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SCENE I.

ACT I.

Enter CHARALOIS with a paper, ROMONT and CHARMI.

Charmi. SIR, I may move the court to serve your will;

But therein shall both wrong you and myself.
Rom. Why think you so, sir?

Charmi. Because I am familiar

With what will be their answer: They will say, Tis against law, and argue me of ignorance, For offering them the motion.

Rom. You know not, sir,

How, in this cause, they may dispense with law, And therefore frame not you their answer for them,

But do your part.

Charmi. I love the cause so well,

That I could run the hazard of a check for it.
Rom. From whom?

Charmi. Some of the bench that watch to give it,
More than to do the office that they sit for:
But give me, sir, my fee.

Rom. Now you are noble.

Charmi. I shall deserve this better yet, in giving

My lord some counsel (if he please to hear it)
Than I shall do with pleading.

Rom. What may it be, sir?

Charmi. That it would please his lordship, as the presidents

And counsellors of court come by, to stand
Here and but shew yourself, and to some one
Or two make his request: There is a minute,
When a man's presence speaks in his own cause,
More than the tongues of twenty advocates.
Rom. I have urged that.

Enter ROCHFORT and DU CROY.
Charmi. Their lordships here are coming,

I must go get me a place. You'll find me in court,
And at your service.
[Exit Charmi.
Rom. Now, put on your spirits!
Du Croy. The ease that you prepare yourself,
my lord,

In giving up the place you hold in court,

Will prove, I fear, a trouble in the state;
And that no slight one.

Roch. Pray you, sir, no more.

Rom. Now, sir, lose not this offered means:
Their looks

Fixed on you with a pitying earnestness,
Invite you to demand their furtherance
To your good purpose. This is such a dulness,
So foolish and untimely, as-

Du Croy. You know him?

Roch. I do; and much lament the sudden fall Of his brave house. It is young Charalois, Son to the marshal, from whom he inherits His fame and virtues only.

Rom. Ha! they name you.

Du Croy. His father died in prison two days

since.

Roch. Yes, to the shame of this ungrateful
state;

That such a master in the art of war,
So noble and so highly meriting
From this forgetful country, should, for want
Of means to satisfy his creditors

The sum he took up for the general good,
Meet with an end so infamous.

Rom. Dare you ever hope for like opportunity?
Du Croy. My good lord!

Roch. My wish bring comfort to you.
Du Croy. The time calls us.
Roch. Good morrow, Colonel!

[Exeunt Rochfort and Du Croy.

Rom. This obstinate spleen,

You think becomes your sorrow, and sorts well With your black suits: But, grant me wit or judgment,

And, by the freedom of an honest man,

And a true friend to boot, I swear, 'tis shameful; And therefore flatter not yourself with hope, Your sable habit, with the hat and cloak,

No, though the ribbons help, have power to work them

To what you would: For those that had no eyes
To see the great acts of your father, will not,
From any fashion sorrow can put on,
Be taught to know their duties.

Char. If they will not,

They are too old to learn, and I too young
To give them counsel; since, if they partake
The understanding and the hearts of men,
They will prevent my words and tears: If not,
What can persuasion, though made eloquent
With grief, work upon such as have changed na-

tures

With the most savage beast? Blest, blest be ever The memory of that happy age, when justice Had no guards to keep off wronged innocence From flying to her succours, and, in that, Assurance of redress: Whereas now, Romont, The damned with more ease may ascend from hell,

Than we arrive at her. One Cerberus there Forbids the passage; in our courts a thousand,

As loud and fertile-headed; and the client,
That wants the sops to fill their ravenous throats,
Must hope for no access. Why should I, then,
Attempt impossibilities, you, friend, being
Too well acquainted with my dearth of means
To make my entrance that way?

Rom. Would I were not!

But, sir! you have a cause, a cause so just,
Of such necessity, not to be deferred,
As would compel a maid, whose foot was never
Set o'er her father's threshold, nor, within
The house where she was born, ever spake word,
Which was not ushered with pure virgin blushes,
To drown the tempest of a pleader's tongue,
And force corruption to give back the hire
It took against her. Let examples move you.
You see men great in birth, esteem, and fortune,
Rather than lose a scruple of their right,
Fawn basely upon such, whose gowns put off,
They would disdain for servants.

Char. And to these can I become a suitor?
Rom. Without loss:

Would you consider, that, to gain their favours,
Our chastest dames put off their modesties,
Soldiers forget their honours, usurers

Make sacrifice of gold, poets of wit,

And men religious part with fame and goodness. Be therefore won to use the means that may Advance your pious ends.

Char. You shall o'ercome.

Rom. And you receive the glory. Pray you now practise.

'Tis well.

Enter Old NoVALL, LILADAM, and three
Creditors.

Char. Not look on me!

Rom. You must have patience-Offer it again.

Char. And be again contemned!
Nov. I know what's to be done.-

1 Cred. And, that your lordship

Will please to do your knowledge, we offer first
Our thankful hearts here, as a bounteous earnest
To what we will add.-

Nov. One word more of this,
I am your enemy. Am I a man,
Your bribes can work on? Ha?

