not venge it but upon his son;
Nor on his son but by Mathias' means;
Nor on Mathias but by murdering me:
But I perceive there is no love on earth,
Pity in Jews, nor piety in Turks.--
But here comes cursed Ithamore with the friar.

Re-enter ITHAMORE with FRIAR JACOMO.

FRIAR JACOMO. Virgo, salve.

ITHAMORE. When duck you?

ABIGAIL. Welcome, grave friar.--Ithamore, be gone.
[Exit ITHAMORE.]
Know, holy sir, I am bold to solicit thee.

FRIAR JACOMO. Wherein?

ABIGAIL. To get me be admitted for a nun.

FRIAR JACOMO. Why, Abigail, it is not yet long since
That I did labour thy admission,
And then thou didst not like that holy life.

ABIGAIL. Then were my thoughts so frail and unconfirm'd
As [104] I was chain'd to follies of the world:
But now experience, purchased with grief,
Has made me see the difference of things.
My sinful soul, alas, hath pac'd too long
The fatal labyrinth of misbelief,
Far from the sun that gives eternal life!

FRIAR JACOMO. Who taught thee this?

ABIGAIL. The abbess of the house,
Whose zealous admonition I embrace:
O, therefore, Jacomo, let me be one,
Although unworthy, of that sisterhood!

FRIAR JACOMO. Abigail, I will: but see thou change no more,
For that will be most heavy to thy soul.

ABIGAIL. That was my father's fault.

FRIAR JACOMO. Thy father's! how?

ABIGAIL. Nay, you shall pardon me.--O Barabas,
Though thou deservest hardly at my hands,
Yet never shall these lips bewray thy life!
[Aside.]

FRIAR JACOMO. Come, shall we go?

ABIGAIL. My duty waits on you.
[Exeunt.]

Enter BARABAS, [105] reading a letter.

BARABAS. What, Abigail become a nun again!
False and unkind! what, hast thou lost thy father?
And, all unknown and unconstrain'd of me,
Art thou again got to the nunnery?
Now here she writes, and wills me to repent:
Repentance! Spurca! what pretendeth [106] this?
I fear she knows--'tis so--of my device
In Don Mathias' and Lodovico's deaths:
If so, 'tis time that it be seen into;
For she that varies from me in belief,
Gives great presumption that she loves me not,
Or, loving, doth dislike of something done.--
But who comes here?

Enter ITHAMORE.