Britain ... - Blue-Lite

THE VARANGIAN. [Act I.
HEREFORD.
Italian priest,
Ne'er meddle thou with what concerns thee not :
'Tis dangerous, be assured. Let him first learn
To bound the licence of his lawless power,
That, like a whirlpool, seeks to engulph our freedom
In its
wide-circling eddies.
KING.
Hence, rash fools !
Your passion misbecomes you. Hereford,
The love which I did bear thy gallant sire,
Is a strong shield between my wrath and thee.
Quit now my sight, ere it too
fiercely burns
To be endured; for, by the Resurrection !
My vengeance shall fall heavy on your heads,
If ye persist to cross me.
HEREFORD (as he turns from the King.)
Norfolk, heed
Thou not his threatenings. Be, like me, but firm,
And from this marriage I'll occasion pluck
For glorious deeds hereafter. [Exeunt.
My
KING.
Lanfranc, thou
bosom counsellor art. Is it not hard
That I must ever wrestle with the storm ?
Let but one sunny gleam of peace shine out,
And doubly dark the howling tempest comes.
But never quails my spirit,
for my path
From earliest years hath in the whirlwind been ;
And Victory, like a handmaid, ever waits
To strew the golden track my foot hath trod
Along the course of Time, with laurels dipt
Deep in the life-blood of my sternest foes.