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The Master Workman [glancing at Nahum, who seems absorbed in his religious ecstasy.

Imprudent!
[To Enoch.] Imprudent! We have still to put in place
The royal chair of state upon the platform.—
Assist me, friend.

[They ascend the steps, carrying a great chair heavily gilded, covered with scarlet velvet, and displaying on its back the Protector's arms embroidered in gold in high relief. They place the chair in the middle of the platform.

Tom [glancing at the chair.
Assist me, friend. A goodly chair, in sooth!
He'll be a king therein!
Enoch [arranging the chair, to the master-workman.
He'll be a king therein! Upon the night
Whereof you spoke, it was myself, methinks,
Who placed for Charles a noble oaken block,
Set forth with holdfasts and with double chain;
All new it was, and had before been used
For none save my Lord Strafford.
A Third Workman. For none save my Lord Strafford. Who was the man
Who bade us hammer not so noisily?
The Master Workman.
'Twas Tomlinson, the colonel of the guard.
He bade us not advance the agony,
And told us that our hammers' ceaseless din
Deprived the culprit of his final sleep.
Nahum.He slept! 'twas strange!
A Fourth Workman. He slept! 'twas strange! At that ill-omened hour,
One who had seen us, in the darkness hid,
Building a scaffold by the light of torches,
Like grave-diggers, or like those demons, who,
By their infernal art, th' abodes of hell
Rear in a single night,—such witness would