bore, Chanc: Har: Pol: Fle r: Vit: Pralin, with others. Oh then I am but dead, Now, now you come all to pronounce my sentence. I am condemned unjustly: tell my kinsfolks, I die and innocent: If any friend pity the ruin of the States sustainer Proclaim my innocence; ah Lord Chancellor, Is there no pardon? will there come no mercy? I, put your hat on, and let me stand bore, Show your self right a Lawyer. You have not done, Like a good justice; and one that knew He sat upon the precious blood of virtue; Y'aue pleased the cruel King, and have not born, As great regard to save as to condemn; You have condemned me, my Lord Chancellor, But God acquites me; he will open lay All your close treasons against him, to colour Treasons laid to his truest images; And you my Lord shall answer this injustice, Before his judgement seat: to which I summon In one year and a day your hight apparanse; I go before, by men's corrupted domes; But they that caused my death, shall after come By the immaculate justice of the highest. Sir, I have thought of it, and every hour, Since my affliction, asked on naked knees Patience to bear your vnbeleeu worser Injustice: But you, nor none of you have thought of him, In my eviction: you're come to your benches, With plotted judgements; your linked ears so loud, Sing with prejudicate winds, that nought is herd, Of all, poor prisoners urge gainst your award; For heavens sake, shame to use me with such rigor; I know what it imports, and will not have, Mine ear blown into flames with hearing it; Have you been one of them that have condemned me? Good Sir, my father loved you so entirely, That if you have been one, my soul forgives you; It is the King (most childish that he is That takes what he hath given) that injures me: He gave grace in the first draught of my fault, And now restaines it: grace again I ask; Let him again vouchsafe it: send to him, A post will soon return: the Queen of England, Told me that if the wilful Earl of Essex, Had used submission, and but asked her mercy, She would have given it, passed resumption; She (Like a gracious Princess) did desire To pardon him: even as she prayed to God, He would let down a pardon unto her; He yet was guilty, I am innocent: He still refused grace, I importune it. No, no, his bounty, then was misery, To offer when he knew twould be refused; He treads the vulgar path of all advantage, And loves men, for his vices, nor for their virtues; My service would have quickened gratitude, In his own death, had he been truly royal; It would have stirred the image of a King, Into perpetual motion; to have stood Near the conspiracy restrained at Mantes; And in a danger, that had then the Wolf, To fly upon his bosom, had I only held Intelligence with the conspirators; Who stuck at no check but my loyalty, Nor kept life in their Hope's, but in my death; The siege of Amiens, would have softened rocks, Where covered all in showers of shot and fire, I seemed to all men's eyes a fighting flame With bullets cut, in fashion of a man; A sacrifice to valour (impious King) Which he will needs extinguish, with my blood; Let him beware, justice will fallen from heaven, In the same form I served in that siege, And by the light of that, he shall decern, What good, my ill hath brought him; it will nothing, Assure his State: the same quench he hath cast Upon my life, shall quite put out his fame; This day he loses, what he shall not find, By all days he survives; so good a servant, Nor Spain so great a foe; with whom, ahlas, Because I treated am I put to death? 'Tis put a politic gloze: my courage raised me, For the deer price of five and thirty skarres, And that hath ruined me, I thank my Stars Come isle go where ye will, ye shall not led me. Where shall this weight fallen? on what rhegion, Must this declining prominent pour his load? I'll break my bloods high billows gainst my stars, Before this ill be shook into a flat, All France shall feel and earthquake; with what murmur, This world shrinks into Chaos? Horror of death, let me alone in peace, And leave my soul to me, whom it concerns; You have no charge of it; I feel her free, How she does rouse, and Like a Falcon stretch Her silver wings; as threatening death, with death; At whom I joyfully will cast her off: I know this body but a sink of folly, The groundwork, and raised frame of woe and frailty The bound, and bundle of corruption; A quick corpse, only sensible of grief, A walking sepulcher, or household thief: A glass of air, broken with