Pedro the Cruel
'Tis neither for your safety nor my honour
That you should cross our lines.
Enri. 'Twas rash, I own,
But less so than it seems. The fault was yours—
I grew impatient of your indecision.
So near, yet not to meet! First, here's a letter
I bring you from the King of Aragon.
Fad. Give it me. (He burns it.)
Enri. Madman! stay! what have you done?
If you so feared detection could you not
Have read the letter first?
Fad. I am not curious
To know what it contains.
Enri. What is your meaning?
You anger me, by Heaven, yet I've scarce time
To chide you for your strangeness. I must bring
Assurance to the Court of Aragon
That we may count on you, else get I naught
But the bare shelter to my head he grants me.
We do not ask you to throw off the mask—
You are more useful to us thus—but only
To let us know your plan and work with you.
Fad. Then let us talk of other things, my brother—
Tis long since we have met, and may be long
Before we meet again. And as for that
You came to talk of, let it be forgotten!
I mean no other than I seem to mean,
That you should cross our lines.
Enri. 'Twas rash, I own,
But less so than it seems. The fault was yours—
I grew impatient of your indecision.
So near, yet not to meet! First, here's a letter
I bring you from the King of Aragon.
Fad. Give it me. (He burns it.)
Enri. Madman! stay! what have you done?
If you so feared detection could you not
Have read the letter first?
Fad. I am not curious
To know what it contains.
Enri. What is your meaning?
You anger me, by Heaven, yet I've scarce time
To chide you for your strangeness. I must bring
Assurance to the Court of Aragon
That we may count on you, else get I naught
But the bare shelter to my head he grants me.
We do not ask you to throw off the mask—
You are more useful to us thus—but only
To let us know your plan and work with you.
Fad. Then let us talk of other things, my brother—
Tis long since we have met, and may be long
Before we meet again. And as for that
You came to talk of, let it be forgotten!
I mean no other than I seem to mean,
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