_Bel._ Sir, thus it was. I met him on the way,
And plain as I could speak, I gave your orders,
Just in these following words:--
_King._ Enough, I know you told him;
But he has used me long to be contemned,
And I can still be patient, and forgive.
_Gui._ And I can ask forgiveness, when I err;
But let my gracious master please to know
The true intent of my misconstrued faith.
Should I not come to vindicate my fame
From wrong constructions? And--
_King._ Come, duke, you were not wronged; your conscience knows
You were not wronged; were you not plainly told,
That, if you dared to set your foot in Paris,
You should be held the cause of all commotions
That should from thence ensue? and yet you came.
_Gui._ Sir, will you please with patience but to hear me?
_King._ I will; and would be glad, my lord of Guise,
To clear you to myself.
_Gui._ I had been told,
There were in agitation here at court,
Things of the highest note against religion,
Against the common properties of subjects,
And lives of honest well-affected men;
I therefore judged,--
_King._ Then you, it seems, are judge
Betwixt the prince and people? judge for them,
And champion against me?
_Gui._ I feared it might be represented so,
And came resolved,--
_King._ To head the factious crowd.
_Gui._ To clear my innocence.
_King._ The means for that,
Had been your absence from this hot-brained town,
Where you, not I, are king!--
I feel my blood kindling within my veins;
The genius of the throne knocks at my heart:
Come what may come, he dies.
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