Henry. Come, Baligny, we now are private; say,

What service bring'st thou? make it short; the Guise

(Whose friend thou seem'st) is now in Court, and neare,

And may observe us.

Baligny. This, sir, then, in short.

The faction of the Guise (with which my policie,5

For service to your Highnesse, seemes to joyne)

Growes ripe, and must be gather'd into hold;

Of which my brother Clermont being a part

Exceeding capitall, deserves to have

A capitall eye on him. And (as you may10

With best advantage, and your speediest charge)

Command his apprehension: which (because

The Court, you know, is strong in his defence)

Wee must aske country swindge and open fields.

And therefore I have wrought him to goe downe15

To Cambray with me (of which government

Hen. Thankes, honest Baligny.

Bal. Your Highnesse knowes

I will be honest, and betray for you30

Brother and father; for I know (my lord)

Treacherie for Kings is truest loyaltie,

Nor is to beare the name of treacherie,

But grave, deepe policie. All acts that seeme

Ill in particular respects are good35

As they respect your universal rule:

As in the maine sway of the Universe

The supreame Rectors generall decrees,

To guard the mightie globes of earth and heaven,

Since they make good that guard to preservation40

Of both those in their order and first end,

Hen. Tis true: the simile at all parts holds,

As all good subjects hold, that love our favour.

Bal. Which is our heaven here; and a miserie

Incomparable, and most truely hellish,60

To live depriv'd of our Kings grace and countenance,

Without which best conditions are most cursed:

Life of that nature, howsoever short,

Is a most lingering and tedious life;

Hen. Tis well conceited.

Bal. I thought it not amisse to yeeld your Highness

A reason of my speeches; lest perhaps

You might conceive I flatter'd: which (I know)

Of all ils under heaven you most abhorre.70

Hen. Still thou art right, my vertuous Baligny,

For which I thanke and love thee. Thy advise

Ile not forget. Haste to thy government,

And carry D'Ambois with thee. So farewell. Exit.

Bal. Your Majestie fare ever like it selfe.75

Guise. My sure friend Baligny!

Bal. Noblest of princes!

Gui. How stands the state of Cambray?

Bal. Strong, my lord,

And fit for service: for whose readinesse

Your creature, Clermont D'Ambois, and my selfe

Ride shortly downe.

Gui. That Clermont is my love; 80

France never bred a nobler gentleman

For all parts; he exceeds his brother Bussy.

Bal. I, my lord?

Bal. No question, hee's a true, learn'd gentleman.95

Gui. He is as true as tides, or any starre

Is in his motion; and for his rare learning,

Hee is not (as all else are that seeke knowledge)

Of taste so much deprav'd that they had rather

Delight and satisfie themselves to drinke100

Of the streame troubled, wandring ne'er so farre

From the cleare fount, then of the fount it selfe.

In all, Romes Brutus is reviv'd in him,

Whom hee of industry doth imitate;

Or rather, as great Troys Euphorbus was105

After Pithagoras, so is Brutus, Clermont.

And, were not Brutus a conspirator—

Gui. Well, let us leave these vaine disputings what

Is to be done, and fall to doing something.

When are you for your government in Cambray?125

Bal. When you command, my lord.

Gui. Nay, that's not fit.

Continue your designements with the King,

With all your service; onely, if I send,

Respect me as your friend, and love my Clermont.

Gui. I, tis enough. 130

Bal. Thus must wee play on both sides, and thus harten

In any ill those men whose good wee hate.

Kings may doe what they list, and for Kings, subjects,

Eyther exempt from censure or exception;

For, as no mans worth can be justly judg'd 135

But when he shines in some authoritie,

So no authoritie should suffer censure

But by a man of more authoritie.

Great vessels into lesse are emptied never,

There's a redoundance past their continent ever.140

These virtuosi are the poorest creatures;

For looke how spinners weave out of themselves

Webs, whose strange matter none before can see;

So these, out of an unseene good in vertue,

Make arguments of right and comfort in her,145

That clothe them like the poore web of a spinner.

Clermont. Now, to my challenge. What's the place, the weapon?

