Your age and wisdom. Tis a statesman's virtue,
To guard his country's safety by what means
It best may be protected-come what will
Of these monk's morals!

Raab Kiuprili (aside).
Made his soul iron, though his sons repented.
They boasted not their baseness.

220

Ha! the elder Brutus

[Draws his sword.

Infamous changeling!

225

Recant this instant, and swear loyalty,
And strict obedience to thy sovereign's will;
Or, by the spirit of departed Andreas,
Thou diest

[Chiefs, c., rush to interpose; during the tumult enter
EMERICK, alarmed.

Emerick. Call out the guard! Ragozzi! seize the assassin. Kiuprili? Ha! [Making signs to the guard to retire. Pass on, friends! to the palace.

230

[Music recommences.-The Procession passes into the Palace.

Emerick. What? Raab Kiuprili? What? a father's sword Against his own son's breast?

Raab Kiuprili.

"Twould best excuse him,

Were he thy son, Prince Emerick. I abjure him.

Emerick. This is my thanks, then, that I have com

menced

A reign to which the free voice of the nobles
Hath called me, and the people, by regards

Of love and grace to Raab Kiuprili's house?

235

Raab Kiuprili. What right hadst thou, Prince Emerick, to bestow them?

Emerick. By what right dares Kiuprili question me? Raab Kiuprili. By a right common to all loyal subjectsTo me a duty! As the realm's co-regent, Appointed by our sovereign's last free act, Writ by himself.

Emerick.

241

[Grasping the Patent.

Aye! Writ in a delirium! Raab Kiuprili. I likewise ask, by whose authority

223 his 1817.

224 They BOASTED not their baseness. [Starts, and draws his sword. 1817, 1828, 1829. 230. Kiuprili? Ha! [With lowered voice, at the same time with one hand making, &c. 1817, 1828, 1829. After 230 [Music... Palace.-During which time EMERICK and KIUPRILI regard each other stedfastly. 1817, 1828, 1829. 233 thy-I 1817, 1828, 1829. 234 thanks] thank 1817. 240 me 1817, 1828, 1829. 243 Emerick (with a contemptuous sneer). Aye !—Writ, &c. 1817, 1828, 1829.

The access to the sovereign was refused me?

Emerick. By whose authority dared the general leave His camp and army, like a fugitive?

243

Raab Kiuprili. A fugitive, who, with victory for his comrade. Ran, open-eyed, upon the face of death!

A fugitive, with no other fear, than bodements

To be belated in a loyal purpose

At the command, Prince! of my king and thine.
Hither I came; and now again require
Audience of Queen Zapolya; and (the States
Forthwith convened) that thou dost shew at large,
On what ground of defect thou'st dared annul
This thy King's last and solemn act-hast dared
Ascend the throne, of which the law had named,
And conscience should have made thee, a protector.

250

255

259

Emerick. A sovereign's ear ill brooks a subject's questioning! Yet for thy past well-doing-and because 'Tis hard to erase at once the fond belief Long cherished, that Illyria had in thee

No dreaming priest's slave, but a Roman lover

Of her true weal and freedom-and for this, too,
That, hoping to call forth to the broad day-light
And fostering breeze of glory all deservings,
I still had placed thee foremost.

Raab Kiuprili.

Prince! I listen.

Emerick. Unwillingly I tell thee, that Zapolya, Maddened with grief, her erring hopes proved idle-

265

270

Casimir. Sire! speak the whole truth! Say, her fraud detected!

Emerick. According to the sworn attests in council Of her physician

Raab Kiuprili (aside). Yes! the Jew, Barzoni!

Emerick. Under the imminent risk of death she lies,

275

Or irrecoverable loss of reason,

If known friend's face or voice renew the frenzy.

Casimir (to Kiuprili). Trust me, my lord! a woman's trick

has duped you

Us too--but most of all, the sainted Andreas.
Even for his own fair fame, his grace prays hourly

For her recovery, that (the States convened)

She may take counsel of her friends.

252 my 1817, 1828, 1829. frauds 1817: fraud's 1828, 1829.

280

268 thee 1817, 1828, 1829.

271 fraud]

A

Emerick.

Right, Casimir!

Receive my pledge, lord general. It shall stand

In her own will to appear and voice her claims;
Or (which in truth I hold the wiser course)
With all the past passed by, as family quarrels,
Let the Queen Dowager, with unblenched honours,
Resume her state, our first Illyrian matron.

285

Raab Kiuprili. Prince Emerick! you speak fairly, and your pledge too

Is such, as well would suit an honest meaning.

Casimir. My lord! you scarce know half his grace's goodness. The wealthy heiress, high-born fair Sarolta, Bred in the convent of our noble ladies,

Her relative, the venerable abbess,

291

Hath, at his grace's urgence, wooed and won for me. Emerick. Long may the race, and long may that name

flourish,

Which your heroic deeds, brave chief, have rendered
Dear and illustrious to all true Illyrians.

Raab Kiuprili. The longest line that ever tracing herald

Or found or feigned, placed by a beggar's soul
Hath but a mushroom's date in the comparison:
And with the soul, the conscience is coeval,
Yea, the soul's essence.

Emerick.

Is but the pulse of reason. Is it conscience,

295

300

Conscience, good my lord,

That a free nation should be handed down,

Like the dull clods beneath our feet, by chance

305

And the blind law of lineage? That whether infant,

Or man matured, a wise man or an idiot,

Hero or natural coward, shall have guidance

Of a free people's destiny, should fall out

In the mere lottery of a reckless nature,

310

Where few the prizes and the blanks are countless?
Or haply that a nation's fate should hang
On the bald accident of a midwife's handling
The unclosed sutures of an infant's skull?

Casimir. What better claim can sovereign wish or need 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,

316

Before 298 Raab Kiuprili (sternly). 1817,

So hath best learnt to govern; who, having suffered,
Can feel for each brave sufferer and reward him?
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,

Your cause will prosper best in your own pleading.

320

325

Emerick (aside to Casimir). Ragozzi was thy school-mate--a bold spirit!

Bind him to us!-Thy father thaws apace!

[Then aloud.

330

Leave us awhile, my lord!-Your friend, Ragozzi,
Whom you have not yet seen since his return,
Commands the guard to-day.

[CASIMIR retires to the Guard-house; and after a time
appears before it with CHEF Ragozzi.

Throttling the impatient voice. I have heard thee, Prince! 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,

Thou diest that instant.

Emerick. Ha, ha!-Well, Sir!-Conclude your homily.

340

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

Before 343 Raab Kiuprili (in a somewhat suppressed voice). 1817, 1828, 1829. 349 Coils round its perplexity 1817.

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 school-boys' themes
These shallow sophisms of a popular choice?
What people? How convened? or, if convened,
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 thousand-fold reverberation

355

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
In its majestic channel, is man's task

365

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) In rank licentious idleness beleaguer

380

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,

Before 351 Raab Kiuprili (aloud: he and Emerick standing at equi-distance from the Palace and the Guard-house). 1817, 1828, 1829.

354 popular choice 1817, 1828, 1829.

1828, 1829.
Kiuprili (aloud). 1817, 1828, 1829.

351 fancied 1817, Before 375 Raab