Page:CromwellHugo.djvu/157

'Twas treachery, I tell thee! I was led,
Blindly toward a new offence; in time
I saw the snare.
Cromwell. I saw the snare. What snare?
Carr. I saw the snare.} What snare? Come sit thee down.
Thy life's to me more sacred at this hour
Than is the hog's flesh to the hungry hind,
Or Jonah's bones to the gigantic fish
That saved him from the waves in his huge maw.
[Cromwell sits down, with a curious and suspicious glance at Carr.
Cromwell [aside.]With patience I must let him say his say,
Carr.Listen: thy life is menaced by a plot,
And thou dost comprehend—I make no doubt—
That, if nought else were threatened, I would not
Waste words and steps to give thee warning on't.
Rather thou'lt do me justice to believe
That it would be my glory and my pride
To lend the saints my aid therein. But now
The question is to rescue Israel.
I save thee, by the way; so much the worse!
Cromwell.This plot, does it in very truth exist?
And know you where they meet?
Carr. And know you where they meet? I came from thence.
Cromwell.Is't so? Who from the Tower set you free?
Carr.Tremble! 'Twas Barkstead!
Cromwell. Tremble! 'Twas Barkstead! Barkstead false to me!
But he was one who signed the King's death-sentence.
Carr. The hope of pardon 'twas that conquered him.
Cromwell.Their purpose, then, is Stuart to restore?
Carr.List yet again. When at the meeting-place
At daybreak I arrived, it was my hope
That first, and above all, it was designed