less then breath, A slave bound face to face, to death, till death: And what said all you more? I know, beside That life is but a dark and stormy night, Of senseless dreams, terrors, and broken sleeps; A Tyranny, devising pains to plague And make man long in dying, racks his death; And death is nothing, what can you say more? I bring a long Globe, and a little earth, Am seated Like earth betwixt both the heavens: That if I rise; to heaven I rise; if fallen I likewise fallen to heaven; what stronger faith, Hath any of your souls? what say you more? Why loose I time in these things? talk of knowledge, It serves for inward use. I will not die Like to a Clergy man; but Like the Captain, That prayed on horseback and with sword in hand, Threatend the Sun, commanding it to stand; These are but ropes of sand. I would speak with La Force, and Saint Blancart. Do they fly me? Where is Pr u st, controwler of my house? He should have stayed here, he keeps all my blanks Oh all the world forsakes me! wretched world, Consisting most of parts, that fly each other: A firmness, breeding all inconstancy, A bound of all disjunction; Like a man Long buried, is a man that long hath lived; Touch him, he falls to ashes; for one fault, I forfeit all the fashion of a man; Why should I keep my soul in this dark light? Whose black beams lighted me to lose my self. When I have lost my arms, my fame, my wind, Friends, brother, Hope's, Fortune's, and even my fury? Oh happy were the man, could live alone, To know no man, nor be of any known! Yet more sentences? How often will ye make me suffer death? As ye were proud to hear your powreful domes? I know and feel you were the men that gave it, And die most cruelly to hear so often My crimes and bitter condemnation vrdg'd: Suffice it, I am brought here; and obey, And that all here are privy to the crimes. Read, if it must be, then, and I must talk. Condemned for depositions of a witch? The common deposition, and her whore To all whorish perjuries and treacheries. Sure he called up the devil in my spirits, And made him to usurp my faculties: Shall I be cast away now he's cast out? What Justice is in this? deer countrymen, Take this true evidence, betwixt heaven and you And quit me in your hearts. That is most false; let me for ever be, Deprived of heaven, as I shall be of earth, If it be true: know worthy countrymen. These two and twenty months I have be clear, Of all attempts against the king and state. The Grieve? had that place stood for my dispatch I had not yielded; all your forces should not, Stir me one foot; wild horses should have drawn, My body piecemeal, ear you all had brought me. Now is your form contented, And I restore it, with my vow of safety, In that world, where both he and I are one, I never brake the oath I took to take it, Thanks to your Lordship and let me pray to, That you will hold good censure of my life, By the clear witness of my soul in death, That I have never passed act gainst the King, Which if my faith had let me undertake, They had be three years since, amongst the dead; Up? 'tis a fair preferment, would would would, There should go shouts to vp-shots; not a breath Of any mercy, yet? come, since we must; Whose this? Go my most trusted friend, with happy feet: Make me a found man with him; Go to Court But with a little train; and be prepared To hear, at first, terms of contempt and choler, Which you may easily calm, and turn to grace. If you beseech his highness to believe That your whole drift and course for Italy, (Where he hath herd you were) was only made Out of your long-well-knowne devotion To our right holy Lady of Lorretto, As you have told some of your friends in Court: And that in passing Mylan and Thurin, They charged you to propound my marriage With the third daughter of the Duke of Savoy; Which you have done, and I rejected it, Resolved to built upon his royal care For my bestowing, which he lately vowed. Beside let me entreat you to dism sse, All that have made the voyage with your Lordship, But specially the Curate: And to lock Your papers in some place of doubtless safety; Or sacrifice them to the God of fire; Considering worthily that in your hands I put my Fortune's, honour, and my life. I must endure it; Farewell to you; Enter Brun. Captain what other news? Welcome good friend; I hope your wished arrival Will give some certain end to our designs; Good news, D'Avuergne ; our trusty friend La Fin, Hath cleared all scruple with his Majesty, And uttered nothing but