The suit which you demand is gone and dead: Sal. Indeed, we fear'd his sickness was past cure. Pem. Indeed, we heard how near his death he was, Before the child himself felt he was sick : This must be answer'd, either here, or hence. K. John. Why do you bend such solemn brows on me? Think you, I bear the shears of destiny? That blood, which ow'd the breath of all this isle, [Exeunt Lords. Enter a Messenger. A fearful eye thou hast; Where is that blood, So foul a sky clears not without a storm: Pour down thy weather :-How goes all in France ? Mess. From France to England.-Never such a power 2 For any foreign preparation, Was levied in the body of a land! The copy of your speed is learn'd by them; The tidings come, that they are all arriv'd. K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? Where hath it slept? Where is my mother's care? That such an army could be drawn in France, And she not hear of it? Mess. My liege, her ear Is stopp'd with dust; the first of April, died Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue K. John. Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion! Enter the Bastard and PETER of POMFRET. My head with more ill news, for it is full. Bast. But, if you be afeard to hear the worst, Then let the worst, unheard, fall on your head. K. John. Bear with me, cousin; for I was amaz'd Under the tide; but now I breathe again Aloft the flood; and can give audience Bast. How I have sped among the clergymen, K. John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou so? Peter. Foreknowing that the truth will fall out so. K. John. Hubert, away with him; imprison him; And on that day at noon, whereon, he says, I shall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd: For I must use thee.-O my gentle cousin, [Exit HUBERT, with PETER. Hear'st thou the news abroad, who are arriv'd? Bast. The French, my lord; men's mouths are full of it: Besides, I met lord Bigot, and lord Salisbury, (With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire,) And others more, going to seek the grave Of Arthur, who, they say, is kill'd to-night K. John. Gentle kinsman, go, And thrust thyself into their companies: Bast. I will seek them out. K. John. Nay, but make haste; the better foot before. O, let me have no subject enemies, When adverse foreigners affright my towns And fly, like thought, from them to me again. [Exit. K. John. Spoke like a spriteful noble gentleman.Go after him; for he, perhaps, shall need Some messenger betwixt me and the peers; And be thou he. Mess. With all my heart, my liege. K. John. My mother dead! Re-enter HUBERT. [Exit. Hub. My lord, they say, five moons were seen to night: Four fixed; and the fifth did whirl about The other four, in wond'rous motion. K. John. Five moons? Hub. Old men, and beldams, in the streets Do prophecy upon it dangerously: Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths: And when they talk of him, they shake their heads, And whisper one another in the ear; And he, that speaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrist; Whilst he, that hears, makes fearful action, Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death. K. John. Why seek'st thou to possess me with these fears? Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death? me? K. John. It is the curse of kings, to be attended By slaves, that take their humours for a warrant To break within the bloody house of life : And, on the winking of authority, To understand a law; to know the meaning Hub. Here is your hand and seal for what I did. earth Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal Witness againt us to damnation! How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds, |