Mary Stuart: A Tragedy

SCENE V.

      The apartment of the Queen.

      ELIZABETH, with a letter in her hand, BURLEIGH.

   ELIZABETH.
   To lure me thither! trifle with me thus!
   The traitor! Thus to lead me, as in triumph,
   Into the presence of his paramour!
   Oh, Burleigh! ne'er was woman so deceived.

   BURLEIGH.
   I cannot yet conceive what potent means,
   What magic he exerted, to surprise
   My queen's accustomed prudence.

   ELIZABETH.
                    Oh, I die
   For shame! How must he laugh to scorn my weakness!
   I thought to humble her, and was myself
   The object of her bitter scorn.

   BURLEIGH.
                    By this
   You see how faithfully I counselled you.

   ELIZABETH.
   Oh, I am sorely punished, that I turned
   My ear from your wise counsels; yet I thought
   I might confide in him. Who could suspect
   Beneath the vows of faithfullest devotion
   A deadly snare? In whom can I confide
   When he deceives me? He, whom I have made
   The greatest of the great, and ever set
   The nearest to my heart, and in this court
   Allowed to play the master and the king.

   BURLEIGH.
   Yet in that very moment he betrayed you,
   Betrayed you to this wily Queen of Scots.

   ELIZABETH.
   Oh, she shall pay me for it with her life!
   Is the death-warrant ready?

   BURLEIGH.
                  'Tis prepared
   As you commanded.

   ELIZABETH.
             She shall surely die—
   He shall behold her fall, and fall himself!
   I've driven him from my heart. No longer love,
   Revenge alone is there: and high as once
   He stood, so low and shameful be his fall!
   A monument of my severity,
   As once the proud example of my weakness.
   Conduct him to the Tower; let a commission
   Of peers be named to try him. He shall feel
   In its full weight the rigor of the law.

   BURLEIGH.
   But he will seek thy presence; he will clear——

   ELIZABETH.
   How can he clear himself? Does not the letter
   Convict him. Oh, his crimes are manifest!

   BURLEIGH.
   But thou art mild and gracious! His appearance,
   His powerful presence——

   ELIZABETH.
                I will never see him;
   No never, never more. Are orders given
   Not to admit him should he come?

   BURLEIGH.
                    'Tis done.

   PAGE (entering).
   The Earl of Leicester!

   ELIZABETH.
               The presumptuous man!
   I will not see him. Tell him that I will not.

   PAGE.
   I am afraid to bring my lord this message,
   Nor would he credit it.

   ELIZABETH.
                And I have raised him
   So high that my own servants tremble more
   At him than me!

   BURLEIGH (to the PAGE).
            The queen forbids his presence.

      [The PAGE retires slowly.

   ELIZABETH (after a pause).
   Yet, if it still were possible? If he
   Could clear himself? Might it not be a snare
   Laid by the cunning one, to sever me
   From my best friends—the ever-treacherous harlot!
   She might have writ the letter, but to raise
   Poisonous suspicion in my heart, to ruin
   The man she hates.

   BURLEIGH.
             Yet, gracious queen, consider.