Richard III - Act 3 - Scene 3

SCENE III. Pomfret Castle.

    Enter RATCLIFF, with halberds, carrying RIVERS, GREY, and VAUGHAN to death

RATCLIFF

    Come, bring forth the prisoners.

RIVERS

    Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this:
    To-day shalt thou behold a subject die
    For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.

GREY

    God keep the prince from all the pack of you!
    A knot you are of damned blood-suckers!

VAUGHAN

    You live that shall cry woe for this after.

RATCLIFF

    Dispatch; the limit of your lives is out.

RIVERS

    O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison,
    Fatal and ominous to noble peers!
    Within the guilty closure of thy walls
    Richard the second here was hack'd to death;
    And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,
    We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink.

GREY

    Now Margaret's curse is fall'n upon our heads,
    For standing by when Richard stabb'd her son.

RIVERS

    Then cursed she Hastings, then cursed she Buckingham,
    Then cursed she Richard. O, remember, God
    To hear her prayers for them, as now for us
    And for my sister and her princely sons,
    Be satisfied, dear God, with our true blood,
    Which, as thou know'st, unjustly must be spilt.

RATCLIFF

    Make haste; the hour of death is expiate.

RIVERS

    Come, Grey, come, Vaughan, let us all embrace:
    And take our leave, until we meet in heaven.

    Exeunt