Mrs Bev. We came to take you from it. To tell you the world goes well again. That Provi dence has seen our sorrows, and sent the means to help them-your uncle died yesterday. Bev. My uncle! No, do not say so! Oh, I am sick at heart! Mrs Bev. Indeed! I meant to bring you comfort. Bev. Tell me he lives then-if you would bring me comfort, tell me he lives. Mrs Bev. And if I did-I have no power to raise the dead-he died yesterday. Bev. And I am heir to him? Jar. To his whole estate, sir-but bear it patiently-pray bear it patiently. Beo. Well, well-[Pausing.] Why, fame says I am rich, then? Mrs Bev. And truly so-why do you look so wildly? Bev. Do I? The news was unexpected. But bas he left me all? Jar. All, all, sir-he could not leave it from you. Char. Sorry! Why sorry? Bev. Your uncle's dead, Charlotte. softness to his looks, and quiet to his heart! Take Bev. I would kneel too, but that offended Heaven would turn my prayers into curses. What have I to ask for! I, who have shook hands with hope? Is it for length of days that I should kneel! No; my time is limited. Or is it for this world's blessings upon you and yours? Το pour out my heart in wishes for a ruined wife, a child, and sister? Oh, no! for I have done a deed to make life horrible to you→→→ Mrs Bev. Why horrible? Is poverty so horrible? The real wants of life are few. A little industry will supply them all—And cheerfulness will follow-It is the privilege of honest industry, and we will enjoy it fully. Bev. Never, never-Oh, I have told you but Char. Peace be with his soul then-is it so ter- in part. The irrevocable deed is done. rible, that an old man should die? Bev. He should have been immortal. Mrs Bev. Heaven knows I wished not for his Mrs Bev. What deed!—And why do you look so at me! Bev. A deed, that dooms my soul to ven death. 'Twas the will of providence, that he geance-That seals your misery here, and mine should die—why are you disturbed so? Bev. Has death no terrors in it? hereafter. Mrs Bev. No, no: you have a heart too good Mrs Bev. Not an old man's death. Yet if it for it-Alas! he raves, Charlotte-His looks too troubles you, I wish him living. Bev. And I, with all my heart. Bev. Nothing-how heard you of his death? Bev. Or had heard it one day sooner-for I have a tale to tell, shall turn you into stone; or, if the power of speech remain, you shall kneel down and curse me. Mrs. Bev. Alas! what tale is this? And why are we to curse you-I will bless you for ever. Bev. No; I have deserved no blessings. The world holds not such another wretch. All this large fortune, this second bounty of Heaven, that might have healed our sorrows, and satisfied our utmost hopes, in a cursed hour I sold last night. Char. Sold! How sold? Mrs. Bev. Impossible !-It cannot be ! Bev. That devil Stukely, with all hell to aid him, tempted me to the deed. To pay false debts of honour, and to redeem past errors, I sold the reversion- -Sold it for a scanty sum, and lost it among villains. Char. Why, farewell all then. Bev. Liberty and life—Come, kneel and curse me! Mrs. Bev. Then hear me, Heaven! [Kneels.] Look down with mercy on his sorrows! Give terrify me-Speak comfort to him-He can have done no deed of wickedness. Char. And yet I fear the worst- -What is it, brother? Bev. A deed of horror. Jar. Ask him no questions, madam-This last misfortune has hurt his brain. A little time will give him patience. Enter STUKELY. Stuke. To give you liberty and safety. There, madam, is his discharge. [Giving a paper to Mrs Beverly.] Let him fly this moment. The arrest last night was meant in friendship; but came too late. Char. What mean you, sir? Stuke. The arrest was too late, I say; I would have kept his hands from blood, but was too late. Mrs Bev. His hands from blood!-Whose blood?-Oh, wretch! wretch! Stuke. From Lewson's blood. Char. No, villain! Yet what of Lewson? Speak quickly. Stuke. You are ignorant then! I thought I heard the murderer at confession. Char. What murderer?-And who is murdered? Not Lewson?-Say he lives, and I'll kneel and worship you. Stuke. In pity, so I would; but that the tongues of all cry murder. I came in pity, not in malice; to save the brother, not kill the sister. Your Lewson's dead! Char. O horrible! Why, who has killed him? And yet it cannot be. What crime had he committed that he should die? Villain! he lives! he lives! and shall revenge these pangs! Mrs Bev. Patience, sweet Charlotte! Char. O, 'tis too much for patience! Mrs Bev. He comes in pity, he says! O, execrable villain! The friend is killed, then, and this the murderer? Bev. Silence, I charge you !