Bridget: Do you think father is right, grandmother?  Saying that it had to be?

Mrs. Cromwell: Yes, I do think so.

Elizabeth: He betrayed his own people.  It was that.

Mrs. Cromwell: There could be no safety or hope while he lived.

Bridget: Yes.  He betrayed his own people.  That’s it.

Mrs. Cromwell: Kings must love, too.

Elizabeth: When your father wanted to give him back his throne, a little simple honesty in the King would have saved all.  But he could not come to that.

Bridget: The drums have stopped.

Mrs. Cromwell: Is Henry with your father?

Bridget: Yes.

Mrs. Cromwell: What is the time?

Elizabeth: Nearly one o’clock.

Bridget: It must be past one.

Mrs. Cromwell: Oliver will be the foremost man in England.

Bridget: Henry says he could be king.

Elizabeth: That he would never be.  I know.

Mrs. Cromwell: He will have to guide all.

Bridget: Don’t you wish it could have been done without this, grandmother?

Mrs. Cromwell: When the world labours in anger, child, you cannot name the hour.

Bridget: But Henry thinks it is right, too.

Mrs. Cromwell: If this be wrong, all was wrong.

Bridget: Yes.  Thank you, grandmother.  That is what I wanted.  It was necessary.

Elizabeth: Henry meant to come back before the end, didn’t he?

Bridget: He said so.

Mrs. Cromwell: It’s very cold.

Bridget: I think it will snow again.

Elizabeth: What are the drums beating again for?

Bridget: Perhaps—­I don’t know.  Will you have another shawl, grandmother?

Mrs. Cromwell: No, thank you.

(IRETON comes in.)

Bridget: Has anything happened?

Ireton: Not yet.  In a minute or two.  At half-past one.  It’s three minutes yet.

Bridget: Is father there?

Ireton: Yes.

Elizabeth: Not alone?

Ireton: No.  Fairfax and Harrison—­five of them.

Mrs. Cromwell: The King—­very brave, I suppose?

Ireton: Yes.  That was inevitable.  We are old campaigners.

Elizabeth: Oliver says that he has been noble since death was certain.

Ireton: Yes.

Bridget: If he had but lived so.

Ireton: He made life ignoble.  He would have made it ignoble again, and always.  He was a king and he despoiled his people.  When that is, kings must perish.

(There is a movement and sound of voices in the streets.  IRETON opens the window.  ELIZABETH and BRIDGET stand with him.)