_King._ Mistaken still:
All favours, all preferments, pass through them;
I'm pliant, and they mould me as they please.
_Mar._ These are your arts, to make them more secure;
Just so your brother used the admiral.
Brothers may think, and act like brothers too.
_King._ What said you, ha! what mean you, Marmoutiere?
_Mar._ Nay, what mean you? that start betrayed you, sir.
_King._ This is no vigil of St Bartholomew,
Nor is Blois Paris.
_Mar._ 'Tis an open town.
_King._ What then?
_Mar._ Where you are strongest.
_King._ Well, what then?
_Mar._ No more; but you have power, and are provoked.
_King._ O, thou hast set thy foot upon a snake!
Get quickly off, or it will sting thee dead.
_Mar._ Can I unknow it?
_King._ No, but keep it secret.
_Mar._ Think, sir, your thoughts are still as much your own,
As when you kept the key of your own breast;
But since you let me in, I find it filled
With death and horror: you would murder Guise.
_King._ Murder! what, murder! use a softer word,
And call it sovereign justice.
_Mar._ Would I could!
But justice bears the godlike shape of law,
And law requires defence, and equal plea
Betwixt the offender, and the righteous judge.
_King._ Yes, when the offender can be judged by laws:
But when his greatness overturns the scales,
Then kings are justice in the last appeal,
And, forced by strong necessity, may strike;
In which, indeed, they assert the public good,
And, like sworn surgeons, lop the gangrened limb:
Unpleasant, wholesome, work.
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