The unclosed sutures of an infant’s skull?
Casimir. What better claim can sovereign wish or need 315
Than the free voice of men who love their country?
Those chiefly who have fought for’t? Who by right,
Claim for their monarch one, who having obeyed,
So hath best learnt to govern; who, having suffered,
Can feel for each brave sufferer and reward him? 320
Whence sprang the name of Emperor? Was it not
By Nature’s fiat? In the storm of triumph,
‘Mid warriors’ shouts, did her oracular voice
Make itself heard: Let the commanding spirit
Possess the station of command!
Raab Kiuprili. Prince Emerick, 325
Your cause will prosper best in your own pleading.
Emerick (aside to Casimir). Ragozzi was thy school-mate — a bold
spirit!
Bind him to us! — Thy father thaws apace! [Then aloud.
Leave us awhile, my lord! — Your friend, Ragozzi,
Whom you have not yet seen since his return, 330
Commands the guard to-day.
[CASIMIR retires to the Guard-house; and after a time
appears before it with CHEF RAGOZZI.
We are alone.
What further pledge or proof desires Kiuprili?
Then, with your assent ——
Raab Kiuprili. Mistake not for assent
The unquiet silence of a stern resolve
Throttling the impatient voice. I have heard thee, Prince! 335
And I have watched thee, too; but have small faith in
A plausible tale told with a flitting eye.
[EMERICK turns as about to call for the Guard.
In the next moment I am in thy power,
In this thou art in mine. Stir but a step,
Or make one sign — I swear by this good sword, 340
Thou diest that instant.
Emerick. Ha, ha! — Well, Sir! — Conclude your homily.
Raab Kiuprili. A tale which, whether true or false, comes guarded
Against all means of proof, detects itself.
The Queen mew’d up — this too from anxious care 345
And love brought forth of a sudden, a twin birth
With thy discovery of her plot to rob thee
Of a rightful throne! — Mark how the scorpion, falsehood,
Coils round in its own perplexity, and fixes
Its sting in its own head!
Emerick. Aye! to the mark! 350
Raab Kiuprili. Had’st thou believed thine own tale, had’st thou
fancied
Thyself the rightful successor of Andreas,
Would’st thou have pilfered from our schoolboys’ themes
These shallow sophisms of a popular choice?
What people? How convened? or, if convened, 355
Must not the magic power that charms together
Millions of men in council, needs have power
To win or wield them? Better, O far better
Shout forth thy titles to yon circling mountains,
And with a thousandfold reverberation 360
Make the rocks flatter thee, and the volleying air,
Unbribed, shout back to thee, King Emerick!
By wholesome laws to embank the sovereign power,
To deepen by restraint, and by prevention
Of lawless will to amass and guide the flood 365
In its majestic channel, is man’s task
And the true patriot’s glory! In all else
Men safelier trust to Heaven, than to themselves
When least themselves in the mad whirl of crowds
Where folly is contagious, and too oft 370
Even wise men leave their better sense at home
To chide and wonder at them when returned.
Emerick (aloud). Is’t thus thou scoff’st the people? most of all,
The soldiers, the defenders of the people?
Raab Kiuprili. O most of all, most miserable nation, 375
For whom the imperial power, enormous bubble!
Is blown and kept aloft, or burst and shattered
By the bribed breath of a lewd soldiery!
Chiefly of such, as from the frontiers far,
(Which is the noblest station of true warriors) 380
In rank licentious idleness beleaguer
City and Court, a venomed thorn i’the side
Of virtuous kings, the tyrant’s slave and tyrant,
Still ravening for fresh largess! But with such
What title claim’st thou, save thy birth? What merits 385
Which many a liegeman may not plead as well,
Brave though I grant thee? If a life outlaboured
Head, heart, and fortunate arm, in watch and war,
For the land’s fame and weal; if large acquests,
Made honest by the aggression of the foe, 390
And whose best praise is, that they bring us safety;
