Enough! Come down. The screech-owl from afar Upbraids thy usurpation. Cease, I say.

GURMO descends.

Await me in the border of the forest,

By Elstan's well.

[Exit GURMO.

A sturdy knave is yon!
He has transacted murder in his time,

Yet will he walk in darkness through the forest
Nothing discomforted nor scared. Who next?
Ha! the Queen Mother!

Enter the QUEEN MOTHER in a Peasant's garb.
Give your Grace good even!

You are a faithful servant of the Church,

And humbler weeds than these would gladly wear,

And wilder solitudes, by night or day,

Would seek to serve her.

Queen Mother.

I pray you let me sit.

Father, I am faint,

For a strange terror seized me by the way.

Dunstan.

I say,

forbear!

Thou art in a Presence that thou wot'st not of,
Wherein no mortal may presume to sit.

If stand thou canst not, kneel.

Queen Mother.

Oh, sinner that I am!

Dunstan.

[She falls on her knees. Oh, merciful Heaven!

Dismiss thy fears;
Thine errand is acceptable to Him

Who rules the hour, and thou art safer here
Than in thy palace. Quake not, but be calm,
And tell me of the wretched King, thy son.
This black, incestuous, unnatural love
For his blood-relative-yea, worse, a seed
That ever was at enmity with God-
His cousin of the house of Antichrist!
Is it as I surmised?

Queen Mother.

Alas! lost boy!

Dunstan. Yea, lost for time and for eternity,
If he should wed her. But that shall not be.
Something more lofty than a boy's wild love
Governs the course of kingdoms. From beneath
This arching umbrage, step aside; look up;
The alphabet of Heaven is o'er thy head,
The starry literal multitude. To few,
And not in mercy, is it given to read
The mixed celestial cypher. Not in mercy,
Save as a penance merciful in issue,
Doth God impart that mournfullest of gifts
Which pushes farther into future time

The bounds of human foresight. Yonder book,
In mercy to the King and not to me,

Unfolds its tragic page.

Is written there

Something that must be, something more that may, But yet may be prevented.

Queen Mother.

On my knees,

I pray thee, holy Dunstan, read not there'

Of ruin to my son.

Dunstan.

What there is writ

Needs must I read; and if this wily wench
That profiting by the softness and green sap
Of ignorant youth, doth round her finger twine
The sceptre like a sliver-

Queen Mother.

Insolent jade !
Were it not, father, a good deed in Christ
To have her-in a manner...say...removed?
For truly, truly I may say, my lord,

Yea and in sooth I witness it against her,
That with her witcheries and wanton looks
She hath inveigled and ensnared the King,
Bewitched past reason, that he flouts his mother,
Forgets his duty-woeful woeful day!

Says Silence,' if I do but say 'God bless him!'
And all by her procurement and beliest,
Scandalous minion! Were it not, I say,
An excellent deed and righteous before God,

To take her from his sight, that she should cease
To vex good men and holy with her wiles?

Dunstan. With thee the cry is ever "Kill and Kill." I tell thee once again, my soul abhors

This vulture's appetite, not more foul in act
Than gross in apprehension. Look we round:
In Wessex Athulf more prevails than we ;
Leolf in Sussex; which of us is first

In Hampshire, hard to say. I tell thee, no ;
It must not be.

Queen Mother.

Or but to mew her up...

Dunstan. Nay, worse and worse; it were but to inflame

By opposition the boy's passionate will.

Be patient; meddle not with means; put trust
In Providence, whose ways how knowest thou?
Say that loose access to that girl were gained
Despite thy watch and ward, by that loose boy-
What thence should follow is not for us to know;
Nought, peradventure, that should thrive with her.
In women's breasts the passions that are bred,
Which for a summer's season work their will,
As surely with the dangerous hour's approach
Rise like arm'd Helots raging, and are found
Of their worst enemies the best allies.

With-with a woman's passions, not against them,
He takes the field who wisely would pursue

Her ultimate overthrow.

Queen Mother.

Most excellently true!

Dunstan.

Most true, my Lord,

I bid thee not

By either mean to practise to that end;
I do but tell thee 'tis a patient part

To stand aside in faith, nor put thy hand
To work that is not thine.

Queen Mother.
Command me always.
Dunstan.

Another-and a third.

Oh, man of God!

Hist! I hear a Spirit!

They're trooping up.

Queen Mother. St. Magnus shield us !

Dunstan.

Thou art safe; but go;

The wood will soon be populous with Spirits.

The path thou cam'st retread. Who laughs i' the air?
Ecce crucem, spargere lucem,
Spiritúm Trias, pandite vias!

The way is open. To St. Elstan's well
I will attend thee, and there Gurmo waits.

SCENE IV.-A Chamber in the Palace.

Enter ATHULF and ELGIVA.

Elgiva. This is the chamber where the Council sits: I leave thee here: the very rushes bristle, Disdaining to be trodd'n by female feet.

Athulf. To meet at eight, the summons said. By

this

They are at hand; but ere you go, one word.

I see a trouble sit on Leolf's brow.

Elgiva, oh my sister! art thou true?
Elgiva. Indeed I am.

Athulf.

Elgiva. I trust he knows the truth.

Athulf.

And doth he know thee true?

The truth, Elgiva?

These are short answers. Dost thou love him still?
Elgiva. Sincerely and in truth and honesty
Have I dealt with him always and do now.

I verily believed I loved him once.

I think I love him still.

Athulf.

Alas! alas!

But not him only, no, nor yet him most.
Beware, my sister, that ambition's weeds

Choke not the garden where thy love should grow.

In Man of questionable quality

Ambition has been holden; but in Woman

Oh! 'tis the veriest beggary of the heart

That winter ever witnessed!

Elgiva.

Athulf, no;

A weaker to a stronger love may yield;
But not in me will love or weak or strong
Yield to ambition ever.

Athulf.

Oh, this head! So shapely and by nature so adorned! Far rather would I see the glossy braid Of its own golden tresses circle it

Than England's jewelled crown.

[An Attendant, who appears at the door, announces "The
Chancellor."

Good night, Elgiva. Said'st thou a stronger love?
The strength of love is constancy. Farewell!
As came the honey from the lion's carcase,
So sweetness comes of strength. Beware, I say;
Kings love like other men-or other boys:
Not so they marry.

[Exit ELGIVA.

Gone in anger! Well; Reproof that vexed not never yet sank deep,

Nor ever of a warning that was welcome

Came needful caution. Tush! a woman's wrath.
And yet the very day that first we meet

To send her from me angry! Tush! to-morrow-
Had she but said, Good night!

Clarenbald.

Enter CLARENBALD.

My Lord, well met!

If I be late, let them that are to come

Plead for me.

Athulf. Nay, you do but prove it true That ever are the busiest the most punctual.

Clarenbald. Sir, they have leisure. Only frugal men

Are truly liberal, and for like cause

Will he that husbands time have time to spare.

Enter the KING, with EARLS LEOLF, SIDROC, ALWINE, the BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, and two or three other Lords of the Council. Edwin. My Lords, we meet you here to be advised