Lilad. Friends! you mistake

The way to win my lord; he must not hear this,
But I, as one in favour, in his sight,
May hearken to you for my profit. Sir!
hear them.

-I

pray

Nov. 'Tis well.

Lilad. Observe him now.

Nov. Your cause being good, and your pre-
ceedings so,

Without corruption I am your friend;
Speak your desires.

2 Cred. Oh, they are charitable;
The marshal stood engaged unto us three,

Two hundred thousand crowns, which by his death

We are defeated of. For which great loss We aim at nothing but his rotten flesh; Nor is that cruelty.

1 Cred. I have a son

That talks of nothing but of guns and armour,
And swears he'll be a soldier; 'tis an humour
I would divert him from; and I am told,
That if I minister to him, in his drink,
Powder made of this bankrupt marshal's bones,
Provided that the carcase rot above ground,
Twill cure his foolish frenzy.

Nov. You shew in it

A father's care. I have a son myself,
A fashionable gentleman, and a peaceful:
And, but I am assured he is not so given,
He should take of it too. Sir, what are you?
Char. A gentleman.

Nov. So are many that rake dunghills.
If you have any suit, move it in court:
I take no papers in corners.

Rom. Yes, as the matter may be carried; and
whereby

To manage the conveyance-Follow him.
Lilad. You're rude: I say he shall not pass.
[Exeunt Novall, Charalois, and advocates.
Rom. You say so? On what assurance?
For the well-cutting of his lordship's corns,
Picking his toes, or any office else
Nearer to baseness?

Lilad. Look upon me better;

Are these the ensigns of so coarse a fellow?
Be well advised.

Rom. Out, rogue! do not I know [Kicks him. These glorious weeds spring from the sordid dung

hill

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The difficulties that you encounter with,
Will crown the undertaking-Heaven! you weep,
And I could do so too; but that I know,
There's more expected from the son and friend
Of him whose fatal loss now shakes our natures,
Than sighs or tears, in which a village nurse,
Or cunning strumpet, when her knave is hanged,
May overcome us. We are men, young lord,
Let us not do like women. To the court,
And there speak like your birth: Wake sleeping
justice,

Or dare the axe. This is a way will sort
With what you are: I call you not to that
I will shrink from myself; I will deserve
Your thanks, or suffer with you-O how bravely
That sudden fire of anger shews in you!
Give fuel to it; since you are on a shelf
Of extreme danger, suffer like yourself. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Enter ROCH FORT, NOVALL, sen. CHARMI, DU CROY, advocates, BEAUMONT, officers, and three presidents.

Du Croy. Your lordship is seated. May this meeting prove

Prosperous to us, and to the general good of Burgundy.

Nov. sen. Speak to the point!
Du Croy-Which is

With honour to dispose the place and power
Of premier president, which this reverend man,
Grave Rochfort (whom for honour's sake I name),
Is purposed to resign; a place, my lords,
In which he hath, with such integrity,
Performed the first and best parts of a judge,
That, as his life transcends all fair examples
Of such as were before him in Dijon,
So it remains to those that shall succeed him,
A precedent that they may imitate, but not equal,
Roch. I may not sit to hear this.

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For this great favour shall prevent your trouble.
The honourable trust that was imposed
Upon my weakness, since you witness for me,
It was not ill discharged, I will not mention;
Nor now, if age had not deprived me of
The little strength I had to govern well
The province that I undertook, forsake it.
Nov. sen. That we could lend you of our years!
Du Croy. Or strength!`

Nov. sen. Or, as you are, persuade you to continue

The noble exercise of your knowing judgement! Roch. That may not be; nor can your lordships' goodness,

Since your employments have conferred upon me Sufficient wealth, deny the use of it;

And though old age, when one foot is in the grave,

In many, when all humours else are spent,
Feeds no affection in them, but desire

To add height to the mountain of their riches;
In me it is not so; I rest content

With the honours and estate I now possess.
And, that I may have liberty to use,
What Heaven, still blessing my poor industry,
Hath made me master of, I pray the court
To ease me of my burthen; that I may
Employ the small remainder of my life
In living well, and learning how to die so.

Enter ROMANT and CHARALOIS.

Rom. See, sir, our advocate.

Du Croy. The court intreats

Your lordship will be pleased to name the man, Which you would have your successor, and in me All promise to confirm it.

Roch. I embrace it

As an assurance of their favour to me,

And name my lord Novall.

Du Croy. The court allows it.

Nov. sen. Speak to the cause.
Charmi. I will, my lord. To say, the late dead

marshal,

The father of this young lord here, my client,
Hath done his country great and faithful service,
Might tax me of impertinence, to repeat
What your grave lordships cannot but remember:
He, in his life, became indebted to

These thrifty men, (I will not wrong their credits,
By giving them the attributes they now merit)
And failing, by the fortune of the wars,
Of means to free himself from his engagements,
He was arrested, and for want of bail,
Imprisoned at their suit: And not long after
With loss of liberty ended his life.
And, though it be a maxim in our laws,
All suits die with the person, these men's malice
In death finds matter for their hate to work on,
Denying him the recent rites of burial,
Which the sworn enemies of the christian faith
Grant freely to their slaves: May it therefore
please

Your lordships so to fashion your decree,
That, what their cruelty doth forbid, your pity
May give allowance to.

