_Enter_ EDWARD _and_ PERCY.
_Edward_.--Well, my Lord Percy, thou hast made good speed.
What say these haughty burghers to our clemency?
_Percy_.--In truth, your Grace, they are right _haughty_
burghers.
One wondrous civil gentleman proposed
To write his answer on your servant's tongue--
Using his sword as clerks might do a quill--
Then thrust it on an arrow for a post-boy!
_Edward_.--Such service he shall meet. What said their
governor?
_Percy_.--Marry! the old boy said I was no gentleman,
And bade me read my answer in the eyes
Of--Heaven defend me!--such a squalid crew!
One looked like death run from his winding sheet;
Another like an ague clothed in rags;
A third had something of the human form,
But every bone was cursing at its fellow.
Now, though I vow that I could read my fate
In every damsel's eyes that kissed a moonbeam,
I've yet to learn the meaning of the words
Wrote on the eyeballs of his vellum-spectres,
But the old man is henpecked!
_Edward_.--Prythee, Lord Percy, lay thy fool's tongue by,
And tell thy meaning plainly.
_Percy_.--Nay, pardon me, your majesty; I wot
Your servant is the fool his father made him,
And the most dutiful of all your subjects.
_Edward_.--We know it, Percy. But what of his wife?
_Percy_.--Why, if the men but possess half her spirit,
You might besiege these walls till you have counted
The grey hairs on the child that's born next June.
_Edward_.--And was this all?
_Percy_.--Nay, there was one--a smooth-tongued oily man--
A leader of the citizens; and one
Who measures out dissension by the rood:
He is an orator, and made a speech
Against the governor: the people murmured;
And one or two cried out, "Behold an Antony!"
But he's a traitor; and I'd hang all traitors!
_Edward_.--Ha!--then doth the devil, Disaffection,
With his fair first-born, Treason, smooth our path.
So we have friends within the citadel.
Sent they no other answer?
_Percy_.--I did expect me to have brought the whole,
Like half-clothed beggars bending at my heels,
To crave your Grace's succour; but, behold,
Ere I could bid them home for a clean shirt,
That they might meet your majesty like Christians,
Out stepped her ladyship, and with a speech
Roused up the whole to such a flood of feeling
That I did well 'scape drowning in the shout
Of Scotland and Seton!--Seton and Scotland!--Then
did she turn and ask me, "Are you answered?"
I said I was!--and they did raise a cry
Of _Death or Liberty_!
_Edward_.--They shall have it--death in its fullest meaning.
Haste, ply our cannon on the opening breach.
Forth!--they attack the camp! Now, drive them back,
Break through their gate and guards,
Till all be ours! [_Exeunt_