_GREGORY._
I scarce dare tell your ladyship the tidings
I have to bear.
_D._ (_aside_). It’s true! it’s true!
_G._ My daughter
Has run away with Frederick.
(_Diana sinks on a chair; Flora runs to fan her._)
Ah! my lady!
What have I done? I was too quick.
_D._ Nay, nay,
Flora, begone. I can hear all. You knew it?
_G._ I had not the least suspicion of the truth;
Altho’it needed but the merest trifle
To clear my sight. I chanced to find her glove
In Frederick’s room. All flashed upon me at once.
I ran to seek her. She was gone. A message 2910
She left was given me, that she would be away
All the afternoon: but since she had taken with her
A valise....
_D._ She, ’twas she.... O most dissembling,
Ungenerous, ungrateful....
_Fl._ I said ’twas true.
_D._ Begone at once I bid you. [_Exit Flora._
_G._ I ran in haste
To tell your ladyship; but for some reason
Could not be admitted: so I took such steps
To arrest them as I might....
_D._ Ha! they are seized?
_G._ I have since repented of my haste: a letter
Put in my hands reveals the whole: ’tis passed 2920
Beyond prevention. It has been maturing
Under our eyes for months. We must give way.
’Tis strange we never guessed it. This very morning
I was in Laura’s room; and when we parted
She made such long farewells, and looked at me
With such reluctance, and such brimming eyes,
I saw she had some trouble untold; and thinking
’Twas her dislike of Nicholas, I repented
I had ever urged the match. I little thought,
Dear girl, ’twas sorrow that she dared not tell me
Her joy. 2931
_D._ (_aside_). Her joy! no doubt! Here’s a fine father!
What doth he wish? Ah, doubly have I been fooled.
How plain ’tis now to see. The only one
I have never once suspected; the only one
It could have been. And Frederick must have told her
My love of him. All I would have kept secret
And thought was hid, hath been as open as day:
And what I sought to learn hath been kept from me
By them I trusted to discover it.
Tristram, no doubt, whom I supposed a fool, 2940
Hath merely played with me. Thank heaven they are gone.
I’ll never see him again. Befooled: befooled.
_G._ They have been befriended by the Duke of Milan.
_D._ The Duke of Milan too!
_G._ It was his letter
I spake of. Frederick is, he tells me there,
His old school-friend; he begs my pardon for him,
Will fête the bride and bridegroom in his palace,
And have the Archbishop marry them. ’Tis thither
They are fled.
_D._ Then all this is a plot of the Duke’s!
_G._ (_aside_). I dare not tell her more. 2950
_D._ Who brought the letter?
_G._ I wish my dear girl joy. She has chosen well.
_D._ Who brought the letter?
_G._ Tristram gave it me.
_D._ (_half-aside_). How came he by it?
_Re-enter Tristram._
_T._ My lady! I have something now.
_D._ Tristram, I bade you leave the court: how dare you
Appear before me again?
Silence, I say. I know your news: you have served
Your master with such lying skill, I wonder
He did not take you and your Flora with him:
There was not room enough perhaps in the coach
For two such couples.
_T._ How, if you please, my lady, 2960
Are Flora and I two couples?
_D._ Silence. Tell me
How you get letters from the Duke of Milan.
_T._ How I get letters from the Duke of Milan?
_D._ There’s nothing now to hide, so tell the truth.
_T._ I swear, my lady, that I know no more
Of the Duke of Milan than a babe unborn.
Your ladyship accused me once before
Of having been at Milan, when ’twas plain
That I had not gone, and never wished to go.
Knowing my lady’s strong impartiality, 2970
I should not venture.
_D._ This will not do.
_Enter Ricardo._
(_Gregory beckons Tristram aside, and during Diana’s first speech
whispers him, and Gregory and Tristram go out._)
_RICARDO._
My lady.
The culprit is discovered.
_D._ Ah, Ricardo!
I had forgot ... was this thy plan? ... if so
I cannot praise thy skill sufficiently.
