Mrs Kep. Why so?

Miss Leer. You know that your husband has spent all his own estate, and yours, and he treats you with the most shameful neglect. And yet you place confidence in him, and have given him the last remains of your fortune. Are you not foolish?

Mrs. Kep. Perhaps not; but if I be, how can I help it? Miss Leer. How can you help it? You are a disgrace to your sex! There is no spirit in you; and let him treat you as he will, you are all patience, and dare not resent it. I would give him a good lecture upon the subject, such as he would never wish to hear again.

Mrs. Kep. What? then you would never see him again?

Miss Leer. I should esteem it a happy riddance. So much the better. I would have the whole house to myself, and do what I pleased in it. That would not frighten me at all.

Mrs. Kep. You know nothing about it.

Miss Leer. I know nothing about it! I know that a bad husband is worse than none. I will have a good What makes you think that I know noth

one, or none.

ing about it?

Mrs. Kep. I will not tell you.

Miss Leer. What? that is kind to be sure. Not tell your sister? But you shall tell me what is the reason I do not know.

Mrs. Kep. Positively I will not tell you; wait till you have a husband of whom you are fond, who yet has some vices, as I suppose they all have, and then you will know. Miss Leer. You treat me so ill, I will not talk with you. (Exeunt.)

SCENE IV.

MR AND MRS. KEPPEL.

Mr Kep. Oh, my stars! what a wretch! I am ruin

ed, there is no help for me.

Mrs. Kep. My friend, what is the matter?

Mr. K p. Let me alone, I am ruined.

Mrs. Kep. Not unless you are unkind to your

wife.

Mr Kep. O my dear, ray wife, I will not be unkind; but I am distracted; I am certainly undone, I have lost

all the money I had raised from your box of jewels. O that I could die with innocence! then I should be glad to die.

Mrs. Kep. What, die because you have lost your mo→ ney? fie, my husband, fie upon it!

Mr Kep. I have now lost every thing, and have completely ruined you, as well as myself; we are as poor as the poorest beggars! My dear, were it not that I would live as a mere servant to you I should wish to die.

Mrs. Kep. Do you not recollect that when my mother opposed our marriage, you told me, in one of your ardent raptures, nay, you solemnly declared, that you could be happy even in the meanest cottage, and to live by the hardest labour if you could only live with me-I laid that up in my heart.

Mr. Kep. That was not the effect of rapture. It was my serious sentiments; and I think so now.

Mrs. Kep. Then we have lost nothing; only leave gaming, and we shall be happy.

Mr. Kep. Leave gaming! I detest it I perfectly abhor it. I will bind myself by the most solemn engagement, never to touch a card again.

Mrs Kep. Can you keep your resolution?

Mr. Kep I am sure that I can.

Mrs Kep. Then only quit gaming houses and live reputably with me: I will maintain you and myself. Iunderstand many little handy matters. If my work sells cheap, I will work the more, and I am sure I can maintain us both.

Mr. Kep Excellent woman! your excellence exceeds all the power of language to express it; I am confounded. But the idea of your virtues gives me the keenest pain, while I think I have made you wretched.

(Mr. Leerkins enters with a box; to him Mrs. Keppel speaks }

Mrs. Kep. Brother, you promised me for the forty pounds I lent you yesterday to let me have all your winnings at cards for three days. This, Sir, (introducing her brother to Mr. Keppelj is my brother, yesterday from the East Indies.

Mr. Leer. Here, madam, (giving her the box,) is what

I have won this day, and I find I won it of your husband. But it is now yours, I scorn to violate my promise. Here is the whole in mortgages and bank notes. Take it.

Mrs. Kep. This, Mr. Keppel, is now mine (She takes it.) Mr. Kep. Certainly.

Mrs. Kep. Accept the whole then as a present from me, I will not be denied.

Mr. Kep. I am so surprised I can scarcely breathe. O my excellent wife! How has thy tender treatment, thy patience, and thine amiable virtues, reclaimed me at last from the odious vice of gaming! Thus narrowly have I escaped the horrors of despair and the gulf of ruin: I do solemnly protest, I will never touch a card again. do verily believe that gaming and its attendant vices, have destroyed more men than the sword, pestilence and famine. (He takes the box and all withdraw.)

