Enter OSWALD, Bishop of Worcester, and ETHELWALD, Bishop of Winchester.

Save you, my Lords!

Fetch me a stool.

Are there no seats? A stool

(A stool is brought, on which DUNSTAN seats himself. The

Bishops continue standing.)

What business brings you here?

OSWALD.

Lord Abbot, we have served thee faithfully,

And still obeyed thy voice through many a change.
We would that others, who have done no less

In outward show, were inwardly as true.

Who fails?

DUNSTAN.

ETHELWALD.

We do not say distinctly who,

Nor positively point by point wherein ;

But this we say, that we whose hearts are known
From yours inseparable, are received no longer,

By some amongst our brethren, as we were.
We hear that Bishops meet by tens and twelves,
Unknown to us; we think unknown to you.

We therefore deemed it parcel of our duty
To give you warning.

DUNSTAN.

Is there more?

OSWALD.

To-day

There spreads a rumour that Prince Edgar's force,

Met on the Avon by the Heretoch,

Was beaten back and scattered.

Joining this

To what is surer, that Earl Athulf's power
Creeps close upon us,-sundry citizens

That are of credit with the baser sort

About the suburbs, stir them up to riot.

DUNSTAN.

Doth nothing happen to such men ? 'Tis strange; Good men, for whom the Church puts up her prayers, Are daily taken off.

ETHELWALD.

'Tis said, moreover,

The Synod when it meets will not be pure,

Nor of one mind.

DUNSTAN.

'Tis ignorantly said:

I am the Synod's mind. Sirs, you did well

To bring me what had reached you. Leave me now.

Come back at night. The interval use well;

And what you gather give me then to know.

[Exeunt BISHOPS.

This faction runs a-head. What mean they, then?
Why verily to abuse, and by their wiles

But God,

Betray the Synod. Nothing less.
Who to the Devil incarnate in the Snake
Gave subtlety, denies not to his Saints
(So they shall use it to his glory and gain)
The weapon he permitted to the Fiend.
Erratic Spirit, here thou art, wild worm,
Piercing the earth with subterraneous toil,

And there with wings scouring the darkened sky!
Still do I meet thee; still, wherever met,

I foil thee; sometimes as with Michael's sword,
Sometimes as with thine own.

What, Gurmo, ho!

Enter GURMO.

In the synodial chamber, on the wall,

There hangs a cross, in size and shape the same

As that which Simon bare to Golgotha.

I fashioned it myself of cedar brought

From Palestine. Within the hollow bole

A man could stand upright; and at the back

I placed a pannel with a secret spring,

Which touched, it starts aside. Thou knowest, Gurmo,

That Satan is mechanical, and God

Must needs have mechanists at work to cross

The works of Satan. God has now in hand
Matters in which my workmanship must aid,
Thy duties minister. Go to that cross,
And, prostrate thrown, repent thee of thy life.
Soon will I follow, and instruct thee there
How by thy service thou mayst purge thy sin.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

PALACE OF THE ARCHBISHOP IN LONDON.

ODO, with LEOFWYN, Bishop of Lincoln, and FRIDSTAN, Bishop of Lichfield.

ODO.

It stands not with our honour either way

To be so overridden.

FRIDSTAN.

One sole man,

K

Though he were Saint uprisen, no charter hath To lead by the nose the Fathers of the Church, The Archbishop and the Bishops. Zeal is good; But zeal is one thing when it fasts and prays, And when it ramps and rages 'tis another.

LEOFWYN.

When he refused the Bishopric from Edred
Oh, I said, this man

My mind misgave me.

Is humble upside-down. He that rejects,
With publication and profession loud
Of lowliness, an orderly advancement,
Looks, be assured, what 's orderly to pass,

And leave degrees behind.

FRIDSTAN.

Yea, brother, yea;

He that denies himself to be a Bishop

Looks further than is fitting. He means not well.
He thinks to say to us, Go here, go there!
Me, Dunstan, standing sole, the gaping world
Shall gaze at, bidding Bishops stand aside!

This is not right.

LEOFWYN.

No, nor canonical.