Fearing the worst of this before it fell,
I closely hid.

ABIGAIL. Where, father?

BARABAS. In my house, my girl.

ABIGAIL. Then shall they ne'er be seen of Barabas;
For they have seiz'd upon thy house and wares.

BARABAS. But they will give me leave once more, I trow,
To go into my house.

ABIGAIL. That may they not;
For there I left the governor placing nuns,
Displacing me; and of thy house they mean
To make a nunnery, where none but their own sect [46]
Must enter in; men generally barr'd.

BARABAS. My gold, my gold, and all my wealth is gone!--
You partial heavens, have I deserv'd this plague?
What, will you thus oppose me, luckless stars,
To make me desperate in my poverty?
And, knowing me impatient in distress,
Think me so mad as I will hang myself,
That I may vanish o'er the earth in air,
And leave no memory that e'er I was?
No, I will live; nor loathe I this my life:
And, since you leave me in the ocean thus
To sink or swim, and put me to my shifts,
I'll rouse my senses, and awake myself.--
Daughter, I have it: thou perceiv'st the plight
Wherein these Christians have oppressed me:
Be rul'd by me, for in extremity
We ought to make bar of no policy.

ABIGAIL. Father, whate'er it be, to injure them
That have so manifestly wronged us,
What will not Abigail attempt?

BARABAS. Why, so.
Then thus: thou told'st me they have turn'd my house
Into a nunnery, and some nuns are there?

ABIGAIL. I did.

BARABAS. Then, Abigail, there must my girl
Entreat the abbess to be entertain'd.

ABIGAIL. How! as a nun?

BARABAS. Ay, daughter; for religion
Hides many mischiefs from suspicion.

ABIGAIL. Ay, but, father, they will suspect me there.

BARABAS. Let 'em suspect; but be thou so precise
As they may think it done of holiness:
Entreat 'em fair, and give them friendly speech,
And seem to them as if thy sins were great,
Till thou hast gotten to be entertain'd.

ABIGAIL. Thus, father, shall I much dissemble.

BARABAS. Tush!
As good dissemble that thou never mean'st,
As first mean truth and then dissemble it:
A counterfeit profession is better
Than unseen hypocrisy.

ABIGAIL. Well, father, say I be entertain'd,
What then shall follow?