All hath gone well. And since no doubt thou hast served
Thy master and his friend in all thou hast done,
And under the pretence of aiding me
Hast been the ready man, more than another,
To practise on me, and do me injury;
I’ll school my patience till I have satisfied 2980
My curiosity to know what thought
Urged thee,—whom I confess I wholly trusted,
And whom I thought to have made my friend,—that thus
Against the laws of hospitality,
Without the excuse of passion, thou shouldst wrong
A lady so unkindly.
_R._ Ah, Diana!
Hast thou not guessed my secret?
_D._ By heaven, sir,
Did the Duke send thee here to insult me too?
_R._ Dearest Diana, I am the Duke of Milan.
_D._ Ha! thou! Thy face behind the bush. ’Tis thou.
Should I have known it? No. I can thank God
I knew it so little. By help tho’of thy acts
I recognize your grace. ’Tis like thee indeed,
That hast not scrupled thus to steal upon me
Masked and disguised; by forgery and falsehood,
Written recommendations of thyself,
Making thee out to be some gentleman 3000
Of trust and honour. Oh ’tis admirable,
The use thou makest of thy rank, to creep
Into my secresy, thereby to assist
Thy friend, my secretary, to elope
With an orphan and my ward. Haste, haste! I bid thee;
Lest thou be late for the feast. Bear them from me
My glad congratulations. (_sinks on a chair._)
_R._ (_running to her_). Diana! Diana!
_D._ I need no aid from thee, sir. Nay, begone!
_R._ In kindness hear what I came here to say.
In justice hear my answer to the charges 3010
Thou hast made. But first I claim my promise.
_D._ How!
What promise, sir?
_R._ Your secretary’s place
If Frederick left.
_D._ Make you me still your jest?
_R._ O dearest Diana, think not that I jest.
I’d be thy secretary all my life,
So I might only take the place which Frederick
Held in thy affections.
_D._ (_rising_). In my affections! why,
What means your grace, I beg?
_R._ Diana, Diana!
Have I not won thee? Did I not obey thee
By silence and long absence, till my life 3020
Grew desperate, and my misery made me bold
To come to thee disguised? I thought that thou
Perchance wert adverse to my suit for thinking
I loved thee only for thy beauty’s sake,—
Since at first sight I loved and only sight,—
And for thy mind’s grace thou wert rightly jealous
Of such a passion. Now, if I guess well,
I have won some favour in these happy days....
_D._ Favour!
_R._ And if thou hast dreamed thou hast loved another,
’Tis no impediment: for first this man, 3030
Whom thou hast honoured is my nearest friend;
And not to have loved him were to have disregarded
The only part of me thou ever knewest.
But him, for very lack of loving rightly
Thou hast much mistaken and wronged, and, as I think,
Now for misunderstanding bearest ill-will.
_D._ I bear him no ill-will, your grace.
_R._ Nor me?
_D._ But what you have done?
_R._ Love can excuse me all.
What woman judges by proprieties
The man who would die for her, and who without her
Regards not life? Passion atones my fault. 3041
_D._ Your only excuse is your offence.
_R._ ’Tis thus:
If I am not pardoned, I am not loved; but if
I am loved, I am pardoned. If thou sayst to me
I never knew thee, but I know thee now,
And like thee not: thy three years’love for me
I count for nothing, thy devotion nothing,
Thy misery nothing: thy adventure here
I set against thee; and the hour thou goest
I shall lose nothing: If thou canst say this, 3050
Speak ... and I promise
To turn away for ever. Is that thy mind?
_D._ Is’t possible?
_R._ What possible?
_D._ Thy-—-truth.
_R._ My love? Nay, love’s a miracle, a thing
That cannot be where it seems possible,
And where ’tis most incredible is most worth
Our credit.
_D._ That is true.
_R._ That thou didst doubt
Was worthy of the greatness of my love.
But now I claim thy faith. Thou mayst believe,
Thou must believe. Indeed, indeed, Diana, 3060
Thou mayst believe. Look’st thou to find love strong?
I have heavenly security:—devoted?
