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Cromwell [aside.]Assassins! you will wear the like ere long;
And Haman's gibbet's none too high for you!
Ormond [to the Cavaliers.]Moreover, he'd have dangered our success;
And if he be detained, I deem it cause
For gratulation.
Cromwell [aside.] …tulation. So do I, in truth.
Ormond. With Wilmot I am always terrified.
But we draw near the end.
Cromwell [aside.] …aw near the end. 'Tis the fit word.
Ormond.See to what point Wilmot is mad, my friends.
Old Noll a pretty daughter hath, 'tis said.
Wilmot 's enamoured of her; nought care I
For that.
Cromwell [aside.] Audacious villain!
Ormond [continuing.] …dacious villain! He hath writ
A madrigal in honour of the maid.
A Wilmot play at rhyming, save the mark!
But, worse than that, forgetting what is due
My age and rank, he would have read it to me!
I the affront received as it deserved!
But lo! when I, in agonized suspense,
Awaited news of him, there came a letter—
A letter of importance, so 'twas said.
In eager haste I open it and find
Fast-sealed therein the cursèd madrigal
Commemorating little Cromwell's charms!
Cromwell [aside.]My Frances! in my presence thus to talk of her!
Rosebery [laughing, to Lord Ormond.
Such persecution is past bounds, my lord!
Downie [laughing.]To make one read his verses, as it were,