- -Proceed, sir. Stuke. No. Justice may stop the tale—and here is an evidence. Enter BATES. Bates. The news, I see, has reached you. But take comfort, madam. [To Char.] There is one without inquiring for you. Go to him, and lose no time. Char. O misery! misery! [Erit. Mrs Bev. Follow her, Jarvis. If it be true that Lewson's dead, her grief may kill her. Bates. Jarvis must stay here, madam. I have some questions for him. Stuke. Rather let him fly. His evidence may crush his master. Bev. Why, ay; this looks like management. Butes. He found you quarrelling with Lewson in the streets last night. [To Bev. Mrs Bev. No; I am sure he did not. that viper. [Pointing to Stukely.] The tale is short-I was too busy in his secrets, and therefore doomed to die. Bates, to prevent the mur der, undertook it-I kept aloof to give it credit. Char. And give me pangs unutterrable. Lew. I felt them all, and would have told you -But vengeance wanted ripening. The villain's scheme was but half executed. The arrest by Dawson followed the supposed murder—————And now, depending on his once wicked associates, he comes to fix the guilt on Beverley. Mrs Bev. Oh execrable wretch! Bates. Dawson and I are witnesses of this. Lew. And of a thousand frauds. His fortune ruined by sharpers and false dice; and Stukely sole contriver and possessor of all, Daw. Had he but stopped on this side murder, we had been villains still. Mrs Bev. Thus Heaven turns evil into good; and, by permitting sin, warns men to virtue. Lew. Yet punishes the instrument. So shall our laws; though not with death. But death were mercy. Shame, beggary, and imprisonment, unpitied misery, the stings of conscience, and the curses of mankind shall make life hateful to him-till at last his own hand end himHow does my friend? [To Bet. Bev. Why well. Who is he, that asks me? Mrs. Bev. Tis Lewson, love-Why do you look so at him? Bev. They told me he was murdered. [ Wildly. Mrs Bev. It is false, old mann--They had no round. quarrel; there was no cause for quarrel. Bev. Let him proceed, I say- -Oh! I am sick! sick!- Reach a chair. [He sits down. Mrs Bev. You droop and tremble, love.Your eyes are fixed too -Yet you are innocent. If Lewson's dead, you killed him not, Enter DAWSON, Stuke. Who sent for Dawson? Bates. 'Twas I-We have a witness too you little think of-Without there! Stuke. What witness? Bates. A right one. Look at him. Enter LEWSON and CHARLOTTE. Stuke. Lewson! O villains! villains! [To Bates and Dowson. Mrs Beo. Risen from the dead! Why, this is unexpected happiness? Char. Or is it his ghost? [To Stukely.] That sight would please you, sir, Jar. What riddle is this? Bev. Be quick and tell it-My minutes are but few. Mrs Bev. Alas! why so? You shall live long and happily. Lew. While shame and punishment shall rack Mrs. Bev. O Heaven! Remove Lew. This villain here disturbs him. him from his sight-And for your lives see that you guard him. [Stukely is taken off by Dawson and Bates.] How is it, sir? Bev. 'Tis here-and here. [Pointing to his head and heart.] And now it tears me! Mrs. Bev. You feel convulsed too-What is it disturbs you? Lew. This sudden turn of joy, perhaps He wants rest too-Last night was dreadful to him. His brain is giddy. Char. Ay, never to be cured-Why, brother! -O! I fear! I fear! Mrs. Bev. Preserve him, Heaven!-My love! my life! look at me!-How his eyes flame! Bev. A furnace rages in this heart-I have been too hasty, Mrs Bev. Indeed!-0 me! O me!—Help, Jarvis! Fly, fly for help! Your master dies else. -Weep not, but fly! [Exit Jarvis.] What is this hasty deed?—Yet do not answer me-My fears have guessed. Bev. Call back the messenger-Tis not in me dicine's power to help me. Mrs Bev. Is it then so? Mrs Bev. Alas! for what? Bev. [Starting again.] And there's another pang-Now all is quiet-Will you forgive me? Mrs Bev. I will tell me for what? Bev. For meanly dying. Mrs Bev. No-do not say it. Bev. As truly as my soul must answer it.Had Jarvis staid this morning, all had been well. But pressed by shame-pent in a prison-tormented with my pangs for you-driven to despair and madness-I took the advantage of his absence, corrupted the poor wretch he left to guard me, and-swallowed poison. Mrs Bev. O fatal deed' Bev. Ay, most accursed-And now I go to my account. This rest from pain brings death; yet 'tis Heaven's kindness to me. I wished for ease, a moment's ease, that cool repentance and contrition might soften vengeance.