Page:Dramas 3.pdf/223

VAN MAURICE (shuddering).

Awful dispensation? Almost all his contemporaries—those whom he had loved and regarded, would go down to their graves, believing him guilty and depraved.

(Turns away from him much distressed.)

ARDUSOFFE.

Let me conjure you, then, to do justice to yourself! It is a fearful thing to be cut off in the prime of your days,—to die by the hands of an executioner,—to finish your course in disgrace.

VAN MAURICE.

It is a fearful thing!—You tempt my mortal weakness almost beyond resistance.

ARDUSOFFE.

Let nature have its way! O, consider of it! Run not on self-destruction.

VAN MAURICE (supporting himself on the shoulder of Ardusoffe).

Forbear a few moments, good Ardusoffe; I am considering of it.

ARDUSOFFE (after a pause).

The dew-drops stand upon thy forehead, and