MAT. Will the queen keep me from the lustful king,
Then will I yield.
QUEEN. A plague upon this counterfeiting quean.
MAT. God's blessed mercy! will you still be mad,
And wrong a noble virgin with vile speech?
SAL. Let me alone. Matilda, maiden fair,
Thou virgin spouse, true Huntington's just heir,
Wilt thou come hither? and I do protest,
The queen and I, to mitigate this war,
Will do what thou wouldst have.
MAT. I come.
BRUCE. You shall not go. Sound, drums, to war!
Alack, alack, for woe!
Well, God for us! sith it will needs be so.
[_Alarum, fight, stay_.
SAL. What stay you for?
BRUCE. Matilda's cries do stay us.
MAT. Salisbury, I come in hope of thy defence.
BRUCE. First will I die, ere you shall yield yourself
To any coward lord that serves the king.
SAL. Coward, proud boy! Thou find'st me no such beast,
And thou shalt rue in earnest this rude jest.
[_Fight again_. MATILDA _taken, led by the hair
by two Soldiers_.
SAL. Rude hands! how hale you virtuous honour forth!
You do not well: away!
Now, by my faith, ye do not well, I say.
Take her, fair queen, use her as she deserves:
She's fair, she's noble, chaste, and debonair.
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