ing._

_Duke._ You shall; and this shall be the seal of my affection.
[_Gives the letter._
There take it, my Lucretia: I give it with more joy,
Than I with grief received it.

_Luc._ Good night; I'll thank you for't some other time.

_Duke._ You'll not abuse my love?

_Luc._ No; but secure my honour.

_Duke._ I'll force it from your hands. [LUCRETIA _runs._

_Luc._ Help, help, or I am ravished! help, for heaven's sake!

HIPPOLITA, LAURA, _and_ VIOLETTA, _within, at several places._

_Within._ Help, help Lucretia! they bear away Lucretia by force.

_Duke._ I think there's a devil in every corner.

_Enter_ VALERIO.

_Val._ Sir, the design was laid on purpose for you, and all the women
placed to cry. Make haste away; avoid the shame, for heaven's sake.

_Duke._ [_going._] O, I could fire this monastery!

_Enter_ FREDERICK _and_ ASCANIO.

[FREDERICK, _entering, speaks as to some behind him._]

_Fred._ Pain of your lives, let none of you presume to enter but
myself.

_Duke._ My son!--O, I could burst with spite, and die with shame, to
be thus apprehended! this is the baseness and cowardice of guilt: an
army now were not so dreadful to me as that son, o'er whom the right
of nature gives me power.

_Fred._ Sir, I am come--

_Duke._ To laugh at first, and then to blaze abroad,
The weakness and the follies of your father.

_Val._ Sir, he has men in arms attending him.

_Duke._ I know my doom then. You have taken a popular occasion; I am
now a ravisher of chastity, fit to be made prisoner first, and then
deposed.

_Fred._ You will not hear me, sir.

_Duke._ No, I confess I have deserved my fate;
For, what had these grey hairs to do with love?
Or, if the unseemly folly would possess me,
Why should I chuse to make my son my rival?

_Fred._ Sir, you may add, you banished me from Rome,
And, from the light of it, Lucretia's eyes.

_Duke._ Nay, if thou aggravat'st my crimes, thou giv'st
Me right to justify them: thou doubly art my slave,
Both son and subject. I can do thee no wrong,
Nor hast thou right to arraign or punish me:
But thou inquir'st into thy father's years;
Thy swift ambition could not stay my death,
But must ride post to empire. Lead me now;
Thy crimes have made me guiltless to myself,
And given me face to bear the public scorn.
You have a guard without?

_Fred._ I have some friends.

_Duke._ Speak plainly your i