Bal. Soft, sir! let first your challenge be received.

Hee would not touch, nor see it.

Cler. Possible!

How did you then?

Bal. Left it, in his despight. 150

But when hee saw mee enter so expectlesse,

To heare his base exclaimes of "murther, murther,"

Made mee thinke noblesse lost, in him quicke buried.

Cler. They are the breathing sepulchres of noblesse:

No trulier noble men then lions pictures,155

Hung up for signes, are lions. Who knowes not

That lyons the more soft kept, are more servile?

And looke how lyons close kept, fed by hand,

Lose quite th'innative fire of spirit and greatnesse

That lyons free breathe, forraging for prey,160

And grow so grosse that mastifes, curs, and mungrils

Bal. Tis base, tis base; and yet they thinke them high.

Cler. So children mounted on their hobby-horse

Thinke they are riding, when with wanton toile

They beare what should beare them. A man may well175

Compare them to those foolish great-spleen'd cammels,

That to their high heads beg'd of Jove hornes higher;

Whose most uncomely and ridiculous pride

When hee had satisfied, they could not use,

But where they went upright before, they stoopt,180

And bore their heads much lower for their hornes: Simil[iter.]

Bal. That makes their bodies fat. I faine would know

How many millions of our other Nobles

Would make one Guise. There is a true tenth Worthy,

Who, did not one act onely blemish him—

Cler. One act! what one?

Bal. One that (though yeeres past done) 200

Stickes by him still, and will distaine him ever.

Cler. Good heaven! wherein? what one act can you name

Bal. To satisfie you, twas the Massacre.

Cler. The Massacre! I thought twas some such blemish.205

Bal. O, it was hainous!

Cler. To a brutish sense,

But not a manly reason. Wee so tender

The vile part in us that the part divine

We see in hell, and shrinke not. Who was first

Head of that Massacre?

Bal. The Guise.

Cler. Tis nothing so. 210

Who was in fault for all the slaughters made

In Ilion, and about it? Were the Greekes?

Was it not Paris ravishing the Queene

Of LacÆdemon; breach of shame and faith,

And all the lawes of hospitalitie?215

This is the beastly slaughter made of men,

When truth is over-throwne, his lawes corrupted;

When soules are smother'd in the flatter'd flesh,

Slaine bodies are no more then oxen slaine.

Bal. Differ not men from oxen?

Cler. Who sayes so? 220

But see wherein; in the understanding rules

Of their opinions, lives, and actions;

In their communities of faith and reason.

Was not the wolfe that nourisht Romulus

Bal. That makes against you.

Cler. Not, sir, if you note

That by that deede, the actions difference make

Twixt men and beasts, and not their names nor formes.

Had faith, nor shame, all hospitable rights

Beene broke by Troy, Greece had not made that slaughter.230

Had that beene sav'd (sayes a philosopher)

The Iliads and Odysses had beene lost.

Had Faith and true Religion beene prefer'd

Religious Guise had never massacerd.

Bal. Well, sir, I cannot, when I meete with you,235

But thus digresse a little, for my learning,

From any other businesse I entend.

But now the voyage we resolv'd for Cambray,

I told the Guise, beginnes; and wee must haste.

And till the Lord Renel hath found some meane240

(Conspiring with the Countesse) to make sure

Your sworne wreake on her husband, though this fail'd,

In my so brave command wee'll spend the time,

Sometimes in training out in skirmishes

And battailes all our troopes and companies;245

And sometimes breathe your brave Scotch running horse,

Cler. Ile see my lord the Guise againe before

Wee take our journey?

Bal. O, sir, by all meanes; 255

You cannot be too carefull of his love,

That ever takes occasion to be raising

Your virtues past the reaches of this age,

And rankes you with the best of th'ancient Romanes.

Cler. That praise at no part moves mee, but the worth260

Of all hee can give others spher'd in him.

Bal. Hee yet is thought to entertaine strange aymes.

Cler. He may be well; yet not, as you thinke, strange.

His strange aymes are to crosse the common custome

Of servile Nobles; in which hee's so ravisht,265