Alarum within:  excursions:  enter FITZWATER, BRUCE.

FITZ.  Now doth fair fortune offer hope of speed;
But howsoe’er we speed, good cousin Bruce,
March with three hundred bows and pikes to Windsor,
Spreading a rumour that the day is ours,
As ours it shall be with the help of heaven. 
Blunt loves our part far better than the king’s,
And will, I gage my life, upon the news
Surrender up the castle to our use. 
By this means shall you help us to a hold,
Howe’er it chance:  set free your lady mother,
That lives in prison there with your young brother.

BRUCE.  Away, good uncle, to the battle go! 
But that a certain good ensues, I know,
For all the world I would not leave you so.

FITZ.  Away, away! 
God send thee Windsor:  us this happy day.

    Alarum still.  Enter HUBERT and MATILDA.[334]

HUB.  You cannot hide yourself, Matilda; no disguise
Will serve the turn:  now must you to the king,
And all these wars will with your presence cease. 
Yield you to him, he soon will yield to peace.

MAT.  They say thou took’st some pity of a child,
The king appointing thee to sear his eyes;
Men do report thee to be just of word,
And a dear lover of my lord the king. 
If thou didst that, if thou be one of these,
Pity Matilda, prostrate at thy feet.

HUB.  I sav’d young Arthur’s eyes, and pity thee;
My word is just, which I have given the king;
The king I love, and thee I know he loves: 
Compare these, then how can I pleasure thee?

MAT.  By letting me escape to Dunmow Abbey,
Where I will end my life a votary.

HUB.  And the king die with doting on thy love?

MAT.  No, no; this fire of lust would be soon laid,
If once he knew me sworn a holy maid.

HUB.  Thy tears and love of virtue have the power
To make me at an instant true and false: 
True to distressed beauty and rare chastity;
False to King John, that holds the sight of thee
Dearer than England or earth’s empery. 
Go, happy soul, that in so ill an age
Hast such fair beauty for thy heritage: 
Yet go not so alone.  Dost hear, tall soldier?
                           [Call a Soldier. 
I know thee honest:  guide this gentle maid
To Dunmow Abbey:  she is one I know. 
I will excuse thee, and content thee well;
My signet take, that ye may pass unsearch’d.

MAT.  Kind Hubert, many prayers for this good deed
Shall on my beads be daily numbered.

[Exeunt.

    Enter LEICESTER, RICHMOND, FITZWATER.

LEI.  O treble heat of honour, toil, and rage! 
How cheers Earl Richmond?  Fitzwater, speak, old man. 
We are now near together:  answer me.

FITZ.  Leicester, the more our woe,
The likelier to be taken by the foe.

RICH.  O, let not such a thought abuse thy age! 
We’ll never yield us to the tyrant’s rage.