Discreet the counsel offered by the queen!
My just wrath yieldeth to necessity.
ISABEL.
'Tis well! Now, with a brotherly embrace
Confirm and seal the new-established bond;
And may the winds disperse what hath been spoken.
[BURGUNDY and TALBOT embrace.
LIONEL (contemplating the group aside).
Hail to an union by the furies planned!
ISABEL.
Fate hath proved adverse, we have lost a battle,
But do not, therefore, let your courage sink.
The Dauphin, in despair of heavenly aid,
Doth make alliance with the powers of hell;
Vainly his soul he forfeits to the devil,
For hell itself cannot deliver him.
A conquering maiden leads the hostile force;
Yours, I myself will lead; to you I'll stand
In place of maiden or of prophetess.
LIONEL.
Madame, return to Paris! We desire
To war with trusty weapons, not with women.
TALBOT.
GO! go! Since your arrival in the camp,
Fortune hath fled our banners, and our course
Hath still been retrograde. Depart at once!
BURGUNDY.
Your presence here doth scandalize the host.
ISABEL (looks from one to the other with astonishment).
This, Burgundy, from you? Do you take part
Against me with these thankless English lords?
BURGUNDY.
Go! go! The thought of combating for you
Unnerves the courage of the bravest men.
ISABEL.
I scarce among you have established peace,
And you already form a league against me!
TALBOT.
Go, in God's name. When you have left the camp
No devil will again appal our troops.
ISABEL.
Say, am I not your true confederate?
Are we not banded in a common cause?
TALBOT.
Thank God! your cause of quarrel is not ours.
We combat in an honorable strife.
BURGUNDY.
A father's bloody murder I avenge.
Stern filial duty consecrates my arms.
TALBOT.
Confess at once. Your conduct towards the Dauphin
Is an offence alike to God and man.
ISABEL.
Curses blast him and his posterity!
The shameless son who sins against his mother!
BURGUNDY.
Ay! to avenge a husband and a father!
ISABEL.
To judge his mother's conduct he presumed!
LIONEL.
That was, indeed, irreverent in a son!
ISABEL.
And me, forsooth, he banished from the realm.
TALBOT.
Urged to the measure by the public voice.
ISABEL.
A curse light on him if I e'er forgive him!
Rather than see him on his father's throne--
TALBOT.
His mother's honor you would sacrifice!
ISABEL.
Your feeble natures cannot comprehend
The vengeance of an outraged mother's heart.
Who pleasures me, I love; who wrongs, I hate.
If he who wrongs me chance to be my son,
All the more worthy is he of my hate.
