Crime & punishment > Peveril of the peak, or, The days of Charles II

PEVERIL OF THE PEAK.
Act II.
ger. Mark me. Resign those papers which you
bear, and you secure your father’s safety;—deny
them, and, ere long, his death-groan bursts upon
your ear.
Jul Whatever be the charge I bear about me,
with life alone will I resign it. A Peveril never
proved traitor to his trust; nor am I the first so to
debase the name.
Stran. Unthinking fool! You have destroyed
yourself. For the proud lady you obey, she hath
betaken herself to her rock, and sits, as she thinks,
in security, like the eagle reposing after his bloody
banquet;—but the arrow of the fowler may yet
reach her : The shaft is whetted, the bow is bend¬
ed, and the life-blood shall follow. As yet ye fear
me not; but when, like the storm-cloud, my thun¬
ders burst around you, you shall know me for the
man who rules your father’s fate and that of Alice
Bridgenorth. [Exit.
I Jul. Stay ! stay, one moment, I implore you!
! What! what of Alice?—He’s gone! Mysterious
being 1 My every action, every feeling of my heart,
| seems known to him. Alice, let me banish these
feelings,—they unman me. Is not my father in
the toils of his persecutors ? Away, every delusive
thought! Let me not, in the feelings of the lover,
forget the duties of the son. [Exit.
SCENE III.—An Antique Parlour in Martindale
Castle.
Major Biudgevortii discovered renting. Top-
ham attending upon him. Sir Geoffry op-
I posite to the Major. Lady Peveril in tears,
leatiing upon her husband.
Major B. Sir GeofFry, I have already told you
that with you I will hold no argument, for to you
R