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And we must part! the hand of death is on thee! my beloved child! O Douglas, Douglas!

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[DOUGLAS growing more and more faint. Doug. Too soon we part; I have not long been Douglas.

O destiny! hardly thou deal'st with me:
Clouded and hid, a stranger to myself,

In low and poor obscurity I lived.

Lady Rand. Has heaven preserved thee for an end like this?

Doug. O had I fall'n as my brave fathers fell, Turning with effort great the tide of battle!

Like them I should have smiled and welcom'd death.

But thus to perish by a villain's hand!

Cut off from nature's and from glory's course,
Which never mortal was so fond to run.

Lady Rand. Hear, justice! hear! stretch thine

avenging arm.

[DOUGLAS falls.

Doug. Unknown I die; no tongue shall speak

of me.

Some noble spirits, judging by themselves,

May yet conjecture what I might have proved,
And think life only wanting to my fame:

But who shall comfort thee?

Lady Rand. Despair! despair!

Doug. O, had it pleased high Heaven to let me

live

A little while!-My eyes that gaze on thee

Grow dim apace! my mother!-O, my mother!

[Dies.

Enter Lord RANDOLPH and ANNA.

Lord Rand. Thy words, the words of truth, have pierced my heart.

I am the stain of knighthood and of arms.

Oh! if my brave deliverer survives

The traitor's sword

Anna. Alas! look there, my lord.

Lord Rand. The mother and her son! How

curst I am!

Was I the cause? No: I was not the cause.

Yon matchless villain did seduce my soul

To frantic jealousy.

Anna. My lady lives:

The

agony of grief hath but supprest

A while her powers.

Lord Rand. But my deliverer's dead!

The world did once esteem Lord Randolph well;

Sincere of heart, for spotless honour famed :

And in my early days, glory I gain'd
Beneath the holy banner of the cross.

Now past the noon of life, shame comes upon me;
Reproach, and infamy, and public hate,

Are near at hand; for all mankind will think That Randolph basely stabb'd Sir Malcolm's heir. [Lady RANDOLPH recovering.

Lady Rand. Where am I now? still in this wretched world!

Grief cannot break a heart so hard as mine.

My youth was worn in anguish; but youth's

strength,

With hope's assistance, bore the brunt of sorrow, And train'd me on to be the object, now,

On which Omnipotence displays itself,

Making a spectacle, a tale of me,

To awe its vassal, man.

Lord Rand. O misery!

Amidst thy raging grief I must proclaim

My innocence.

Lady Rand. Thy innocence!

Lord Rand. My guilt

Is innocence, compared with what thou think'st it. Lady Rand. Of thee I think not: what have

I to do

With thee, or any thing? My son ! my son!
My beautiful! my brave! how proud was I
Of thee, and of thy valour! My fond heart
O'erflow'd this day with transport, when I thought
Of growing old amidst a race of thine,

Who might make up to me their father's childhood,

And bear

my brother's and my husband's name: Now all my hopes are dead! A little while Was I a wife! a mother not so long! What am I now ?-I know-But I shall be That only whilst I please; for such a son And such a husband drive me to my fate.

[Runs out.

Lord Rand. Follow her, Anna: I myself would

follow,

But in this rage she must abhor my presence.

[Exit ANNA.

Enter Old NORVAL.

Old Norv. I hear the voice of woe; heaven guard my child!

Lord Rand. Already is the idle gaping crowd, The spiteful vulgar, come to gaze on Randolph ? Begone!

Old Norv. I fear thee not. I will not go. Here I'll remain. I'm an accomplice, lord, With thee in murder. Yes, my sins did help To crush down to the ground this lovely plant. O noblest youth that ever yet was born! Sweetest and best, gentlest and bravest spirit, That ever bless'd the world! Wretch that I am, Who saw that noble spirit swell and rise Above the narrow limits that confined it, Yet never was by all thy virtues won To do thee justice, and reveal the secret, Which, timely known, had raised thee far above The villain's snare! Oh! I am punish'd now! These are the hairs that should have strew'd the ground,

And not the locks of Douglas.

[Tears his hair, and throws himself upon the body of Douglas.

Lord Rand. I know thee now: thy boldness I

forgive;

My crest is fall'n. For thee I will appoint
A place of rest, if grief will let thee rest.

I will reward, although I cannot punish.
Curst, curst Glenalvon, he escaped too well,
Though slain and baffled by the hand he hated.

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