ACT III. | |
SCENE III. Pomfret. Before the Castle. | |
| [Enter RATCLIFF, with Guard, conducting RIVERS, GREY, and |
VAUGHAN | |
| to execution.] |
RIVERS. | |
| Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this,-- |
| To-day shalt thou behold a subject die |
| For truth, for duty, and for loyalty. |
GREY. | |
| God bless the prince from all the pack of you! |
| A knot you are of damned blood-suckers. |
VAUGHAN. | |
| You live that shall cry woe for this hereafter. |
RATCLIFF. | |
| Despatch; the limit of your lives is out. |
RIVERS. | |
| O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison, |
| Fatal and ominous to noble peers! |
| Within the guilty closure of thy walls |
| Richard the Second here was hack'd to death: |
| And, for more slander to thy dismal seat, |
| We give to thee our guiltless blood to drink. |
GREY. | |
| Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon our heads, |
| When she exclaim'd on Hastings, you, and I, |
| For standing by when Richard stabb'd her son. |
RIVERS. | |
| Then curs'd she Richard, then curs'd she Buckingham, |
| Then curs'd she Hastings:--O, remember, God, |
| To hear her prayer for them, as now for us! |
| And for my sister, and her princely sons, |
| Be satisfied, dear God, with our true blood, |
| Which, as thou know'st, unjustly must be spilt. |
RATCLIFF. | |
| Make haste; the hour of death is expiate. |
RIVERS. | |
| Come, Grey;--come, Vaughan;--let us here embrace. |
| Farewell, until we meet again in heaven. |
| [Exeunt.] |