KING JOHN: Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet

Say that before Ascension-day at noon

My crown I should give off? Even so I have:

I did suppose it should be on constraint:

But, heaven be thank'd, it is but voluntary.

Enter the BASTARD

BASTARD: All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out

But Dover castle: London hath received,

Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers:

Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone

To offer service to your enemy,

And wild amazement hurries up and down

The little number of your doubtful friends.

KING JOHN: Would not my lords return to me again,

After they heard young Arthur was alive?

BASTARD: They found him dead and cast into the streets,

An empty casket, where the jewel of life

By some damn'd hand was robb'd and ta'en away.

KING JOHN: That