Come, like a travelled dove, and bring thee peace.
_Bel._ Indeed!
_Jaf._ By all our loves!
_Bel._ 'Tis hard to part:
But sure no falsehood ever looked so fairly.
Farewell! remember twelve. _[Exit, L. D._
_Jaf._ (C.) Let Heav'n forget me,
When I remember not thy truth, thy love!
_Enter Pierre, R._
_Pierre._ Jaffier!
_Jaf._ (L.) Who calls?
_Pierre._ (R. C.) A friend, that could have wished
T' have found thee otherwise employed. "What, hunt
A wife, on the dull soil! Sure, a stanch husband,
Of all hounds is the dullest. Wilt thou never,
Never be weaned from caudles and confections?
What feminine tales hast thou been listening to,
Of unaired shirts? catarrhs, and tooth-ache, got
By thin-soled shoes? Damnation! than a fellow,
Chosen to be a sharer in the destruction
Of a whole people, should sneak thus in corners,
To waste his time, and fool his mind with love!
_Jaf._ (L. C.) May not a man, then, trifle out an hour
With a kind woman, and not wrong his calling!
_Pierre._ (R.) Not in a cause like ours.
_Jaf._ Then, friend, our cause
Is in a damned condition: for I'll tell thee,
That canker-worm, called lechery, has touched it;
'Tis tainted vilely. Wouldst thou think it? Renault,
(That mortified, old, withered, winter rogue,)
Loves simple fornication like a priest;
I've found him out at watering for my wife;
He visited her last night, like a kind guardian;
Faith, she has some temptations, that's the truth on't.
_Pierre._ (R. C.) He durst not wrong his trust!
_Jaf._ 'Twas something late, though,
To take the freedom of a lady's chamber.
_Pierre._ Was she in bed?
_Jaf._ Yes, 'faith! in virgin sheets,
"White as her bosom, Pierre; dished neatly up,--
"Might tempt a weaker appetite to taste."
_Pierre._ Patience guide me!
He used no violence?
_Jaf._ No, no: out on't, violence!
Played with her neck; brushed her with his grey beard;
Struggled and touzed; tickled her till she squeaked a little,
May be, or so--but not a jot of violence--
_Pierre._ [Runs to R. D.] Damn him!
_Jaf._ Ay, so say I: but, hush, no more on't!
Sure it is near the hour
We all should meet for our concluding orders:
Will the ambassador be here in person?
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