_Mar._ Have I said I loved you?
_Gui._ Stab on, stab:
'Tis plain you love the king.
_Mar._ Nor him, nor you,
In that unlawful way you seem to mean.
My eyes had once so far betrayed my heart,
As to distinguish you from common men;
Whate'er you said, or did, was charming all.
_Gui._ But yet, it seems, you found a king more charming.
_Mar._ I do not say more charming, but more noble,
More truly royal, more a king in soul,
Than you are now in wishes.
_Gui._ May be so:
But love has oiled your tongue to run so glib,--
Curse on your eloquence!
_Mar._ Curse not that eloquence that saved your life:
For, when your wild ambition, which defied
A royal mandate, hurried you to town;
When over-weening pride of popular power
Had thrust you headlong in the Louvre toils,
Then had you died: For know, my haughty lord,
Had I not been, offended majesty
Had doomed you to the death you well deserved.
_Gui._ Then was't not Henry's fear preserved my life?
_Mar._ You know him better, or you ought to know him:
He's born to give you fear, not to receive it.
_Gui._ Say this again; but add, you gave not up
Your honour as the ransom of my life;
For, if you did, 'twere better I had died.
_Mar._ And so it were.
_Gui._ Why said you, so it were?
For though 'tis true, methinks 'tis much unkind.
_Mar._ My lord, we are not now to talk of kindness.
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