Cromwell Part 9

_A Cavalier, richly dressed, who has entered, L., in the meanwhile, and made inquiring gestures._

_Cav._ For _whose_ sake?

O shame! shame!

The King-- The Queen needs all your blood, and ye must shed it In shameless broils like these!

Thus the dear blood that should, if spilt it be, Dye our white spotless cause with its rich crimson, Must now for every muslin thing that spites Her prentice-lover, making fools of you.

And O ye others, loyal gentlemen!

I weep indeed for England and our King, To see ye all, in this the perilous gasp Of hardy enterprize, yourselves forget, Like Circe's brutish swine. I tell ye now, While ye are lost in drunken quarrelling, Cromwell is near.

_3rd or 4th Cav._ The King shall have his own.

Lillibullero!

_Cav._ I say, thee General Cromwell Is on the road with some four hundred men, And will surprise us. [_Confused movement to arm._]

_1st Cav._ [_Who has continued to drink._] Ha! What does it concern thee with thy preaching? Dost thou want ought here? [_Touching his sword-hilt._] I care not for thee or Noll. Would he were here, and a matter of four thousand to back him. [_Draws._] Sa! sa! canst fight as well as talk? Wilt take up the bilbo? Come, adopt the weapon of him I have sliced.

Come, be nimble, sir, jig. I would fain go visit the haulage of my fancy.

[_A confused noise without._]

_Cav._ Too late! O gentlemen! here, Willsden, is thy sword. Varley, arouse thee! The enemy!

Away, women! Come, gentlemen--this table--a barricade, so-- [_1st Cavalier stands in his way._] Off, fool! [_Hurls him aside._]

_A tremendous explosion; the wide doors behind are burst in by a petard; the barn falls, and discovers a view of York. Enter CROMWELL with IRONSIDES through the break._

_Crom._ Yield, sons of Belial!

_Cav._ O Charles, my king!

'Tis time to die, ere see thy cause thus lost!

[_Throws himself on the pikemen._]

Here, cavaliers! a blow, one blow, 'tis Noll The butcher, brewer Noll, that in your songs Ye send to h.e.l.l so often. Send him now, If ye be men, not cowards. What! at loss!

[_1st Cavalier staggers against him as he parries two or three pikemen, and he receives a mortal stroke, and falls. During this the other cavaliers are struck down or disarmed._]

Alas! I might have reach'd him, but betray'd By our own rotten conduct, die--Oh, had I words Now could I prophesy--destruction--Charles!

My king! [_Dies._]

_Crom._ There _is_ no king save one, and He Is with us! [_Points to 1st Cavalier._]

Yon poor wretch--what saith he?

Nay!

Strike not his mouth.

_1st Cav._ I defy thee, Satan! I'll back my rapier, an' thou wilt fight, Brewer! Curse on thy muddy veins, thou hast no honourable desperation in thee.

Come, if thou beest a man, give up thy odds. What, ho! Excalibur!

[_Makes a rush to get at CROMWELL_]

_Crom._ It seemeth that The unG.o.dly fret. Go, place him in the stocks.

I charge ye harm him not-- But give him ale, Wine, and a scurvy song-book--Such as he Do make us triumph. Fie, fie, Cornet Dean!

Well, stop his mouth, an't please ye; come, away!

[_Trumpets sound._]

This is a gift of G.o.d, see burial Unto the dead--now on to Marston Moor.

[_Exeunt U.E.R._]

[_Enter WILLIAM, U.E.L._]

_Will._ So my master hath at last turned roundhead with a vengeance, and therefore I, to whom the rogue is necessary, am here, on the brink of nowhere. To think that so much merit may be quenched by the mechanical art of a base gunner, who hath no fear in his actions; for I take it that a discreet reverence for the body we live in, which the vulgar term fear, shows the best proof of the value of the individual.

Egad! life here is as cheap as the gra.s.s on an empty common, where there is no democracy of goose to hiss at the kingly shadow of a single a.s.s in G.o.d's sunshine. My master hath not done well; for he must have known that I could not leave him without a moral guide and companion--to die, too, with the sin of my unpaid wages on his conscience. Well, pray heaven, there come soon a part.i.tion of the crown jewels amongst us, after which I will withdraw this right arm from a cause I cannot approve; but to cherish principles one should not lack means; therefore, [_taking the feather from his cap and throwing it down_] lie thou there, carnal device! and I will go look for a barber and be despoiled, like a topsy-turvy Samson, not to lose strength, but to gain it. I thank heaven that our camp did yesterday fall in dry places, for there were many of these sour-visaged soldiers called me Jonah, and I did well to escape ducking in a horse-pond. Soft, here be some of them coming.

Yestere'en I committed sacrilege in a knapsack, and stole a small Bible from amid great plunder for my salvation. Now will I feign to read it, and I doubt not the sin will be pardoned, for self-preservation is the second law of nature, as I have generally observed fornication to be the first!

_Enter a party of Soldiers, R._

[_Looking up._] These be some of Oliver's Ironsides; every one of whom is, as David, a man of war and a prophet; truly they are more earnest and sober than the others.

_1st Troop._ To-morrow we shall sup in York.

_Will._ [Aside.] How the man of war identifies himself with the remnant of those that shall sup.

_2nd Troop._ Not so--for this morning, when a surrender was demanded, they would have hanged our messenger. That raging Beelzebub, Rupert, in expected hourly to the relief. [_Distant firing._]

There! there! he is come.

_1st Troop._ What say the generals?

_2nd Troop._ Our own Cromwell is very prompt; but the rest chafe much, and the Scots are sore backsliders.

_3rd Troop._ I would we might be led on and the trumpets sounded, that the walls of yon Jericho might fall about their ears, and deliver them into our hands alive.

_Will._ Worthy martialist! may I speak?

_1st Troop._ Ay so?

_Will._ Is the King there in person?

_2nd Troop._ Surely not; he is in that city of abomination, Oxford.

[_Here CROMWELL enters, U.E.R., with his face covered._]

_Will._ Is it not true that ye did ask them that guard the city to yield it in the King's name?

_2nd Troop._ I heard the message: it was so worded.

_Will._ 'Tis an excellent contradiction, to fight for and against. If ye should meet the King now in battle, would you fire on him with your pistols, or cleave him with your swords?

_1st Troop._ Nay!

_Crom._ [_Discovering himself._] But I say, yea!

_Will._ [Without seeing CROMWELL.] What, in his own name, kill him for himself, for his own sake, as it were? I would fain argue that with your general--[_sees CROMWELL._]--another time. Farewell, worthy sirs!