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Why I describe him thus I'll tell hereafter :
Stay and detain him till I reach the castle.

[Exit Lady RANDOLPH.

Annu. O happiness! where art thou to be found? I see thou dwellest not with birth and beauty, Though graced with grandeur, and in wealth array'd: Nor dost thou, it would seem, with virtue dwell; Else had this gentle lady miss'd thee not.

Enter GLENALVON.

Glen. What dost thou muse on, meditating maid?

Like some entranced and visionary seer,

On earth thou stand'st, thy thoughts ascend to heaven.

Anna. Would that I were, e'en as thou say'st,

a seer,

To have my doubts by heavenly vision clear'd! Glen. What dost thou doubt of? what hast

thou to do

With subjects intricate? thy youth, thy beauty, Cannot be question'd: think of these good gifts; And then thy contemplations will be pleasing.

Anna. Let women view yon monument of woe, Then boast of beauty: who so fair as she?

But I must follow: this revolving day

Awakes the memory of her ancient woes.

[Exit ANNA.

Glen. [Solus.] So! Lady Randolph shuns me :

by and by

I'll woo her as the lion wooes his bride.

The deed's adoing now, that makes me lord
Of these rich vallies, and a chief of power.
The season is most apt: my sounding steps
Will not be heard amidst the din of arms.
Randolph has lived too long: his better fate
Had the ascendant once, and kept me down :
When I had seized the dame, by chance he came,
Rescued, and had the lady for his labour.
I 'scaped unknown: a slender consolation!
Heaven is my witness that I do not love
To sow in peril, and let others reap
The jocund harvest. Yet I am not safe:
By love, or something like it, stung, inflamed,
Madly I blabb'd my passion to his wife,
And she has threaten'd to acquaint him of it.
The way of woman's will I do not know:
But well I know the baron's wrath is deadly.
I will not live in fear: the man I dread
Is as a Dane to me; ay, and the man

Who stands betwixt me and my chief desire.
No bar but he; she has no kinsman near;
No brother in his sister's quarrel bold;

And for the righteous cause, a stranger's cause,

I know no chief that will defy Glenalvon. [Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE,-A Court, &c. as before.

Enter Servants and a Stranger at one door, and Lady RANDOLPH and ANNA at another.

Lady Rand. What means this clamour? Stranger, speak secure ;

Hast thou been wrong'd? have these rude men presumed

To vex the weary traveller on his way?

1 Serv. By us no stranger ever suffer'd wrong: This man with outcry wild has call'd us forth; So sore afraid he cannot speak his fears.

Enter Lord RANDOLPH and a Young Man, with their swords drawn and bloody.

Lady Rand. Not vain the stranger's fears!-
How fares my lord?

Lord Rand. That it fares well, thanks to this gallant youth,

1

Whose valour saved me from a wretched death!

As down the winding dale I walk'd alone,
At the cross way four armed men attack'd me:
Rovers, I judge, from the licentious camp;
Who would have quickly laid Lord Randolph low,
Had not this brave and generous stranger come,
Like my good angel, in the hour of fate,

And, mocking danger, made my foes his own.
They turn'd
upon him; but his active arm
Struck to the ground, from whence they rose no

more,

The fiercest two; the others fled amain,
And left him master of the bloody field...
Speak, Lady Randolph: upon beauty's tongue
Dwell accents pleasing to the brave and bold;
Speak, noble dame, and thank him for thy lord.
Lady Rand. My lord, I cannot speak what now
I feel.

My heart o'erflows with gratitude to heav'n;
And to this noble youth, who, all unknown

To

you and yours, deliberated not,

Nor paused at peril, but humanely brave

Fought on your side, against such fearful odds. Have you yet learn'd of him whom we should thank? Whom call the saviour of Lord Randolph's life?

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