Nov. sen. How long have you, sir, practised in court?

Charmi. Some twenty years, my lord.
Nov. sen. By your gross ignorance, it should ap-

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Or the next motion, savouring of this boldness,
May force you to leap (against your will)
Over the place you plead at.

Charmi. I foresaw this.

Rom. Why, does your lordship think the moving of

A cause, more honest than this court had ever

Roch. But there are suitors wait here, and The honour to determine, can deserve

their causes

May be of more necessity to be heard,

And therefore wish that mine may be deferred, And theirs have hearing.

Du Croy. If your lordship please

To take the place, we will proceed.
Charmi. The cause

We come to offer to your lordship's censure,
Is in itself so noble, that it needs not
Or rhetoric in me that plead, or favour
From your grave lordships, to determine of it;
Since to the praise of your impartial justice
(Which guilty, nay, condemned men, dare not
scandal)

It will erect a trophy of your mercy
Which married to that justice-

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Rom. Yet I, that in my service done my coun-
try,

Disdain to be put in the scale with thee,
Confess myself unworthy to be valued
With the least part, nay, hair of the dead mar-
shal,

Of whose so many glorious undertakings,
Make choice of any one, and that the meanest,
Performed against the subtle fox of France,
The politic Lewis, or the more desperate Swiss,
And 'twill outweigh all the good purpose,
Though put in act, that ever gownman practised.
Nov. sen. Away with him to prison !
Rom. If that curses,

Urged justly, and breathed forth so, ever fell
On those that did deserve them, let not mine
Be spent in vain now, that thou, from this instant,
Mayest, in thy fear that they will fall upon thee,
Be sensible of the plagues they shall bring with
them.

And for denying of a little earth,

To cover what remains of our great soldier,
May all your wives prove whores, your factors
thieves,

And, while you live, your riotous heirs undo you.
And thou, the patron of their cruelty,
Of all thy lordships live not to be owner
Of so much dung as will conceal a dog,
Or, what is worse, thyself in. And thy years,
To the end thou mayst be wretched, I wish many;
And, as thou hast denied the dead a grave,
May misery in thy life make thee desire one,
Which men, and all the elements, keep from
thee:

I have begun well; imitate; exceed.
Roch. Good counsel, were it a praise-worthy
deed.

[Exeunt officers with Romont. Du Croy. Remember what we are. Char. Thus low my duty Answers your lordship's counsel. I will use, In the few words with which I am to trouble Your lordship's ears, the temper that you wish

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Would seem to most rather a willingness
To quit the burden of a hopeless life,
Than scorn of death, or duty to the dead.
I, therefore, bring the tribute of my praise
To your severity, and commend the justice,
That will not, for the many services

That any man hath done the commonwealth,
Wink at his least of ills: What though my father
Writ man before he was so, and confirmed it,
By numbering that day no part of his life,
In which he did not service to his country;
Was he to be free therefore from the laws,
And ceremonious form in your decrees?
Or else, because he did as much as man,
In those three memorable overthrows,
At Granson, Morat, Nancy, where his master,
The warlike Charalois (with whose misfortunes
I bear his name) lost treasure, men, and life,
To be excused from payment of those sums
Which (his own patrimony spent) his zeal
To serve his country, forced him to take up?
Nov. sen. The precedent were ill.
Char. And yet, my lord, thus much

I know you'll grant; after those great defeatures,
Which in their dreadful ruins buried quick,

Enter Officers.

Courage and hope in all men but himself,
He forced the proud foe, in his height of con-
quest,

To yield unto an honourable peace,
And in it saved an hundred thousand lives,
To end his own, that was sure proof against
The scalding summer's heat, and winter's frost,
Ill airs, the cannon, and the enemy's sword,
In a most loathsome prison.

Du Croy. 'Twas his fault
To be so prodigal.

Nov. sen. He had from the state Sufficient entertainment for the army.

Char. Sufficient, my lord? You sit at home, And, though your fees are boundless at the bar, Are thrifty in the charges of the warBut your wills be obeyed. To these I turn, To these soft-hearted men, that wisely know They're only good men that pay what they owe. 2 Cred. And so they are.

1 Cred. 'Tis the city doctrine; We stand bound to maintain it.

Char. Be constant in it;

And, since you are as merciless in your natures,
As base and mercenary in your means,
By which you get your wealth, I will not urge
The court to take away one scruple from
The right of their laws, or one good thought
In you to mend your disposition with.
I know there is no music to your ears
So pleasing as the groans of men in prison,
And that the tears of widows, and the cries
Of famished orphans, are the feasts that take
you.

That to be in your danger, with more care
F

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