THE DYNASTS ACT i
I *night have reft your life! Ay, notice here— (He produces a dagger; which^is snatched from him.)
They need not have done that! ^ Even had you risen
To wrestle with, insult, strike, pinion me,
It, would have lain unused. In hands like mine
And my allies', the man of peace is safe,
Treat as he may our corporal tenement
In his misreading of a moral code.
[Exeunt GEVRILLI&RE and the constable.
Fox
Trotter, indeed you well may stare at me!
I look warm, eh ?—and I am windless, too ;
I have sufficient reason to be so.
That dignified and pensive gentleman
Was a bold bravo, waiting for his chance.
He sketched a scheme for murdering Bonaparte,
Either—as in my haste I understood—
By shooting from a window as he passed,
Or by some other wry and stealthy means
That haunt sad brains which brood on despotism,
But lack the tools to justly cope therewith! . . .
On later thoughts I feel not fully sure
If, in my ferment, I did right in this.
No; hail at once the man in charge of him,
And give the word that he is to be detained.
The secretary goes out Fox walks to the window in deep reflection till the secretary returns.
SECRETARY I was in time, sir. He has been detained.
Fox
Now what does strict state-honour ask of me?— No less than that I bare this poppling plot
To the French ruler and our fiercest foe!__
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