HAROLD. How, Malet, if they be not honourable!
MALET. Seem to obey them.
HAROLD. Better die than lie!
MALET. Choose therefore whether thou wilt have thy conscience
White as a maiden's hand, or whether England
Be shatter'd into fragments.
HAROLD. News from England?
MALET. Morcar and Edwin have stirr'd up the Thanes
Against thy brother Tostig's governance;
And all the North of Humber is one storm.
HAROLD. I should be there, Malet, I should be there!
MALET. And Tostig in his own hall on suspicion
Hath massacred the Thane that was his guest,
Gamel, the son of Orm: and there be more
As villainously slain.
HAROLD. The wolf! the beast!
Ill news for guests, ha, Malet! More? What more?
What do they say? did Edward know of this?
MALET. They say, his wife was knowing and abetting.
HAROLD. They say, his wife!--To marry and have no husband
Makes the wife fool. My God, I should be there.
I'll hack my way to the sea.
MALET. Thou canst not, Harold;
Our Duke is all between thee and the sea,
Our Duke is all about thee like a God;
All passes block'd. Obey him, speak him fair,
For he is only debonair to those
That follow where he leads, but stark as death
To those that cross him.
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