The Noble Spanish Soldier | Page 9

hands. Thus we reckon ten, our swords strike eleven and when steel targets of proof clatter one against another, then 'tis noon that's the height and the heat of the day of battle.
KING?So.
BALTHAZAR
To that heat we came, our drums beat, pikes were shaken and shivered, swords and targets clashed and clattered, muskets rattled cannons roared, men died groaning, brave laced jerkings and feathers looked pale, tottered rascals fought pell mell. Here fell a wing, there heads were tossed like footballs, legs and arms quarrelled in the air and yet lay quietly on the earth. Horses trampled upon heaps of carcasses, troops of carbines tumbled wounded from their horses, we besiege Moors and famine us, mutinies bluster and are calm. I vowed not to doff mine armour though my flesh were frozen to it and turn into iron, nor to cut head nor beard till they yielded. My hairs and oath are of one length for, with Caesar, thus write I mine own story: veni, vidi, vici.
KING?A pitched field, quickly fought. Our hand is thine,?And because thou shalt not murmur that thy blood?Was lavished forth for an ungrateful man,?Demand what we can give thee and 'tis thine.
BALTHAZAR?Only your love.
KING?'Tis thine, rise soldier's best accord?When wounds of wrong are healed up by the sword.
Onaelia knocks loudly at the door.
ONAELIA?Let me come in, I'll kill the treacherous King,?The murderer of mine honour, let me come in.
KING?What woman's voice is that?
ALL?Medina's niece.
KING?Bar out that fiend.
ONAELIA?I'll tear him with my nails,?Let me come in, let me come in, help, help me.
KING?Keep her from following me. A guard.
ALANZO?They are ready, sir.
KING?Let a quick summons call our Lords together,?This disease kills me.
BALTHAZAR?Sir, I would be private with you.
KING?Forebear us, but see the doors are well guarded.
Exeunt [King and Balthazar remain].
BALTHAZAR?Will you, Sir, promise to give me freedom of speech?
KING?Yes, I will, take it, speak any thing, 'tis pardoned.
BALTHAZAR?You are a whoremaster. Do you send me to win towns for you abroad and you lose a kingdom at home?
KING?What kingdom?
BALTHAZAR?The fairest in the world, the kingdom of your fame, your honour.
KING?Wherein?
BALTHAZAR?I'll be plain with you. Much mischief is done by the mouth of a cannon, but the fire begins at a little touch-hole. You heard what nightingale sung to you even now.
KING?Ha, ha, ha!
BALTHAZAR?Angels erred but once and fell, but you Sir, spit in heaven's face every minute and laugh at it. Laugh still, follow your courses, do. Let your vices run like your kennels of hounds, yelping after you till they pluck down the fairest head in the herd, everlasting bliss.
KING?Any more?
BALTHAZAR?Take sin as the English snuff tobacco, and scornfully blow the smoke in the eyes of heaven, the vapour flies up in clouds of bravery. But when 'tis out, the coal is black, your conscience, and the pipe stinks. A sea of rosewater cannot sweeten your corrupted bosom.
KING?Nay, spit thy venom.
BALTHAZAR?'Tis Aqua Coelestis <23>, no venom. For when you shall clasp up these two books, never to be opened again, when by letting fall that anchor which can never more be weighed up, your mortal navigation ends. Then there's no playing at spurn-point <24> with thunderbolts. A vintner then for unconscionable reckoning or a tailor for unmeasurable items shall not answer in half that fear you must.
KING?No more.
BALTHAZAR?I will follow truth at the heels, though her foot beat my gums in pieces.
KING?The barber that draws out a lion's tooth?Curseth his trade; and so shalt thou.
BALTHAZAR?I care not.
KING?Because you have beaten a few base-born moors,?Me think'st thou to chastise? What is past I pardon,?Because I made the key to unlock thy railing;?But if thou dar'st once more be so untuned?I'll sent thee to the galleys. Who are without there,?How now?
Enter [guards and attendants] drawn.
ALL?In danger, Sir?
KING?Yes, yes, I am, but 'tis no point of weapon?Can rescue me. Go presently and summon?All our chief Grandees, Cardinals, and Lords?Of Spain to meet in Council instantly.?We called you forth to execute a business?Of another strain - but 'tis no matter now.?Thou diest when next thou furrowest up our brow.
BALTHAZAR?So, die!
Exit Balthazar, enter Cardinal, Rodrigo, Alba, Daenia, Valasco.
KING?I find my sceptre shaken by enchantments?Charactered in this parchment, which to unloose,?I'll practice only counter-charms of fire,?And blow the spells of lightening into smoke:?Fetch burning tapers.
[Exit attendant who returns with light.]
CARDINAL?Give me audience, Sir.?My apprehension opens me a way?To a close fatal mischief, worse than this?You strive to murder. Oh, this act of yours?Alone shall give your dangers life, which else?Can never grow to height. Do, Sir, but read?A book here closed up, which too late you opened,?Now blotted by you with foul marginal notes.
KING?Art frantic?
CARDINAL?You are so, Sir.
KING?If I be,?Then here's my first mad fit.
CARDINAL?For honour's sake,?For love you bear to conscience -
KING?Reach the flames:?Grandees and Lords of Spain be witness all?What here I cancel. Read, do you know this bond?
ALL?Our hands