The Gamester (1753) - LightNovelsOnl.com
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I came in pity, not in malice; to save the brother, not kill the sister. Your Lewson's dead.
_Char._ O horrible! Why, who has killed him?--And yet it cannot be.
What crime had He committed that he should die? Villain! he lives!
he lives! and shall revenge these pangs.
_Mrs. Bev._ Patience, sweet Charlotte!
_Char._ O, 'tis too much for patience!
_Mrs. Bev._ He comes in pity, he says. O! execrable villain! The friend is killed then, and this the murderer?
_Bev._ Silence, I charge you. Proceed, Sir.
_Stu._ No. Justice may stop the tale--and here's an evidence.
SCENE IX.
_Enter BATES._
_Bates._ The news, I see, has reached you. But take comfort, madam.
(_To Charlotte_) There's one without, enquiring for you. Go to him, and lose no time.
_Char._ O misery! misery!
[_Exit_.
_Mrs. Bev._ Follow her, Jarvis. If it be true that Lewson's dead, her grief may kill her.
_Bates._ Jarvis must stay here, madam: I have some questions for him.
_Stu._ Rather let him fly. His evidence may crush his master.
_Bev._ Why, ay; this looks like management.
_Bates._ He found you quarrelling with Lewson in the street last night.
[_To Beverley._
_Mrs. Bev._ No; I am sure he did not.
_Jar._ Or if I did--
_Mrs. Bev._ 'Tis false, old man--They had no quarrel; there was no cause for quarrel.
_Bev._ Let him proceed, I say--O! I am sick! sick! Reach me a chair.
[_He sits down._
_Mrs. Bev._ You droop, and tremble, love--Your eyes are fixt too--Yet You are innocent. If Lewson's dead, You killed him not.
SCENE X.
_Enter DAWSON._
_Stu._ Who sent for Dawson?
_Bates._ 'Twas I. We have a witness too, you little think of.
Without there!
_Stu._ What witness?
_Bates._ A right one. Look at him.
SCENE XI.
_Re-enter CHARLOTTE, with LEWSON._
_Stu._ Lewson! O--villains! villains!
[_To Bates and Dawson._
_Mrs. Bev._ Risen from the dead! Why, this is unexpected happiness!
_Char._ Or is't his ghost? (_To Stukely_) That sight would please you, Sir.
_Jar._ What riddle's this?
_Bev._ Be quick and tell it--My minutes are but few.
_Mrs. Bev._ Alas! why so? You shall live long and happily.
_Lew._ While shame and punishment shall rack that viper. (_Pointing to Stukely_) The tale is short. I was too busy in his secrets, and therefore doomed to die. Bates, to prevent the murder, undertook it.
I kept aloof to give it credit--
_Char._ And gave Me pangs unutterable.
_Lew._ I felt them all, and would have told you; but vengeance wanted ripening. The villain's scheme was but half executed. The arrest by Dawson followed the supposed murder: and now, depending on his once wicked a.s.sociates, he comes to fix the guilt on Beverley.
_Mrs. Bev._ O! execrable wretch!
_Bates._ Dawson and I are witnesses of this.
_Lew._ And of a thousand frauds. His friend undone by sharpers and false dice; and Stukely sole contriver, and possessor of all.
_Daw._ Had he but stopt on this side murder, we had been villains still.
_Mrs. Bev._ Thus heaven turns evil into good; and by permitting sin, warns men to virtue.
_Lew._ Yet punishes the instrument. So shall our laws; though not with death. But death were mercy. Shame, beggary, and imprisonment, unpitied misery, the stings of conscience, and the curses of mankind shall make life hateful to him--till at last, his own hand end him.
How does my friend?
