ASTOLFO. Sire, Clotaldo doth address thee As a cautious, prudent man, Whose experience time hath ripened. I as a bold youth would speak: Yonder, having lost its rider, I behold a noble steed Wandering reinless and unbridled, Mount and fly with him while I Guard the open path behind thee. BASILIUS. If it is God's will I die, Or if Death for me here lieth As in ambush, face to face I will meet it and defy it. * * * * * SCENE XIV. SIGISMUND, ESTRELLA, ROSAURA, Soldiers, Attendants, BASILIUS, ASTOLFO, and CLOTALDO. A SOLDIER. 'Mid the thickets of the mountain, 'Neath these dark boughs so united, The King hides. SIGISMUND. Pursue him then, Leave no single shrub unrifled, Nothing must escape your search, Not a plant, and not a pine tree. CLOTALDO. Fly, my lord! BASILIUS. And wherefore fly? ASTOLFO. Come! BASILIUS. Astolfo, I'm decided. CLOTALDO. What to do? BASILIUS. To try, Clotaldo, One sole remedy that surviveth. [To SIGISMUND. If 'tis me thou'rt seeking, Prince, At thy feet behold me lying. [Kneeling. Let thy carpet be these hairs Which the snows of age have whitened. Tread upon my neck, and trample On my crown; in base defilement Treat me with all disrespect; Let thy deadliest vengeance strike me Through my honour; as thy slave Make me serve thee, and in spite of All precautions let fate be, Let heaven keep the word it plighted. SIGISMUND. Princes of the Court of Poland, Who such numerous surprises Have astonished seen, attend, For it is your prince invites ye. That which heaven has once determined, That which God's eternal finger Has upon the azure tablets Of the sky sublimely written, Those transparent sheets of sapphire Superscribed with golden ciphers Ne'er deceive, and never lie; The deceiver and the liar Is he who to use them badly In a wrongful sense defines them. Thus, my father, who is present, To protect him from the wildness Of my nature, made of me A fierce brute, a human wild-beast; So that I, who from my birth, From the noble blood that trickles Through my veins, my generous nature, And my liberal condition, Might have proved a docile child, And so grew, it was sufficient By so strange an education, By so wild a course of living, To have made my manners wild;-- What a method to refine them! If to any man 'twas said, "It is fated that some wild-beast will destroy you," would it be Wise to wake a sleeping tiger As the remedy of the ill? If 'twere said, "this sword here hidden In its sheath, which thou dost wear, Is the one foredoomed to kill thee," Vain precaution it would be To preserve the threatened victim. Bare to point it at his breast. If 'twere said, "these waves that ripple Calmly here for thee will build Foam-white sepulchres of silver," Wrong it were to trust the sea When its haughty breast is lifted Into mountain heights of snow, Into hills of curling crystal. Well, this very thing has happened Unto him, who feared a wild-beast, And awoke him while he slept;