Mes. He cannot come, my lord; he's grievous sick. Hot. Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick In such a justling time? Who leads his power? Under whose government come they along? Mes. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord. Wor. I pr'ythee, tell me, doth he keep his bed? Mes. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth; And, at the time of my departure thence, He was much fear'd by his physicians. Wor. I would, the state of time had first been whole, Ere he by sickness had been visited. His health was never better worth than now. Hot. Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect The very life-blood of our enterprise; "Tis catching hither, even to our camp. He writes me here,-that inward sickness,- On any soul removed, but on his own: Faltering. What say you to it? Of all our purposes. Wor. Your father's sickness is a maim to us. Hot. A perilous gash, a very limb lopp'd off :And yet, in faith, 'tis not; his present want Seems more than we shall find it. Were it good, All at one cast? to set so rich a main The very list,1 the very utmost bound Dou. Faith, and so we should; Where 2 now remains a sweet reversion. We may boldly spend upon the hope of what A comfort of retirement lives in this. Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto, If that the devil and mischance look big Upon the maidenhead of our affairs. Wor. But yet, I would your father had been here. The quality and hair 3 of our attempt 1 May turn the tide of fearful faction, And breed a kind of question in our cause. This absence of your father's draws a curtain, Before not dreamt of. Hot. You strain too far. I, rather, of his absence make this use ; It lends a lustre, and more great opinion, A larger dare to our great enterprise, Than if the earl were here; for men must think. If we, without his help, can make a head Dou. As heart can think: there is not such a word Spoke of in Scotland, as this term of fear. Enter SIR RICHARD VERNON. Hot. My cousin Vernon! welcome, by my soul. The earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong, Ver. What more? And, farther, I have learn'd,— The king himself in person is set forth, Or hitherwards intended speedily, With strong and mighty preparation. Hot. He shall be welcome too. Where is his son, The nimble-footed mad-cap prince of Wales, Ver. All furnish'd, all in arms, All plumed like estridges, that wing the wind; 1 And witch the world with noble horsemanship. Hot. No more, no more; worse than the sun in March, This praise doth norish agues. Let them come They come like sacrifices in their trim, And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war, Decorated with ostrich feathers. 2 Bated for bating, i. e. fluttering. 3 Armour for the thighs. my horse. All hot, and bleeding, will we offer them. Ver. There is more news : I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along, He cannot draw his power this fourteen days. Dou. That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet. Wor. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound. Hot. What may the king's whole battle reach unto? Ver. To thirty thousand. Hot. Dou. Talk not of dying: I am out of fear [Exeunt. |