Ethelbert. A sad delay!

Conrad. Away, thou guilty thing!

Ethelbert. You again, Duke? Justice, most noble Otho!
You—go to your sister there, and plot again,
A quick plot, swift as thought to save your heads;
For lo! the toils are spread around your den,
The world is all agape to see dragged forth
Two ugly monsters.

Ludolph. What means he, my lord?

Conrad. I cannot guess.

Ethelbert. Best ask your lady sister
Whether the riddle puzzles her beyond
The power of utterance.

Conrad. Foul barbarian, cease;
The Princess faints!

Ludolph. Stab him! O, sweetest wife!

[Attendants bear off Auranthe.

Erminia. Alas!

Ethelbert. Your wife?

Ludolph. Ay, Satan! does that yerk ye?

Ethelbert. Wife! so soon!

Ludolph. Ay, wife! Oh, impudence!
Thou bitter mischief! Venomous bad priest!
How dar’st thou lift those beetle brows at me—
Me—the prince Ludolph, in this presence here,
Upon my marriage-day, and scandalise
My joys with such opprobrious surprise?
Wife! Why dost linger on that syllable,
As if it were some demon’s name pronounced
To summon harmful lightning, and make yawn
The sleepy thunder? Hast no sense of fear?
No ounce of man in thy mortality?
Tremble! for, at my nod, the sharpened axe
Will make thy bold tongue quiver to the roots,
Those grey lids wink, and thou not know it, monk!

Ethelbert. O, poor deceived Prince! I pity thee! Great Otho! I claim justice—

Ludolph. Thou shalt have ’t!
Thine arms from forth a pulpit of hot fire
Shall sprawl distracted? O that that dull cow!
Were some most sensitive portion of thy life,
That I might give it to my hounds to tear!
Thy girdle some fine zealous-pained nerve
To girth thy saddle! And those devil’s beads
Each one a life, that I might every day
Crush one with Vulcan’s hammer!

Otho. Peace, my son;
You far outstrip my spleen in this affair.
Let us be calm, and hear the abbot’s plea
For this intrusion.

Ludolph. I am silent, sire.

Otho. Conrad, see all depart not wanted here.

[Exeunt Knights, Ladies, & c.

Ludolph. Why has he time to breathe another word?