trumpets reach us.
Ethelbert (without). On your peril, sirs,
Detain us!
First Voice (without). Let not the abbot pass.
Second Voice (without). No,
On your lives!
First Voice (without). Holy Father, you must not.
Ethelbert (without). Otho!
Otho.
Who calls on Otho?
Ethelhert (without). Ethelbert!
Otho.
Let him come in.
Enter ETHELBERT leading in ERMINIA.
Thou cursed abbot, why
Hast brought pollution to our holy rites?
Hast thou no fear of hangman, or the faggot?
Ludolph.
What portent what strange prodigy is this?
Conrad.
Away!
Ethelbert.
You, Duke?
Ermmia.
Albert has surely fail’d me!
Look at the Emperor’s brow upon me bent!
Ethelbert.
A sad delay!
Conrad.
Away, thou guilty thing!
Ethelbert.
You again, Duke? Justice, most mighty Otho!
You go to your sister there and plot again,
A quick plot, swift as thought to save your heads;
For lo! the toils are spread around your den,
The word is all agape to see dragg’d forth
Two ugly monsters.
Ludolph.
What means he, my lord?
Conrad.
I cannot guess.
Ethelbert.
Best ask your lady sister,
Whether the riddle puzzles her beyond
The power of utterance.
Conrad.
Foul barbarian, cease;
The Princess faints!
Ludolph.
Stab him! , sweetest wife!
[Attendants bear off AURANTHE,
Erminia. Alas!
Ethelbert.
Your wife?
Ludolph.
Aye, Satan! does that yerk ye?
Ethelbert.
Wife! so soon!
Ludolph.
Aye, wife! Oh, impudence!
Thou bitter mischief! Venomous mad priest!
How dar’st thou lift those beetle brows at me?
Me the prince Ludolph, in this presence here,
Upon my marriage-day, and scandalize
My joys with such opprobrious surprise? SO
Wife! Why dost linger on that syllable,
As if it were some demon’s name pronounc’d
To summon harmful lightning, and make roar
The sleepy thunder? Hast no sense of fear?
No ounce of man in thy mortality?
Tremble! for, at my nod, the sharpen’d axe
Will make thy bold tongue quiver to the roots,
Those grey lids wink, and thou not know it more!
Ethelbert.
O, poor deceived Prince! I pity thee!
Great Otho! I claim justice
Ludolph. Thou shalt hav ‘t!
Thine arms from forth a pulpit of hot fire
Shall sprawl distracted! O that that dull cowl
Were some most sensitive portion of thy life,
That I might give it to my hounds to tear!
Thy girdle some fine zealous-pained nerve
To girth my saddle! And those devil’s beads
Each one a life, that I might, every day,
Crush one with Vulcan’s hammer!
Otho.
Peace, my son;
You far outstrip my spleen in this affair.
Let us be calm, and hear the abbot’s plea
For this intrusion.
Ludolph.
I am silent, sire.
Otho.
Conrad, see all depart not wanted here.
[Exeunt Knights, Ladies, &c.
Ludolph, be calm. Ethelbert, peace awhile.
This mystery demands an audience
Of a just judge, and that will Otho be.
Ludolph.
Why has he time to breathe another word?
Otho.
Ludolph, old Ethelbert, be sure, comes not
To beard us for no cause ; he’s not the man
To cry himself up an ambassador
Without credentials.
Ludolph.
I’ll chain up myself.
Otho. Old Abbot, stand here forth. Lady Erminia,
Sit. And now, Abbot! what have you to say?
Our ear is open. First we here denounce
Hard penalties against thee, if ‘t be found
The cause for which you have disturb ‘d us here,
Making our bright hours muddy, be a thing
Of little moment.
Ethelbert.
See this innocent!
Otho! thou father of the people call’d,
Is her life nothing? Her fair honour nothing?
Her tears from matins until evensong
Nothing? Her burst heart nothing? Emperor!
Is this your gentle niece the simplest flower
Of the world’s