ou let him live, who did this act?
Shall murder, and of your own son,
And such a son, go free; He lives too long,
By this one minute which he stays behind him.

_Isab._ Oh, sir, remember, in that place you hold,
You are a common father to us all;
We beg but justice of you; hearken first
To my lamented story.

_Fisc._ First hear me, sir.

_Tow._ Thee, slave! thou livest but by the breath I gave thee.
Didst thou but now plead on thy knees for life,
And offer'dst to make known my innocence
In Harman's injuries?

_Fisc._ I offered to have cleared thy innocence,
Who basely murdered him!--But words are needless;
Sir, you see evidence before your eyes,
And I the witness, on my oath to heaven,
How clear your son, how criminal this man.

_Col._ Towerson could do nothing but what was noble.

_Beam._ We know his native worth.

_Fisc._ His worth! Behold it on the murderer's hand;
A robber first, he took degrees in mischief,
And grew to what he is: Know you that diamond,
And whose it was? See if he dares deny it.

_Tow._ Sir, it was your son's, that freely I acknowledge;
But how I came by it--

_Har._ No, it is too much, I'll hear no more.

_Fisc._ The devil of jealousy, and that of avarice, both, I believe,
possest him; or your son was innocently talking with his wife, and he
perhaps had found them; this I guess, but saw it not, because I came
too late. I only viewed the sweet youth just expiring, and Towerson
stooping down to take the ring; she kneeling by to help him: when he
saw me, he would, you may be sure, have sent me after, because I was a
witness of the fact. This on my soul is true.

_Tow._ False as that soul, each word, each syllable;
The ring he put upon my hand this night,
When in this wood unknown, and near this place,
Without my timely help he had been slain.

_Fisc._ See this unlikely story!
What enemies had he, who should assault him?
Or is it probable that very man,
Who actually did kill him afterwards,
Should save his life so little time before?

_Isab._ Base man, thou knowest the reason of his death;
He had committed on my person, sir,
An impious rape; first tied me to that tree,
And there my husband found me, whose revenge
Was such, as heaven and earth will justify.

_Har._ I know not what heaven will, but earth shall not.

_Beam._ Her story carries such a face of truth,
Ye cannot but believe it.

_Col._ The other, a malicious ill-patched lie.

_Fisc._ Yes, you are proper judges