what served to clear All bade Suggestions. I thank them all, but they touch not the depth, Of the affairs, betwixt La Fin and me. Who is returned contented to his house, Quite freed, of all displeasure or distrust; And therefore, worthy friends wele now to Court. They keep all to cast in admiration on the King: For from his face are all their faces moulded. Is't not and easy lose to loose their looks, Whose hearts so soon are melted? Oh no my Lord, They never dissemble but for some advantage; They fell their looks, and shadows; which they rate After their markets, kept beneath the State; Lord what foul weather their aspects do threaten? See in how graven a Brake he sets his vizard: Passion of nothing; See, and excellent Gesture: Now Courtship goes a ditching in their foreheads; And we are fallen into those dismal ditches; Why even thus dreadfully would they be rapt, If the Kings buttered eggs, were only spilled. And not Byron? here's a prodigious change; Why now you see From whence their countenances were copied. I herd him not; 'Tis right the end of lifting, When men are lifted to their highest pitch, They cut of those that lifted them so high. They first were from our serious acts devised, The best of which, are to the best but sports; (I mean by best, the greatest) for their ends, In men that serve them best, are their own pleasures. I vy't; Is it possible? Away with him? live I? And here my life thus sleighted? cursed man, That ever the intelligensing lights Betrayed me to men's whorish fellowships; To Princes Moorish slaveries; To be made The Anvil, on which only blows, and wounds Were made the seed, and wombs of others honours; A property for a Tyrant, to set up, And puff down, with the vapour of his breath; Will you not kill me? To my lodging? where? What to a prison? Death; I will not go; And take away my sword; A proper point of force; you had as good, Have robbed me of my soul; Slaves of my Stars, Partial and bloody; Oh that in mine eyes Were all the Sorcerous poison of my woes, That I might witch you headlong from your height, And trample ou't, your excreable light. And so is all your graven authority; And that all France shall feel before I Die; You see all how they use good Catholics; Good sir I pray, Go after and beseech the Chancellor That he will let my body be interred, Amongst my predecessors at Byron : Go, go? can all go thus? And no man come with comfort? farewell world: He is at no end of his actions blessed, Whose ends will make him greatest, and not best; They tread no ground, but ride in air on storms, That follow State, and hunt their empty forms; Who see not that the Valleys of the world, Make even right with the Mountains? that they grow Green, and lie warmer; and ever peaceful are, When Clouds spit fire as Hills, and burn them bore? Not Valleys partly, but we should imitate Streams, That run below the Valleys, and do yield To every Molehill; every Bank embrace That checks their Currants; and when Torrents come, That swell and raise them passed their natural height, How mad they are, and troubled? Like low strains With Torrents crowned, are men with Diadems; Death slave, down, or by the blood that moves me I'll pluck thy throat out; go, I'll call you straight, Hold boy; and this, Take this then, yet I pray thee, that again I do not joy in sighed of such a Pageant As presents death; Though this life have a curse; 'Tis better then another, that is worse; I, I, you talk of upward still to others, And downwards look, with headlong eyes your selves. Now come you up sir; But not touch me yet; Where shall I be now? Where that? And where, slave, is that there? Thou seest I see not? yet I speak as I saw; Well, now is't fit? Do it, and if at one blow thou art short, Give one and thirty, I'll endure them all. Hold; stay a little; comes there yet no mercy? High Heaven curse these exemplary proceedings, When Justice fails, they sacrifice our example; Out ugly Image of my cruel Justice; Yet wilt thou be before me, stay my will, Or by the will of Heaven I'll strangle thee; Nor is it yours; I'll take my death, with all the horrid rites And representments, of the dread it merits; Let tame Nobility, and numbed fools That apprehend not what they undergo, Be such exemplary, and formal sheep; I will not have him touch me, till I will; If you will needs rack me beyond my reason, Hell take me, but I'll strangle half thats here, And force the rest to kill me I'll leap down If but once more they tempt me to despair; You wish my