Mary Stuart | Page 7

the source of all my sufferings.
MORTIMER. Just at this time the tidings reached my ears Of your removal from old Talbot's charge, And your committal to my uncle's care. It seemed to me that this disposal marked The wond'rous, outstretched hand of favoring heaven; It seemed to be a loud decree of fate, That it had chosen me to rescue you. My friends concur with me; the cardinal Bestows on me his counsel and his blessing, And tutors me in the hard task of feigning. The plan in haste digested, I commenced My journey homewards, and ten days ago On England's shores I landed. Oh, my queen.
[He pauses.
I saw then, not your picture, but yourself-- Oh, what a treasure do these walls enclose! No prison this, but the abode of gods, More splendid far than England's royal court. Happy, thrice happy he, whose envied lot Permits to breathe the selfsame air with you! It is a prudent policy in her To bury you so deep! All England's youth Would rise at once in general mutiny, And not a sword lie quiet in its sheath: Rebellion would uprear its giant head, Through all this peaceful isle, if Britons once Beheld their captive queen.
MARY. 'Twere well with her, If every Briton saw her with your eyes!
MORTIMER. Were each, like me, a witness of your wrongs, Your meekness, and the noble fortitude With which you suffer these indignities-- Would you not then emerge from all these trials Like a true queen? Your prison's infamy, Hath it despoiled your beauty of its charms? You are deprived of all that graces life, Yet round you life and light eternal beam. Ne'er on this threshold can I set my foot, That my poor heart with anguish is not torn, Nor ravished with delight at gazing on you. Yet fearfully the fatal time draws near, And danger hourly growing presses on. I can delay no longer--can no more Conceal the dreadful news.
MARY. My sentence then! It is pronounced? Speak freely--I can bear it.
MORTIMER. It is pronounced! The two-and-forty judges Have given the verdict, "guilty"; and the Houses Of Lords and Commons, with the citizens Of London, eagerly and urgently Demand the execution of the sentence:-- The queen alone still craftily delays, That she may be constrained to yield, but not From feelings of humanity or mercy.
MARY (collected). Sir, I am not surprised, nor terrified. I have been long prepared for such a message. Too well I know my judges. After all Their cruel treatment I can well conceive They dare not now restore my liberty. I know their aim: they mean to keep me here In everlasting bondage, and to bury, In the sepulchral darkness of my prison, My vengeance with me, and my rightful claims.
MORTIMER. Oh, no, my gracious queen;--they stop not there: Oppression will not be content to do Its work by halves:--as long as e'en you live, Distrust and fear will haunt the English queen. No dungeon can inter you deep enough; Your death alone can make her throne secure.
MARY. Will she then dare, regardless of the shame, Lay my crowned head upon the fatal block?
MORTIMER. She will most surely dare it, doubt it not.
MARY. And can she thus roll in the very dust Her own, and every monarch's majesty?
MORTIMER. She thinks on nothing now but present danger, Nor looks to that which is so far removed.
MARY. And fears she not the dread revenge of France?
MORTIMER. With France she makes an everlasting peace; And gives to Anjou's duke her throne and hand.
MARY. Will not the King of Spain rise up in arms?
MORTIMER. She fears not a collected world in arms? If with her people she remains at peace.
MARY. Were this a spectacle for British eyes?
MORTIMER. This land, my queen, has, in these latter days, Seen many a royal woman from the throne Descend and mount the scaffold:--her own mother And Catherine Howard trod this fatal path; And was not Lady Grey a crowned head?
MARY (after a pause). No, Mortimer, vain fears have blinded you; 'Tis but the honest care of your true heart, Which conjures up these empty apprehensions. It is not, sir, the scaffold that I fear: There are so many still and secret means By which her majesty of England may Set all my claims to rest. Oh, trust me, ere An executioner is found for me, Assassins will be hired to do their work. 'Tis that which makes me tremble, Mortimer: I never lift the goblet to my lips Without an inward shuddering, lest the draught May have been mingled by my sister's love.
MORTIMER. No:--neither open or disguised murder Shall e'er prevail against you:--fear no more; All is prepared;--twelve nobles of the land Are my confederates, and have pledged to-day, Upon the sacrament, their faith to free you, With dauntless arm,