Tell me, ease my fears;
Lest when we next time meet, I want the power
To search into the sickness of thy mind,
But talk as wildly then as thou look’st now.

Jaff. O Belvidera!

Belv. Why was I last night delivered to a villain?

Jaff. Ha, a villain!

Belv. Yes! to a villain! Why at such an hour
Meets that assembly all made up of wretches
That look as hell had drawn ’em into league?
Why, I in this hand, and in that a dagger,
Was I delivered with such dreadful ceremonies?

“To you, sirs, and to your honour I bequeath her,
And with her this: whene’er I prove unworthy,
You know the rest, then strike it to her heart”?
Oh! why’s that rest concealed from me? must I
Be made the hostage of a hellish trust?
For such I know I am; that’s all my value?
But by the love and loyalty I owe thee,
I’ll free thee from the bondage of these slaves,
Straight to the Senate, tell ’em all I know,
All that I think, all that my fears inform me!

Jaff. Is this the Roman virtue! this the blood
That boasts its purity with Cato’s daughter’s!
Would she have e’er betrayed her Brutus?

Belv. No:
For Brutus trusted her: wert thou so kind,
What would not Belvidera suffer for thee?

Jaff. I shall undo myself, and tell thee all.

Belv. Look not upon me, as I am a woman,
But as a bone, thy wife, thy friend, who long
Has had admission to thy heart, and there
Studied the virtues of thy gallant nature;
Thy constancy, thy courage and thy truth,
Have been my daily lesson: I have learnt them,
Am bold as thou, can suffer or despise
The worst of fates for thee, and with thee share them

Jaff. O you divinest Powers! look down and hear
My prayers! instruct me to reward this virtue!
Yet think a little ere thou tempt me further:
Think I have a tale to tell, will shake thy nature,
Melt all this boasted constancy thou talk’st of
Into vile tears and despicable sorrows:
Then if thou shouldst betray me!

Belv. Shall I swear?

Jaff. No: do not swear: I would not violate
Thy tender nature with so rude a bond:
But as thou hopest to see me live my days,
And love thee long, look this within thy breast;
I’ve bound myself by all the strictest sacraments
Divine and human—

Belv. Speak!

Jaff. To kill thy father—

Belv. My father!

Jaff. Nay, the throats of the whole Senate
Shall bleed, my Belvidera: he amongst us
That spares his father, brother, or his friend,
Is damned: how rich and beauteous will the face
Of Ruin look, when these wide streets run blood;
I and the glorious partners of my fortune
Shouting, and striding o’er the prostrate dead,
Still to new waste; whilst thou, far off in safety,
Smiling, shalt see the wonders of our daring,
And when night comes, with praise and love receive me.

Belv. Oh!

Jaff. Have a care, and shrink not even in thought!
For if thou dost—