The Gamester (1753) Part 21

I came in pity, not in malice; to save the brother, not kill the sister. Your Lewson's dead.

_Char._ O horrible! Why, who has killed him?--And yet it cannot be.

What crime had He committed that he should die? Villain! he lives!

he lives! and shall revenge these pangs.

_Mrs. Bev._ Patience, sweet Charlotte!

_Char._ O, 'tis too much for patience!

_Mrs. Bev._ He comes in pity, he says. O! execrable villain! The friend is killed then, and this the murderer?

_Bev._ Silence, I charge you. Proceed, Sir.

_Stu._ No. Justice may stop the tale--and here's an evidence.

SCENE IX.

_Enter BATES._

_Bates._ The news, I see, has reached you. But take comfort, madam.

(_To Charlotte_) There's one without, enquiring for you. Go to him, and lose no time.

_Char._ O misery! misery!

[_Exit_.

_Mrs. Bev._ Follow her, Jarvis. If it be true that Lewson's dead, her grief may kill her.

_Bates._ Jarvis must stay here, madam: I have some questions for him.

_Stu._ Rather let him fly. His evidence may crush his master.

_Bev._ Why, ay; this looks like management.

_Bates._ He found you quarrelling with Lewson in the street last night.

[_To Beverley._

_Mrs. Bev._ No; I am sure he did not.

_Jar._ Or if I did--

_Mrs. Bev._ 'Tis false, old man--They had no quarrel; there was no cause for quarrel.

_Bev._ Let him proceed, I say--O! I am sick! sick! Reach me a chair.

[_He sits down._

_Mrs. Bev._ You droop, and tremble, love--Your eyes are fixt too--Yet You are innocent. If Lewson's dead, You killed him not.

SCENE X.

_Enter DAWSON._

_Stu._ Who sent for Dawson?

_Bates._ 'Twas I. We have a witness too, you little think of.

Without there!

_Stu._ What witness?

_Bates._ A right one. Look at him.

SCENE XI.

_Re-enter CHARLOTTE, with LEWSON._

_Stu._ Lewson! O--villains! villains!

[_To Bates and Dawson._

_Mrs. Bev._ Risen from the dead! Why, this is unexpected happiness!

_Char._ Or is't his ghost? (_To Stukely_) That sight would please you, Sir.

_Jar._ What riddle's this?

_Bev._ Be quick and tell it--My minutes are but few.

_Mrs. Bev._ Alas! why so? You shall live long and happily.

_Lew._ While shame and punishment shall rack that viper. (_Pointing to Stukely_) The tale is short. I was too busy in his secrets, and therefore doomed to die. Bates, to prevent the murder, undertook it.

I kept aloof to give it credit--

_Char._ And gave Me pangs unutterable.

_Lew._ I felt them all, and would have told you; but vengeance wanted ripening. The villain's scheme was but half executed. The arrest by Dawson followed the supposed murder: and now, depending on his once wicked a.s.sociates, he comes to fix the guilt on Beverley.

_Mrs. Bev._ O! execrable wretch!

_Bates._ Dawson and I are witnesses of this.

_Lew._ And of a thousand frauds. His friend undone by sharpers and false dice; and Stukely sole contriver, and possessor of all.

_Daw._ Had he but stopt on this side murder, we had been villains still.

_Mrs. Bev._ Thus heaven turns evil into good; and by permitting sin, warns men to virtue.

_Lew._ Yet punishes the instrument. So shall our laws; though not with death. But death were mercy. Shame, beggary, and imprisonment, unpitied misery, the stings of conscience, and the curses of mankind shall make life hateful to him--till at last, his own hand end him.

How does my friend?