Page:CromwellHugo.djvu/187

Rochester. What! I? Swear that you did not swear. What! I?
Richard.Come, reverend sir, be frank upon this point.
Rochester [aside.]The devil!
Richard. The devil! No, you are not what you seem.
'Neath a saint's mask, you hide a traitor's eye.
Rochester [in consternation, aside.
I'm lost.
[Aloud.] My lord—
Richard. My lord—Is't true?
Rochester [aside.] …Is't true? A parlous plight!
Richard.I know all.—But betray me not.
Rochester [surprised, aside.] …ay me not. How now!
I was about to make the same request.
What says he?
Richard. What says he? I by nature wayward am.
I have friends everywhere; and though, like you,
A Puritan, I drank with Cavaliers.
How will it profit you to tell my father
That in that den his son caroused with them,
And for a little wine, the which, in truth,
I drank but ill, cause me to be expelled
E'en as a scapegoat from the sect?
Rochester [aside.] …scapegoat from the sect? I'm saved!
Richard.I know my father is, in everything,
Alert to know whatever's said and done.
But had our meeting aught to do with plots?
For you, my friend, are numbered 'mongst his spies.
I divine all!
Rochester [aside.] … all! He doth in truth divine!
My skill in this saint's rôle is past compare!
Its spirit I so thoroughly have grasped,
One takes me for a spy, one for a thief!
[Aloud, bowing.]My lord, your Grace doth too much honour me!