Palm. Alas, I came but—­ [Kneeling.

Poly. Add not to your crime
A lie:  I’ll hear you speak some other time. 
How?  Eubulus! nor time, nor thy disguise,
Can keep thee undiscovered from my eyes. 
A guard there! seize them all.

Rho. Yield, sir; what use of valour can be shewn?

Pala. One, and unarmed, against a multitude!

Leon. Oh for a sword! [He reaches at one of the Guards’ halberds,
                           and is seized behind.
I wonnot lose my breath
In fruitless prayers; but beg a speedy death.

Palm. O spare Leonidas, and punish me!

Poly. Mean girl, thou want’st an advocate for thee. 
Now the mysterious knot will be untied;
Whether the young king lives, or where he died: 
To-morrow’s dawn shall the dark riddle clear,
Crown all my joys, and dissipate my fear. [Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE I.

  PALAMEDE, STRATO.  PALAMEDE with a letter in his hand.

Pala. This evening, sayest thou? will they both be here?

Stra. Yes, sir, both my old master, and your mistress’s father.  The old gentlemen ride hard this journey; they say, it shall be the last time they will see the town; and both of them are so pleased with this marriage, which they have concluded for you, that I am afraid they will live some years longer to trouble you, with the joy of it.

Pala. But this is such an unreasonable thing, to impose upon me to be married to-morrow; ’tis hurrying a man to execution, without giving him time to say his prayers.

Stra. Yet, if I might advise you, sir, you should not delay it; for your younger brother comes up with them, and is got already into their favours.  He has gained much upon my old master, by finding fault with innkeepers’ bills, and by starving us, and our horses, to shew his frugality; and he is very well with your mistress’s father, by giving him recipes for the spleen, gout and scurvy, and other infirmities of old age.

Pala. I’ll rout him, and his country education:  Pox on him, I remember him before I travelled, he had nothing in him but mere jockey; used to talk loud, and make matches, and was all for the crack of the field:  Sense and wit were as much banished from his discourse, as they are when the court goes out of town to a horse race.  Go now and provide your master’s lodgings.

Stra. I go, sir. [Exit.

Pala. It vexes me to the heart, to leave all my designs with Doralice unfinished; to have flown her so often to a mark, and still to be bobbed at retrieve:  If I had once enjoyed her, though I could not have satisfied my stomach with the feast, at least I should have relished my mouth a little; but now—­