S state._]
[_To STRAFFORD._] You know all, then! Why I thought
It looked best that the King should save you,--Charles
Alone; 'tis a shame that you should owe me aught.
Or no, not shame! Strafford, you'll not feel shame
At being saved by me?

_Hollis._ All true! Oh Strafford,
She saves you! all her deed! this lady's deed!
And is the boat in readiness? You, friend,
Are Billingsley, no doubt. Speak to her, Strafford!
See how she trembles, waiting for your voice!
The world's to learn its bravest story yet.

_Lady Carlisle._ Talk afterward! Long nights in France enough,
To sit beneath the vines and talk of home.

_Strafford._ You love me, child? Ah, Strafford can be loved
As well as Vane! I could escape, then?

_Lady Carlisle._ Haste!
Advance the torches, Bryan!

_Strafford._ I will die.
They call me proud: but England had no right,
When she encountered me--her strength to mine--
To find the chosen foe a craven. Girl,
I fought her to the utterance, I fell,
I am hers now, and I will die. Beside,
The lookers-on! Eliot is all about
This place, with his most uncomplaining brow.

_Lady Carlisle._ Strafford!

_Strafford._ I think if you could know how much
I love you, you would be repaid, my friend!

_Lady Carlisle._ Then, for my sake!

_Strafford._ Even for your sweet sake,
I stay.

_Hollis._ For _their_ sake!

_Strafford._ To bequeath a stain?
Leave me! Girl, humor me and let me die!

_Lady Carlisle._ Bid him escape--wake, King! Bid him escape!

_Strafford._ True, I will go! Die, and forsake the King?
I'll not draw back from the last service.

_Lady Carlisle._ Strafford!

_Strafford._ And, after all, what is disgrace to me?
Let us come, child! That it should end this way!
Lead them! but I feel strangely: it was not
To end this way.

_Lady Carlisle._ Lean--lean on me!

_Strafford._ My King!
Oh, had he trusted me--his friend of friends!

_Lady Carlisle._ I can support him, Hollis!

_Strafford._ Not this way!
This gate--I dreamed of it, this very gate.

_Lady Carlisle._ It opens on the river: our good boat
Is moored below, our friends are there.

_Strafford._ The same:
Only with something ominous and