well, the busiest searchers ne’er could follow
Those subtle tracks which puzzled all suspicion:
You droop, sir.

Jaff. No: with a most profound attention
I’ve heard it all, and wonder at thy virtue.

Ren. Tho’ there be yet few hours ’twixt them and Ruin.
Are not the Senate lulled in full security,
Quiet and satisfied, as fools are always!
Never did so profound repose forerun
Calamity so great: nay, our good fortune
Has blinded the most piercing of mankind;
Strengthened the fearful’st, charm’d the most suspectful,
Confounded the most subtle; for we live,
We live, my friends, and quickly shall our life
Prove fatal to these tyrants: let’s consider
That we destroy oppression, avarice,
A people nursed up equally with vices
And loathsome lusts, which Nature most abhors,
And such as without shame she cannot suffer.

Jaff. O Belvidera, take me to thy arms
And show me where’s my peace, for I have lost it.

[Exit JAFFEIR

Ren. Without the least remorse then let’s resolve
With fire and sword t’ exterminate these tyrants,
And when we shall behold those curst tribunals,
Stained by the tears and sufferings of the innocent,
Burning with flames rather from Heav’n than ours,
The raging furious and unpitying soldier
Pulling his reeking dagger from the bosoms
Of gasping wretches; death in every quarter,
With all that sad disorder can produce,
To make a spectacle of horror: then,
Then let us call to mind, my dearest friends,
That there is nothing pure upon the earth,
That the most valued things have most alloys,
And that in change of all those vile enormities,
Under whose weight this wretched country labours,
The means are only in our hands to crown them.

Pierr. And may those Powers above that are propitious
To gallant minds record this cause, and bless it.

Ren. Thus happy, thus secure of all we wish for,
Should there, my friends, be found amongst us one
False to this glorious enterprise, what fate,
What vengeance were enough for such a villain?

Eliot. Death here without repentance, hell hereafter.

Ren. Let that be my lot, if as here I stand
Lifted by Fate amongst her darling sons,
Tho’ I’d one only brother, dear by all
The strictest ties of nature; tho’ one hour
Had given us birth, one fortune fed our wants,
One only love, and that but of each other,
Still filled our minds: could I have such a friend
Joined in this cause, and had but ground to fear
Meant foul play; may this right hand drop from me.
If I’d not hazard all my future peace,
And stab him to the heart before you: who
Would not do less? Wouldst not thou, Pierre, the same?

Pierr. You’ve singled me, sir, out for this hard question,
As if ’twere started only for my sake!
Am I the thing you fear? Here, here’s my bosom,
Search it with all your swords! am I a traitor?

Ren. No: but I fear your late commended friend
Is little less: come, sirs, ’tis now no time
To trifle with our safety. Where’s this Jaffeir?

Spin. He left the room just now in strange disorder.

Ren. Nay, there’s danger in him: I observ’d him,
During the time I took for explanation,
He was transported from most deep attention
To a confusion which he could not smother.
His looks grew full of sadness and surprise,
All which betrayed a wavering spirit in him,
That laboured with reluctancy and sorrow;
What’s requisite for safety must be done
With speedy execution: he remains
Yet in our power: I for my own part wear
A dagger.

Pierr. Well.

Ren. And I could wish it!

Pierr. Where?