and strait.
[_Aside._

_Jul._ I may build upon your promise, then?

_Fisc._ Most firmly: I hear company.

_Enter_ HARMAN, VAN HERRING, _and the two Dutchmen, with_ TOWERSON
_prisoner._

_Har._ Now, captain Towerson, you have had the privilege to be
examined last; this on the score of my old friendship with you, though
you have ill deserved it. But here you stand accused of no less crimes
than robbery first, then murder, and last, treason: What can you say
to clear yourself?

_Tow._ You're interested in all, and therefore partial:
I have considered on it, and will not plead,
Because I know you have no right to judge me;
For the last treaty betwixt our king and you
Expressly said, that causes criminal
Were first to be examined, and then judged,
Not here, but by the Council of Defence;
To whom I make appeal.

_Fisc._ This court conceives that it has power to judge you, derived
from the most high and mighty states, who in this island are supreme,
and that as well in criminal as civil causes.

_1 Dutch._ You are not to question the authority of the court, which
is to judge you.

_Tow._ Sir, by your favour, I both must, and will:
I'll not so far betray my nation's right;
We are not here your subjects, but your partners:
And that supremacy of power, you claim,
Extends but to the natives, not to us:
Dare you, who in the British seas strike sail,
Nay more, whose lives and freedom are our alms,
Presume to sit and judge your benefactors?
Your base new upstart commonwealth should blush,
To doom the subjects of an English king,
The meanest of whose merchants would disdain
The narrow life, and the domestic baseness,
Of one of those you call your Mighty States.

_Fisc._ You spend your breath in railing; speak to the purpose.

_Har._ Hold yet: Because you shall not call us cruel,
Or plead I would be judge in my own cause,
I shall accept of that appeal you make,
Concerning my son's death; provided first,
You clear yourself from what concerns the public;
For that relating to our general safety,
The judgment of it cannot be deferred,
But with our common danger.

_Tow._ Let me first
Be bold to question you: What circumstance
Can make this, your pretended plot, seem likely?
The natives, first, you tortured; their confession,
Extorted so, can prove no crime in us.
Consider, next, the strength of this your castle;
Its garrison above two hundred men,
Be