ROL.--Soldier!--hast thou a wife?
SEN.--I have.
ROL.--Hast thou children?
SEN.--Four--honest, lovely boys.
ROL.--Where didst thou leave them?
SEN.--In my native village; even in the cot where myself was born.
ROL.--Dost thou love thy children and thy wife?
SEN.--Do I love them! God knows my heart--I do.
ROL.--Soldier! imagine thou wert doomed to die a cruel death in this
strange land. What would be thy last request?
SEN.--That some of my comrades should carry my dying blessing to my wife
and children.
ROL.--Oh! but if that comrade was at thy prison gate, and should there be
told--thy fellow-soldier dies at sunset, yet thou shalt not for a moment
see him, nor shalt thou bear his dying blessing to his poor children or his
wretched wife, what would'st thou think of him, who thus could drive thy
comrade from the door?
SEN.--How?
ROL.--Alonzo has a wife and child. I am come but to receive for her, and
for her babe, the last blessing of my friend.
SEN.--Go in. [_Shoulders his spear and walks to_ L.
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