SCENE III.

The Palace at Westminster.

Enter King HENRY, HIALAS, and URSWICK.

K. Hen. Your name is Pedro Hialas,' a Spaniard?

Hial. Sir, a Castillian born.

K. Hen. King Ferdinand,

With wise queen Isabel his royal consort,

Write you a man of worthy trust and candour.

Princes are dear to heaven, who meet with sub

jects

Sincere in their employments; such I find

Your commendation, sir. Let me deliver

How joyful I repute the amity,

With your most fortunate master, who almost
Comes near a miracle in his success

Against the Moors, who had devour'd his country,
Entire now to his sceptre. We, for our part,
Will imitate his providence, in hope
Of partage in the use on't; we repute
The privacy of his advisement to us
By you, intended an ambassador

5 Your name is Pedro Hialas, &c.] "Amidst these troubles," Lord Bacon says, 66 came into England from Spain, Peter Hialas, some call him Elias, surely he was the fore-runner of the good hap that we enjoy at this day: for his embassy set the truce between England and Scotland; the truce drew on the peace, the peace the marriage, the union of the kingdoms: a man of great wisdom, and, as those times went, not unlearned."

To Scotland, for a peace between our kingdoms,
A policy of love, which well becomes
His wisdom and our care.

Hial. Your majesty

Doth understand him rightly.

K. Hen. Else

Your knowledge can instruct me; wherein, sir, To fall on ceremony, would seem useless, Which shall not need; for I will be as studious Of your concealment in our conference,

As any council shall advise.

Hial. Then, sir,

My chief request is, that on notice given
At my dispatch in Scotland, you will send
Some learned man of power and experience
To join entreaty with me.

K. Hen. I shall do it,

Being that way well provided by a servant,
Which may attend you ever.

Hial. If king James,

By any indirection, should perceive

My coming near your court, I doubt the issue Of my employment.

K. Hen. Be not your own herald:

I learn sometimes without a teacher.
Hial. Good days

Guard all your princely thoughts!

K. Hen. Urswick, no further

Than the next open gallery attend him
A hearty love go with you!

Hial. Your vow'd beadsman."

[Exeunt URS. and HIAL.

K. Hen. King Ferdinand is not so much a fox,

But that a cunning huntsman may in time
Fall on the scent; in honourable actions

Safe imitation best deserves a praise.

Re-enter URSWICK.

What, the Castillian's past away?

Urs. He is,

And undiscover'd; the two hundred marks
Your majesty convey'd, he gently purs'd
With a right modest gravity.

K. Hen. What, was't

He mutter'd in the earnest of his wisdom?
He spoke not to be heard; 'twas about-

Urs. Warbeck;

"How if king Henry were but sure of subjects, Such a wild runnagate might soon be caged, No great ado withstanding."

K. Hen. Nay, nay; something

About my son prince Arthur's match.

Urs. Right, right sir:

He humm'd it out, how that king Ferdinand Swore, that the marriage 'twixt the lady Kathe

rine,

His daughter, and the prince of Wales your son,

Your vow'd beadsman.] One bound to pray for you; from bede, the old English word for prayer: at this time, however, the expression was sufficiently familiar, and meant little more than the common language of civility-your vowed or devoted servant.

Should never be consummated, as long
As any earl of Warwick lived in England,
Except by new creation.

K. Hen. I remember,

'Twas so indeed: the king his master swore it? Urs. Directly, as he said.

K. Hen. An earl of Warwick!

Provide a messenger for letters instantly

To bishop Fox. Our news from Scotland creeps; It comes too slow; we must have airy spirits, Our time requires dispatch.-The earl of Warwick!

Let him be son to Clarence,' younger brother To Edward! Edward's daughter is, I think, Mother to our prince Arthur-[Aside.]—Get a messenger. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Before the Castle of Norham.

Enter King JAMES, WARBECK, CRAWFORD, DALYELL, HERON, ASTLEY, JOHN A-WATER, SKETON, and Soldiers.

K. Ja. We trifle time against these castle-walls, The English prelate will not yield: once more Give him a summons! [A parley is sounded.

Let him be son to Clarence, &c.] These are ominous musings of the king, who eagerly caught at the words of Ferdinand, as given above, and sought "to export the odium of this innocent prince's execution out of the land, and lay it upon his new ally."

Enter on the walls the Bishop of DURHAM, armed, a truncheon in his hand, with Soldiers.

War. See the jolly clerk

Appears, trimm'd like a ruffian.

K. Ja. Bishop, yet

Set ope the ports, and to your lawful sovereign,
Richard of York, surrender up this castle,

And he will take thee to his grace; else Tweed
Shall overflow his banks with English blood,
And wash the sand that cements those hard stones,
From their foundation.

Dur. Warlike king of Scotland,

Vouchsafe a few words from a man enforced
To lay his book aside, and clap on arms,*
Unsuitable to my age, or my profession.
Courageous prince, consider on what grounds,
You rend the face of peace, and break a league
With a confederate king that courts your amity;
For whom too? for a vagabond, a straggler,
Not noted in the world by birth or name,
An obscure peasant, by the rage of hell

Loos'd from his chains, to set great kings at strife.

What nobleman, what common man of note,
What ordinary subject hath come in,

Since first you footed on our territories,
To only feign a welcome? children laugh at

And clap on arms.] So the old copy: it is not improbable, however, that the poet's word was clasp.