[Exit.]

Enter ABIGAIL.

FRIAR BARNARDINE. What, all dead, save only Abigail!

ABIGAIL. And I shall die too, for I feel death coming.
Where is the friar that convers'd with me? [121]

FRIAR BARNARDINE. O, he is gone to see the other nuns.

ABIGAIL. I sent for him; but, seeing you are come,
Be you my ghostly father: and first know,
That in this house I liv'd religiously,
Chaste, and devout, much sorrowing for my sins;
But, ere I came--

FRIAR BARNARDINE. What then?

ABIGAIL. I did offend high heaven so grievously
As I am almost desperate for my sins;
And one offense torments me more than all.
You knew Mathias and Don Lodowick?

FRIAR BARNARDINE. Yes; what of them?

ABIGAIL. My father did contract me to 'em both;
First to Don Lodowick: him I never lov'd;
Mathias was the man that I held dear,
And for his sake did I become a nun.

FRIAR BARNARDINE. So: say how was their end?

ABIGAIL. Both, jealous of my love, envied [122] each other;
And by my father's practice, [123] which is there
[Gives writing.]
Set down at large, the gallants were both slain.

FRIAR BARNARDINE. O, monstrous villany!

ABIGAIL. To work my peace, this I confess to thee:
Reveal it not; for then my father dies.

FRIAR BARNARDINE. Know that confession must not be reveal'd;
The canon-law forbids it, and the priest
That makes it known, being degraded first,
Shall be condemn'd, and then sent to the fire.

ABIGAIL. So I have heard; pray, therefore, keep it close.
Death seizeth on my heart: ah, gentle friar,
Convert my father that he may be sav'd,
And witness that I die a Christian!
[Dies.]

FRIAR BARNARDINE. Ay, and a virgin too; that grieves me most.
But I must to the Jew, and exclaim on him,
And make him stand in fear of me.

Re-enter FRIAR JACOMO.

FRIAR JACOMO. O brother, all the nuns are dead! let's bury them.

FRIAR BARNARDINE. First help to bury this; then go with me,
And help me to exclaim against the Jew.

FRIAR JACOMO. Why, what has he done?

FRIAR BARNARDINE. A thing that makes me tremble to unfold.

FRIAR JACOMO. What, has he crucified a child? [124]

FRIAR BARNARDINE. No, but a worse thing: 'twas told me in shrift;
Thou know'st 'tis death, a