MARMADUKE For this purpose
              Should he resolve to taint her Soul by means
              Which bathe the limbs in sweat to think of them;
              Should he, by tales which would draw tears from iron,
              Work on her nature, and so turn compassion
              And gratitude to ministers of vice,
              And make the spotless spirit of filial love
              Prime mover in a plot to damn his Victim
              Both soul and body—­

WALLACE ’Tis too horrible;
              Oswald, what say you to it?

LACY Hew him down,
              And fling him to the ravens.

MARMADUKE But his aspect
              It is so meek, his countenance so venerable.

WALLACE (with an appearance of mistrust)
              But how, what say you, Oswald?

LACY (at the same moment)
                                              Stab him, were it
              Before the Altar.

MARMADUKE What, if he were sick,
              Tottering upon the very verge of life,
              And old, and blind—­

LACY Blind, say you?

OSWALD (coming forward)
                                                    Are we Men,
              Or own we baby Spirits?  Genuine courage
              Is not an accidental quality,
              A thing dependent for its casual birth
              On opposition and impediment. 
              Wisdom, if Justice speak the word, beats down
              The giant’s strength; and, at the voice of Justice,
              Spares not the worm.  The giant and the worm—­
              She weighs them in one scale.  The wiles of woman,
              And craft of age, seducing reason, first
              Made weakness a protection, and obscured
              The moral shapes of things.  His tender cries
              And helpless innocence—­do they protect
              The infant lamb? and shall the infirmities,
              Which have enabled this enormous Culprit
              To perpetrate his crimes, serve as a Sanctuary
              To cover him from punishment?  Shame!—­Justice,
              Admitting no resistance, bends alike
              The feeble and the strong.  She needs not here
              Her bonds and chains, which make the mighty feeble. 
             —­We recognise in this old Man a victim
              Prepared already for the sacrifice.

LACY By heaven, his words are reason!