the expense of her honour; broken-hearted, she sinks beneath her shame at
the crime into which she has been betrayed, and returns home. Francis
pursues her, and the Queen, now aware of his passion for her, dispatches
the monk Gonzales on a secret mission to poison Françoise, who, she fears,
may supplant her in her ascendancy over the King. A fine passage occurs in
the scene wherein the Queen proposes her scheme to Gonzales.

QUEEN.

Didst ever look upon the dead?

GONZALES.

Ay, madam,
Full oft; and in each calm or frightful guise
Death comes in,--on the bloody battle-field;
When with each gush of black and curdling life
A curse was uttered,--when the pray'rs I've pour'd,
Have been all drown'd with din of clashing arms--
And shrieks and shouts, and loud artillery,
That shook the slipp'ry earth, all drunk with gore--
I've seen it, swoll'n with subtle poison, black
And staring with concentrate agony--
When ev'ry vein hath started from its bed,
And wreath'd like knotted snakes, around the brows
That, frantic, dash'd themselves in tortures down
Upon the earth. I've seen life float away
On the faint sound of a far tolling bell--
Leaving its late warm tenement as fair,
As though 'twere th' incorruptible that lay