ARCHBISHOP OF GNESEN. And shall we trust a scroll which might have found Its way by merest chance into your hands Backed by the tale of some poor renegades? Forgive me, noble youth! Your tone, I grant, And bearing, are not those of one who lies; Still you in this may be yourself deceived. Well may the heart be pardoned that beguiles Itself in playing for so high a stake. What hostage do you tender for your word? DEMETRIUS. I tender fifty, who will give their oaths,-- All Piasts to a man, and free-born Poles Of spotless reputation,--each of whom Is ready to enforce what I have urged. There sits the noble Prince of Sendomir, And at his side the Castellan of Lublin; Let them declare if I have spoke the truth. ARCHBISHOP OF GNESEN. How seem these things to the august Estates? To the enforcement of such numerous proofs Doubt and mistrust, methinks, must needs give way. Long has a creeping rumor filled the world That Dmitri, Ivan's son, is still alive. The Czar himself confirms it by his fears. --Before us stands a youth, in age and mien Even to the very freak that nature played, The lost heir's counterpart, and of a soul Whose noble stamp keeps rank with his high claims. He left a cloister's precincts, urged by strange, Mysterious promptings; and this monk-trained boy Was straight distinguished for his knightly feats. He shows a trinket which the Czarowitsch Once wore, and one that never left his side; A written witness, too, by pious hands, Gives us assurance of his princely birth; And, stronger still, from his unvarnished speech And open brow truth makes his best appeal. Such traits as these deceit doth never don; It masks its subtle soul in vaunting words, And in the high-glossed ornaments of speech. No longer, then, can I withhold the title Which he with circumstance and justice claims And, in the exercise of my old right, I now, as primate, give him the first voice. ARCHBISHOP OF LEMBERG. My voice goes with the primate's. SEVERAL VOICES. So does mine. SEVERAL PALATINES. And mine! ODOWALSKY. And mine. DEPUTIES. And all! SAPIEHA. My gracious sirs! Weigh well ere you decide! Be not so hasty! It is not meet the council of the realm Be hurried on to---- ODOWALSKY. There is nothing here For us to weigh; all has been fully weighed. The proofs demonstrate incontestably. This is not Moscow, sirs! No despot here Keeps our free souls in manacles. Here truth May walk by day or night with brow erect. I will not think, my lords, in Cracow here, Here in the very Diet of the Poles, That Moscow's Czar should have obsequious slaves.