I have no self but thee:—patient? I plead
Three years of patience:—humble? I was content
To be thy servant:—wise? I knew thee better
Than thou thyself; I knew that thou must love:
Or is love tender?—See my childish tears
Crowd now to hear my sentence.
_D._ Ah, this were love,
If it were só.
_R._ Diana, it is so.
There is nought to-day in all the world but this,
I love thee. 3071
_D._ Alas! how was I wrong! Sir, sir!
Thou bringst me, or at least thou seemst to bring me,
The gift of God. Whether it be so or no
How can I tell? ’Twould wrong it—nay I cannot
Take it in haste. I cannot. I understand.
Nay, leave me. I know not what to say ... your blind
Attachment, is’t not cured?
_R._ Cure all but that
By my acceptance. (_kneels._) I am thy true lover,
Thy only lover. Bid me rise beloved.
_D._ Hush, some one comes. Rise! rise! 3080
_R._ Thy hand! ’tis mine, ’tis mine.
(_Kisses it and rises._)
_Enter St. Nicholas with Gregory. Frederick and Laura following._
_ST. NICHOLAS._
They are caught, your ladyship: they are caught,
Driving away together: and Frederick
Was making love to Laura in the coach.
_R._ Now now! how’s this? Frederick so soon returned;
And taken by the honeysucker!
_N._ Sir,
Your honeysucking Frederick would have robbed
My sweetest flower: but like a skimming swallow
That takes a fly in his beak, I snapped him up
At the park gate.
_R._ He’ll prove a bitter morsel, 3090
I fear, St. Nicholas.
_N._ My lady, speak.
What shall be done to them that have infringed
The laws of the court? Whatever punishment,
I pray it fall on Frederick with more weight
Than on my Laura. I would not have such rigour
As might defer our marriage.
(_Gregory goes to Laura. Ricardo to Frederick._)
_D._ I shall award my judgment on you two,
Who have mocked not my rules only, but the common
Conventions of society, and preferring
The unwritten statutes of the court of Milan 3100
Have joined to act a lie, and me, your friend,
Deceived and wronged, whom ye had done well to trust.
One only honourable course is left—
My judgment on you is that you be married
As soon as may be. Therefore, Frederick,
I beg that you will draw the contract up
Between yourself and Laura with all speed.
And that my sister shall not lack a portion,
I will endow her with as goodly a sum
As what St. Nicholas promised. Now this time
Let there be no mistake. 3111
_N._ What’s this, Sir Gregory?
Cannot you hear?
_FREDERICK._
Your ladyship, I am bound
For ever to your service.
_L._ (_to D._). Am I forgiven, Diana?
_F._ (_to R._). Richard, how’s this?
_R._ (_to F._). I have won. (_aloud._) And let me say
That I for friendship’s sake will do as much
Toward Lady Laura’s portion as the Countess.
_N._ Sir Gregory ... Sir Gregory!
Is this the way I am treated? You do not hear?
Sir Gregory, speak!
_G._ (_to N._). I hear not what is said, St. Nicholas:
But I can see: and since you have caught your bride 3130
Running away, you must not look to me
To help you hold her. Surely what I promised
I promised in good faith: but what hath happened
Sets me at liberty. (_Laura goes to Gregory._)
_N._ And I am left out?
Am I a sacrifice?
_D._ Sir, be consoled:
You were not more deceived than I.
_N._ At least
Tristram shall not escape. I do beseech you
He may be punished for stealing my sonnet,
And shutting me in the cupboard.
_Re-enter Tristram and Flora._
_D._ Who come here?
_T. and Fl._ My lady, we ask for pardon. 3140
_R._ I take on me
To speak for them.
_D._ No need for that, your grace;
They are forgiven.
_N._ Why doth she say 'your grace’.
_T._ (_to R._). Ah, why 'your grace’indeed?
_R._ This Tristram here
Hath done us many a service. Flora too
Hath played a useful part. May not their marriage
Follow on ours, Diana?
_N._ Yours!
_T._ (_to audience sympathetically_). His!
_D._ They may have so much promise with all my heart.
_T._ Thank you, my lady.
I never did understand anything in the ‘Humours of
this Court,’ and I never shall. 3150