Queen (cont.)
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries, “A rat, a rat!”
And, in this brainish apprehension, kills
The unseen good old man.
King
It had been so with us, had we been there:
His liberty is full of threats to all;
To you yourself, to us, to every one.
Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer’d?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrain’d and out of haunt,
This mad young man: but so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit;
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of Life. Where is he gone?