left to guard me, and--swallowed poison.

_Mrs. Bev._ O! fatal deed!

_Char._ Dreadful and cruel!

_Bev._ Ay, most accursed--And now I go to my account. This rest from
pain brings death; yet 'tis heaven's kindness to me. I wished for
ease, a moment's ease, that cool repentance and contrition might
soften vengeance. Bend me, and let me kneel. (_They lift him from
his chair, and support him on his knees_) I'll pray for You too.
Thou Power that mad'st me, hear me! If for a life of frailty, and
this too hasty deed of death, thy justice dooms me, here I acquit
the sentence. But if, enthroned in mercy where thou sitt'st, thy
pity has beheld me, send me a gleam of hope; that in these last and
bitter moments, my soul may taste of comfort! And for these mourners
here, O! let their lives be peaceful, and their deaths happy! Now
raise me.
[_They lift him to the chair._

_Mrs. Bev._ Restore him, heaven! Stretch forth thy arm omnipotent,
and snatch him from the grave! O save him! save him!

_Bev._ Alas! that prayer is fruitless: already death has seized me.
Yet heaven is gracious. I asked for hope, as the bright presage of
forgiveness, and like a light, blazing through darkness, it came and
cheared me. 'Twas all I lived for, and now I die.

_Mrs. Bev._ Not yet!--Not yet!--Stay but a little, and I'll die too.