For I

Canute IS it true, my friends, what you have so often told me, that I am the greatest of monarchs?

Off. It is true my liege, you are the most powerful of all kings.

Oswald. We are all your slaves; we kiss the dust of your feet.

Offa. Not only we, but even the elements, are your slaves. The land obeys you from shore to shore; and. the sea obeys you.

Canute Does the sea with its boisterous waves obey me? Will that terrible element be still at my bidding? Offa Yes, the sea is yours; it was made to bear your ships upon its bosom, and to pour the treasures of the world at your royal feet It is boisterous to your enenies, but it knows you to be its sovereign.

Canute. Is not the tide coming up?

Oswald Yes, my liege; you may perceive the swell already

Canute. Bring me a chair then; set it here upon the sands.

Offa Where the tide is coming up, my gracious lord? Owald (aside.) I wonder what he is going to do! Offa (aside.) Surely he is not such a fool asto believe us? Canute. O mighty ocean! thou art my subject; my courtiers tell me so; and it is then thy bounden duty to obey me. Thus, then, stretch my sceptre over thee, and command thee to retire. Roll back thy swelling waves, nor let them presume to wet the feet of me, thy royal master

Oswald. (aside.) I believe the sea will pay very little regard to his royal commands.

Offa. See how fast the tide rises!

Oswald The next wave will come up to the chair. It is folly to stay; we shall be covered with salt water.

Canute. Well, does the sea obey my commands? If it be my subject, it is a very rebellious subject. See how it rises, and dashes the angry foam and salt spray over my sacred person. Vile sycophants! did you think I was the dupe of your base lies? that I believed your abject flatteries? No, there is but one being whom the sea will obey. He is sovereign of heaven and earth, king of kings, and lord of lords. It is only he who can say to the ocean, "Thus far shalt thou go, but no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." A king is but a man : and man is but a worm. Shall a worm assume the power of the great God, and think the elements will obey him? Take away this crown, I will never wear it more. May kings learn to be humble from my example, and courtiers learn truth from your disgrace, vile flatterers of a worm!

CHAPTER CIII.

THE TWO ROBBERS.

SCENE. Alexander the Great in his tent. Guards. A Robber with a fierce countenance, chained and fettered, brought before him

Alex. WHAT, art thou the Thracian robber, of whose exploits I have heard so much?

Rob I am a Thracian and a soldier.

Alex. A soldier !-you mean a thief, a plunderer, an assassin the pest of the country! I could honour thy courage, but I must punish thy crimes.

Rob. What have I done, of which you can complain? Alex. Hast thou not set at defiance my authority; violated the public peace, and passed thy life in injuring the persons and properties of thy fellow-subjects?

Rob. Alexander! I am your captive-I must therefore hear what you please to say, and endure what you please to inflict. But my soul is unconquered; and if I reply at all to your reproaches, I will reply like a free man.

Alex. Speak freely. Far be it from me to take the advantage of my power to silence those with whom I deign

to converse!

Rob. I must then answer your question by asking another. How have you passed your life?

Alex. Like a Hero Ask fame, and she will tell you. Among the brave, I have been the bravest! among sovereigns, the noblest; among conquerors, the mightiest.

Rob. And does not fame speak of me, too? Was there ever a bolder captain of a more valiant band? Wa there ever-but I scorn to boast. You yourself know that I have not been easily subdued.

Alex. Still, what are you but a robber-a base, dishonest robber?

Rob. And what is a conqueror? Have not you, too, gone about the earth like an evil genius, blasting the fair fruits of peace and industry; plundering, ravaging, killing without law, without justice, merely to gratify an insatiable lust for dominion? All that I have done to a single district with a hundred followers, you have done to whole nations, with a hundred thousand If I have stripped individuals, you have ruined princes and kings. If I have burned a few hamlets, you have desolated the most flourishing kingdoms and cities of the earth. What is then the difference, but that as you were born a king, and I a private man, you have been able to become a mightier robber than I?

Alex. But if I have taken like a king, I have given like a king. If I have subverted empires, I have founded grea er. I have cherished arts, commerce, and philosophy

Rob. I, too, have freely given to the poor, what I took from the rich. I have established order and discipline among the most ferocious of mankind; and have stetched out my protecting arm over the oppressed. I know, indeed, little