!

_Hampden._ Then each keep silence, praying God to spare
His anger, cast not England quite away
In this her visitation!

_A Puritan._ Seven years long
The Midianite drove Israel into dens
And caves. Till God sent forth a mighty man,

_PYM enters_

Even Gideon!

_Pym._ Wentworth's come: nor sickness, care,
The ravaged body nor the ruined soul,
More than the winds and waves that beat his ship,
Could keep him from the King. He has not reached
Whitehall: they've hurried up a Council there
To lose no time and find him work enough.
Where's Loudon? your Scots' Parliament....

_Loudon._ Holds firm:
We were about to read reports.

_Pym._ The King
Has just dissolved your Parliament.

_Loudon and other Scots._ Great God!
An oath-breaker! Stand by us, England, then!

_Pym._ The King's too sanguine; doubtless Wentworth's here;
But still some little form might be kept up.

_Hampden._ Now speak, Vane! Rudyard, you had much to say!

_Hollis._ The rumor's false, then....

_Pym._ Ay, the Court gives out
His own concerns have brought him back: I know
'Tis the King calls him. Wentworth supersedes
The tribe of Cottingtons and Hamiltons
Whose part is played; there's talk enough, by this,--
Merciful talk, the King thinks: time is now
To turn the record's last and bloody leaf
Which, chronicling a nation's great despair,
Tells they were long rebellious, and their lord
Indulgent, till, all kind expedients tried,
He drew the sword on them and reigned in peace.
Laud's laying his religion on the Scots
Was the last gentle entry: the new page
Shall run, the King thinks, "Wentworth thrust it down
At the sword's point."

_A Puritan._ I'll do your bidding, Pym,
England's and God's--one blow!

_Pym._ A goodly thing--
We all say, friends, it is a goodly thing
To right that England. Heaven grows dark above:
Let's snatch one moment ere the thunder fall,
To say how well the English spirit comes out
Beneath it! All have done their best, indeed,
From lion Eliot, that grand Englishman,
To the least here: and who, the least one here,
When she is saved (for her redemption dawns
Dimly, most dimly, but it dawns--it dawns)
Who'd give at any price his hope away
Of being named along wi