Part of a scene from Gerard, Tyrant of Amber, a play popular in the early years of King Martin. The play is anonymous, but the author apparently had a source inside the royal family.
ORINDA : Your Majesty! I had thought you dead!
MARTIN : And I you.
But for once in falsity I find happiness,
The cruel rumor of your murder being but a lie,
And you living yet, safe from our uncle.
ORINDA : That rumor spoke truth of our uncle’s intent.
I live, like you, because I fled his wrath.
I knew when I saw him what he had done;
The bloody hands that slew your father
Would not have scrupled to stop my breath.
Our kinsman William sped my steps
Before the guards sent to seal my doom.
Since then I have waited for Amber’s savior,
Whom now I see before me.
Tell me, my lord, what must I do?
MARTIN : You must bear a message to Gerard.
ORINDA : Must I?
MARTIN : No other.
I know you had hoped to retire from the world
To set aside statecraft and the burdens of our kin
But the hard road that lies ahead
Takes no measure of our wants, Orinda;
Only of dire necessity. It must be you.
ORINDA : Then give me the message, cousin,
And I shall bear it to its destination.
MARTIN : For Amber’s sake, I would treat with Gerard.
This war does Amber no good. The ground cries
With my father’s blood, and more with the blood
We shed upon it. If Gerard will take
That ill-starred wench who wed my father —
Take her hence, far from Amber, and not return —
I will forswear my vengeance for Random.
Justice will come for the Unicorn’s anointed,
But not by my hand, and not at the cost
Of everything the Unicorn anointed him to heal.
ORINDA : You are wise beyond your years, Majesty.
But what if he denies your plea?
MARTIN : The Unicorn will provide, Orinda.
ORINDA : And if he does not honor truce, or the name of herald?
For he hates me, hates the love I bore my uncle,
And the love of king and kinsman I bear to you.
MARTIN : The tyrant’s court is filled with men
Who serve him through terror, or in name alone.
But many of those who call Gerard Regent
Are secretly sworn to me. You are safe among them.