BUSH BALLADS AND RHYMES 



Chant the noble Nunc Dimittis — Benedict- 

 mur, my son. \_Exit Melchior. 



Laurence (alone) : 



Why do I provoke these wrangles ? Melchior 



talks (as well he may) 

 With the tongues of men and angels. 

 (Takes up a pamphlet!) What has this man 



got to say ? 

 (^Reads,) Sic sacerdos fatur (ejus nomen 



quondam erat Burgd). 

 Mala m.ens est, car o pejus, anima infirma, ergo 

 I nunc, ora, sine mora — or at etia^n Sancta 



Virgo. 

 ( Thinks. ) 

 [Speaks.) So it seems they mean to make 



her wed the usurer, Nathan Lee. 

 Poor Estelle ! her friends forsake her ; what 



has this to do with me ? 

 Glad I am, at least, that Helen still refuses to 



discard 

 Her, through tales false gossips tell in spite 



or heedlessness. — 'Tis hard! — 

 Lee, the Levite ! — some few years back 



Herbert horsewhipp'd him — the cur 



222 



