ITHAMORE. Here's a drench to poison a whole stable of Flanders mares: I'll carry't to the nuns with a powder.
BARABAS. And the horse-pestilence to boot: away!
ITHAMORE. I am gone: Pay me my wages, for my work is done. [Exit with the pot.]
BARABAS. I'll pay thee with a vengeance, Ithamore! [Exit.]
Enter FERNEZE,(116) MARTIN DEL BOSCO, KNIGHTS, and BASSO.
FERNEZE. Welcome, great basso:(117) how fares Calymath? What wind drives you thus into Malta-road?
BASSO. The wind that bloweth all the world besides, Desire of gold.
FERNEZE. Desire of gold, great sir! That's to be gotten in the Western Inde: In Malta are no golden minerals.
BASSO. To you of Malta thus saith Calymath: The time you took for respite is at hand For the performance of your promise pass'd; And for the tribute-money I am sent.
FERNEZE. Basso, in brief, shalt have no tribute here, Nor shall the heathens live upon our spoil: First will we raze the city-walls ourselves, Lay waste the island, hew the temples down, And, shipping off our goods to Sicily, Open an entrance for the wasteful sea, Whose billows, beating the resistless banks,(118) Shall overflow it with their refluence.
BASSO. Well, governor, since thou hast broke the league By flat denial of the promis'd tribute, Talk not of razing down your city-walls; You shall not need trouble yourselves so far, For Selim Calymath shall come himself, And with brass bullets batter down your towers, And turn proud Malta to a wilderness, For these intolerable wrongs of yours: And so, farewell.
FERNEZE. Farewell. [Exit BASSO.] And now, you men of Malta, look about, And let's provide to welcome Calymath: Close your port-cullis, charge your basilisks,(119) And, as you profitably take up arms, So now courageously encounter them, For by this answer broken is the league, And naught is to be look'd for now but wars, And naught to us more welcome is than wars. [Exeunt.]
Enter FRIAR JACOMO(120) and FRIAR BARNARDINE.
FRIAR JACOMO. O brother, brother, all the nuns are sick, And physic will not help them! they must die.
FRIAR BARNARDINE. The abbess sent for me to be confess'd: O, what a sad confession will there be!
FRIAR JACOMO. And so did fair Maria send for me: I'll to her lodging; hereabouts she lies. [Exit.]
Enter ABIGAIL.
FRIAR BARNARDINE. What, all dead, save only Abigail!
ABIGAIL. And I shall die too, for I feel death coming. Where is the friar that convers'd with me?(121)
FRIAR BARNARDINE. O, he is gone to see the other nuns.
ABIGAIL. I sent for him; but, seeing you are come, Be you my ghostly father: and first know, That in this house I liv'd religiously, Chaste, and devout, much sorrowing for my sins; But, ere I came--
FRIAR BARNARDINE. What then?
ABIGAIL. I did offend high heaven so grievously As I am almost desperate for my sins; And one offense torments me more than all. You knew Mathias and Don Lodowick?
FRIAR BARNARDINE. Yes; what of them?
ABIGAIL. My father did contract me to 'em both; First to Don Lodowick: him I never lov'd; Mathias was the man that I held dear, And for his sake did I become a nun.
FRIAR BARNARDINE. So: say how was their end?
ABIGAIL. Both, jealous of my love, envied(122) each other; And by my father's practice,(123) which is there [Gives writing.] Set down at large, the gallants were both slain.
FRIAR BARNARDINE. O, monstrous villany!
ABIGAIL. To work my peace, this I confess to thee: Reveal it not; for then my father dies.
FRIAR BARNARDINE. Know that confession must not be reveal'd; The canon-law forbids it, and the priest That makes it known, being degraded first, Shall be condemn'd, and then sent to the fire.
ABIGAIL. So I have heard; pray, therefore, keep it close. Death seizeth on my heart: ah, gentle friar, Convert my father that he may be sav'd, And witness that I die a Christian! [Dies.]
FRIAR BARNARDINE. Ay, and a virgin too; that grieves me most. But I must to the Jew, and exclaim on him, And make him stand in fear of me.