LORD. At the very hour To which your Highness temper'd it. Yet not So wholly but some lingering mist still hung About his dawning senses--which to clear, We fill'd and handed him a morning drink With sleep's specific antidote suffused; And while with princely raiment we invested What nature surely modell'd for a Prince-- All but the sword--as you directed-- KING. Ay-- LORD. If not too loudly, yet emphatically Still with the title of a Prince address'd him. KING. How bore he that? LORD. With all the rest, my liege, I will not say so like one in a dream As one himself misdoubting that he dream'd. KING. So far so well, Clotaldo, either way, And best of all if tow'rd the worse I dread. But yet no violence? LORD. At most, impatience; Wearied perhaps with importunities We yet were bound to offer. KING. Oh, Clotaldo! Though thus far well, yet would myself had drunk The potion he revives from! such suspense Crowds all the pulses of life's residue Into the present moment; and, I think, Whichever way the trembling scale may turn, Will leave the crown of Poland for some one To wait no longer than the setting sun! CLO. Courage, my liege! The curtain is undrawn, And each must play his part out manfully, Leaving the rest to heaven. KING. Whose written words If I should misinterpret or transgress! But as you say-- (To the Lord, who exit.) You, back to him at once; Clotaldo, you, when he is somewhat used To the new world of which they call him Prince, Where place and face, and all, is strange to him, With your known features and familiar garb Shall then, as chorus to the scene, accost him, And by such earnest of that old and too Familiar world, assure him of the new. Last in the strange procession, I myself Will by one full and last development Complete the plot for that catastrophe That he must put to all; God grant it be The crown of Poland on his brows!--Hark! hark!-- Was that his voice within!--Now louder--Oh, Clotaldo, what! so soon begun to roar!-- Again! above the music--But betide What may, until the moment, we must hide. (Exeunt King and Clotaldo.)