UPSALL. 
                    At last, the heart
Of every honest man must speak or break!

Enter GOVERNOR ENDICOTT with his halberdiers.

ENDICOTT. 
What is this stir and tumult in the street?

MERRY. 
Worshipful sir, the whipping of a girl,
And her old father howling from the prison.

ENDICOTT (to his halberdiers). 
Go on.

CHRISTISON. 
       Antiochus!  Antiochus! 
O thou that slayest the Maccabees!  The Lord
Shall smite thee with incurable disease,
And no man shall endure to carry thee!

MERRY. 
Peace, old blasphemer!

CHRISTISON. 
                    I both feel and see
The presence and the waft of death go forth
Against thee, and already thou dost look
Like one that’s dead!

MERRY (pointing). 
            And there is your own son,
Worshipful sir, abetting the sedition.

ENDICOTT. 
Arrest him.  Do not spare him.

MERRY (aside). 
                        His own child! 
There is some special providence takes care
That none shall be too happy in this world! 
His own first-born.

ENDICOTT. 
                  O Absalom, my son!

[Exeunt; the Governor with his halberdiers ascending the steps of his house.

SCENE III. —­ The Governor’s private room.  Papers upon the table.

ENDICOTT and BELLINGHAM

ENDICOTT. 
There is a ship from England has come in,
Bringing despatches and much news from home,
His majesty was at the Abbey crowned;
And when the coronation was complete
There passed a mighty tempest o’er the city,
Portentous with great thunderings and lightnings.

BELLINGHAM. 
After his father’s, if I well remember,
There was an earthquake, that foreboded evil.

ENDICOTT. 
Ten of the Regicides have been put to death! 
The bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw
Have been dragged from their graves, and publicly
Hanged in their shrouds at Tyburn.

BELLINGHAM. 
                             Horrible!

ENDICOTT. 
Thus the old tyranny revives again. 
Its arm is long enough to reach us here,
As you will see.  For, more insulting still
Than flaunting in our faces dead men’s shrouds,
Here is the King’s Mandamus, taking from us,
From this day forth, all power to punish Quakers.

BELLINGHAM. 
That takes from us all power; we are but puppets,
And can no longer execute our laws.

ENDICOTT. 
His Majesty begins with pleasant words,
“Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well;”
Then with a ruthless hand he strips from me
All that which makes me what I am; as if
From some old general in the field, grown gray
In service, scarred with many wounds,
Just at the hour of victory, he should strip
His badge of office and his well-gained honors,
And thrust him back into the ranks again.