Sold. I warrant you, colonel, we’ll unkennel him.

Lor. And make what haste you can, to bring out the lady.—­What say you, father?  Burglary is but a venial sin among soldiers.

Dom. I shall absolve them, because he is an enemy of the church.—­There is a proverb, I confess, which says, that dead men tell no tales; but let your soldiers apply it at their own perils.

Lor. What, take away a man’s wife, and kill him too!  The wickedness of this old villain startles me, and gives me a twinge for my own sin, though it comes far short of his.—­Hark you, soldiers, be sure you use as little violence to him as is possible.

Dom. Hold a little; I have thought better how to secure him, with less danger to us.

Lor. O miracle, the friar is grown conscientious!

Dom. The old king, you know, is just murdered, and the persons that did it are unknown; let the soldiers seize him for one of the assassinates, and let me alone to accuse him afterwards.

Lor. I cry thee mercy with all my heart, for suspecting a friar of the least good nature; what, would you accuse him wrongfully?

Dom. I must confess, ’tis wrongful, quoad hoc, as to the fact itself; but ’tis rightful, quoad hunc, as to this heretical rogue, whom we must dispatch.  He has railed against the church, which is a fouler crime than the murder of a thousand kings. Omne majus continet in se minus: He, that is an enemy to the church, is an enemy unto heaven; and he, that is an enemy to heaven, would have killed the king if he had been in the circumstances of doing it; so it is not wrongful to accuse him.

Lor. I never knew a churchman, if he were personally offended, but he would bring in heaven by hook or crook into his quarrel.—­Soldiers, do as you were first ordered. [Exeunt Soldiers.

Dom. What was’t you ordered them?  Are you sure it’s safe, and not scandalous?

Lor. Somewhat near your own design, but not altogether so mischievous.  The people are infinitely discontented, as they have reason; and mutinies there are, or will be, against the queen:  now I am content to put him thus far into the plot, that he should be secured as a traitor; but he shall only be prisoner at the soldiers’ quarters; and when I am out of reach, he shall be released.

Dom. And what will become of me then? for when he is free, he will infallibly accuse me.

Lor. Why then, father, you must have recourse to your infallible church-remedies; lie impudently, and swear devoutly, and, as you told me but now, let him try whose oath will be first believed.  Retire, I hear them coming. [They withdraw.

  Enter the Soldiers with GOMEZ struggling on their backs.

Gom. Help, good Christians! help, neighbours! my house is broken open by force, and I am ravished, and like to be assassinated!—­What do you mean, villains? will you carry me away, like a pedlar’s pack, upon your backs? will you murder a man in plain day-light?