GUENDOLEN.

If I but whisper him of thee, thou diest.

CAMBER.

I fear not, if till then secure am I.

GUENDOLEN.

Secure as fools are hardy live thou still.

CAMBER.

While ill with good is guerdoned, good with ill.

GUENDOLEN.

I have it in my mind to take thine head.

Dost thou not fear to put me thus in fear?

CAMBER.

I fear nor man nor woman, quick nor dead: And dead in spirit already stand'st thou here.

GUENDOLEN.

Thou darest not swear my lord hath wronged my bed.

Thou darest but smile and mutter, lie and leer.

CAMBER.

I swear no queen bore ever crown on brow Who meeklier bore a heavier wrong than thou.

GUENDOLEN.

From thee will I bear nothing. Get thee hence: Thine eyes defile me. Get thee from my sight.

CAMBER.

The G.o.ds defend thee, soul and spirit and sense, From sense of things thou darest not read aright!

Farewell. [Exit.

GUENDOLEN.

Fare thou not well, and be defence Far from thy soul cast naked forth by night!

Hate rose from h.e.l.l a liar: love came divine From heaven: yet she that bore thee bore Locrine.

[Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I.--Troynovant. A Room in the Palace.

Enter LOCRINE and DEBON.

LOCRINE.

Thou knowest not what she knows or dreams of? why Her face is dark and wan, her lip and eye Restless and red as fever? Hast thou kept Faith?

DEBON.

Has my master found my faith a lie Once all these years through? have I strayed or slept Once, when he bade me watch? what proof has leapt At last to light against me?

LOCRINE.

Surely, none.

Weep not.

DEBON.

My lord's grey va.s.sal hath not wept Once, even since darkness covered from the sun The woman's face--the sole sweet wifelike one - Whose memory holds his heart yet fast: but now Tears, were old age not poor in tears, might run Free as the words that bid his stricken brow Burn and bow down to hear them.

LOCRINE.

Hast not thou Held counsel--played the talebearer whose tales Bear plague abroad and poison, knowing not how - Not with my wife nor brother?

DEBON.

Nought avails Falsehood: and truth it is, the king of Wales So plied me, sir, with force of craft and threat -

LOCRINE.

That thou, whose faith swerves never, flags nor fails Nor falters, being as stars are loyal, yet Wast found as those that fall from heaven, forget Their station, shoot and shudder down to death Deep as the pit of h.e.l.l? What snares were set To take thy soul--what mist of treasonous breath Made blind in thee the sense that quickeneth In true men's inward eyesight, when they know And know not how they know the word it saith, The warning word that whispers loud or low - I ask not: be it enough these things are so.

Thou hast played me false.

DEBON.

Nay, now this long time since We have seen the queen's face wan with wrath and woe - Have seen her lip writhe and her eyelid wince To take men's homage--proof that might convince Of grief inexpiable and insatiate shame Her spirit in all men's judgment.

LOCRINE.