_Mar._ O heavens! did ever virgin yet attempt
An enterprise like mine? I, that resolved
Never to leave those dear delightful shades,
But act the little part that nature gave me,
On the green carpets of some guiltless grove,
And having finished it, forsake the world;
Unless sometimes my heart might entertain
Some small remembrance of the taking Guise:
But that far, far from any darkening thought,
To cloud my honour, or eclipse my virtue.
_Gril._ Thou liest! and if thou hadst not glanced aside,
And spied me coming, I had had it all.
_Mar._ By heaven! by all that's good--
_Gril._ Thou hast lost thy honour.
Give me this hand, this hand by which I caught thee
From the bold ruffian in the massacre,
That would have stained thy almost infant honour,
With lust, and blood;--dost thou remember it?
_Mar._ I do, and bless the godlike arm, that saved me.
_Gril._ 'Tis false! thou hast forgot my generous action;
And now thou laugh'st, to think how thou hast cheated,
For all his kindness, this old grisled fool.
_Mar._ Forbid it heaven!
_Gril._ But oh, that thou hadst died
Ten thousand deaths, ere blasted Grillon's glory;
Grillon, that saved thee from a barbarous world.
Where thou hadst starved, or sold thyself for bread;
Took thee into his bosom, fostered thee
As his own soul, and laid thee in his heart-strings;
And now, for all my cares, to serve me thus!
O 'tis too much, ye powers! double confusion
On all my wars; and oh,--out, shame upon thee!
It wrings the tears from Grillon's iron heart,
And melts me to a babe.
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