-Bend me, and let me kneel. [They lift him from his chair, and support him on his knees.] I'll pray for you too. Thou power, that madest me, hear me! If for a life of frailty, and this too hasty deed of death, thy justice dooms me, here I acquit the sentence. But if enthroned in mercy where thou sittest, thy pity has beheld me, send me a gleam of hope; that, in these last and bitter moments, my soul may taste of comfort! and for these mourners here, O! let their lives be peaceful, and their deaths happy!Now raise me. [They lift him to the chair. Mrs Bev. Restore him, Heaven! Stretch forth thy arm omnipotent, and snatch him from the grave!-0 save him! save him! Bev. Alas! that prayer is fruitless. Already death has seized me- -Yet Heaven is graciousI asked for hope, as the bright presage of forgiveness, and like a light, blazing through dark Char. Forgive you! O my poor brother! Bev. Lend me your hand, love- -So-raise me- -No-it will not be-My life is finished-O! for a few short moments, to tell you how my heart bleeds for you-That even now, thus dying as I am, dubious and fearful of hereafter, my bosom pang is for your miseries support her, Heaven!--And now I go- -0, mercy! mercy! [Dies. Lew. Then all is over- How is it, madam? Enter JARVIS. Jar. How does my master, madam? Here is help at hand—Am I too late then? O [Seeing Beverley. Char. Tears! tears! why fall you notwretched sister!- -Speak to her, Lewson -Her grief is speechless. Lew. Remove her from this sight-Go to her, Jarvis-Lead and support her. Sorrow like hers forbids complaint-Words are for lighter griefs— Some ministering angel bring her peace! [Jarvis and Charlotte lead her off] And thou, poor breathless corpse, may thy departed soul have found the rest it prayed for! Save but one error, and this last fatal deed, thy life was lovely. Let frailer minds take warning; and from example learn, that want of prudence is want of virtue. Follies, if uncontrouled, of every kind, The mutual wrongs, sustained by Rome and Bri-Laid waste our cities; with the servile scourge tain Boad. May stern Andate, war's victorious god- Again resign me to your impious rage, Disgraced a royal matron; you deflowered Rom. Am. Yes, to treat, As faith, benevolence, and justice dictate. Dum. How shall we treat with those, whose impious hands Have rent the sacred bands of mutual trust? How shall we treat with those, whose stony hearts Compassion cannot melt, nor shame controul, Nor justice awe, nor piety restrain, No pillager, like Catus, but a soldier, He would redress, not widen, your complaints. To yield our slaughtered elders from the grave? You call the legions of imperial Rome, Tell them, I come; that Boadicea comes, Come from your hills, ye fugitive remains mans, Shail add yon refuse to the purpled heap. Dum. Go, and report this answer to Suetonius : Too long have parents' sighs, the cries of orphans, And tears of widows, signalized your sway, som name For the two captive Romans. Boud. Not the wealth, Which loads the palaces of sumptuous Rome, soners. VoL. I. Enter ENOBARBUS and FLAMINIUS, in chains. Board. Stay, if thou wilt, and see our victims Vain are thy efforts to dismay a Roman. I give most freely to the wolves and thee! want These instigations, nor thy proud defiance, These heavy commendations will we bear: Enob. Come, let us know our fate. Boad. Prepare for death. [Exit. Enob. Then cease to loiter, savage. Dum. [To Enob.] Now, by Heaven, Wert thou no Roman, I could save and love thee. That dauntless spirit, in another breast, And in a blameless cause, were truly noble, But shews, in thee, the murderer and ruffian. Enob. Thy hate or favour are alike to me. Why must we fall, because uncertain war Dum. If, in open battle, With generous valour to have faced our arms, Were all our charge against thee, thou mightst The single name, of Roman shall condemn, Boad. Insolent pretension ! 4 N |