quiet, yet give cause of fury: Think you to set rude winds upon the Sea, Yet keep it calm? or cast me in a sleep, With shaking of my chains about mine ears? Oh honest Soldiers, you have seen me free, From any care, of many thousand death's! Yet, of this one, the manner does amaze me. View, view, this wounded bosom, how much bound Should that man make me, that would shoot it through; Is it not pity I should loose my life, By such a bloody and infamous stroke? This is some poor witness That my desert, might have outweighed my forfeit: But danger, haunts desert, when he is Greatest; His hearty ills, are proved out of his glances, And Kings suspicions, needs no Balances; So hers a most decreetall end of me: Which I desire, in me, may end my wrongs; Commend my love, I charge you, to my brother's, And by my love, and misery command them, To keep their faiths that bind them to the King, And prove no stomakers of my misfortunes; Nor come to Court, till time hath eaten out, The blots, and skarres of my opprobrious death; And tell the Earl, my deer friend of D'Auergne, That my death utterly were free from grief, But for the sad lose of his worthy friendship; And if I had been made for longer life, I would have more deserved him in my service, Beseeching him to know I have not used One word in my arraignment; that might touch him, Had I no other want then so ill meaning: And so farewell for ever: never more Shall any hope of my revival see me; Such is the endless exile of dead men. Summer succeeds the spring; Autumn the Summer, The Frosts of Winter, the fallen leaves of Autumn: All these, and all fruits in them yearly fade, And every year return: but cursed man, Shall never more renew, his vanished face; Fallen on your knees, then Statists ere ye fallen, That you may rise again: knees bent too late, Stick you in earth Like statues: see in me How you are poured down from your clearest heavens; Fallen lower yet: mixed with the unmoved centre, That your own shadows may no longer mock ye Stricke, stricke, Oh stricke; Fly, fly commanding soul, And on thy wings for this thy bodies breath, Bear the eternal victory of death. I make no question; farewell worthy friend. Exit. Have I n ere a friend, That bears another for me? All the Guard? What will you kill me? will you smother here His life that can command, and save in field, A hundred thousand lives? For manhood sake; Lend something to this poor forsaken hand; For all my service, let me have the honour To die defending of my innocent self, And have some little space to pray to God. Next you held treaty with the Duke of Savoy, Without the Kings permission; offering him All service and assistance gainst all men, In hope to have in marriage, his third daughter. Next, for my treaties with the Duke of Savoy, Roncas his Secretary, having made A motion to me, for the Dukes third daughter, I told it to the King; who having since, Given me the understanding by La Force Of his dislike; I never dreamt of it. Thirdly you held intelligence with the Duke, At taking in of Bourge, and other Forts; Advising him, with all your prejudice, Gainst the Kings army, and his royal person. Thirdly, for my intelligence with the Duke, Advising him against his Highness army: Had this been true, I had not undertaken Th'assault of Bourg, against the Kings opinion, Having assistance but by them about me: And (having won it for him) had not been Put out of such a government so easily. The fourth is; that you would have brought the King, Before Saint Katherine's Fort, to be there slain: And to that end writ to the Governor, In which you gave him notes to know his highness. Fourthly, for my advise to kill the King; I would beseech his Highness memory, Not to let slip, that I alone dissuaded His viewing of that Fort; informing him, It had go worser marke-men; and he could not go, But in exceeding danger, which advise Diverted him; the rather, since I said, That if he had desire to see the place He should receive from me a Plot of it; Offering to take it with five hundred men, And I my self would go to the assault. Fifthly, you sent Laffin to treat with Savoy, And with the Count Fuentes, of more plots, Touching the ruin of the King and realm. And lastly, for intelligences held, With Savoy and Fuentes : I confess, That being denied to keep the Cytadell, Which with incredible peril I had God, And seeing another, honoured with my spoils, I so desperate that I found my spirit, Enraged to any act, and wished my self, Covered with blood.