_Count._ Call them hither--call The bravest of them--those you meet the first; Send them here quickly. {Exit soldier. Surely, I might do it-- If I gave such a sign, there were not heard A murmur in the camp. But these, my children, My comrades amid peril, and in joy, Those who confide in me, believe they follow A leader ever ready to defend The honor and advantage of the soldier; _I_ play them false, and make more slavish yet, More vile and base their calling, than 'tis now? Lords, I am trustful, as the soldier is, But if you now insist on that from me Which shall deprive me of my comrades' love, If you desire to separate me from them, And so reduce me that I have no stay Saving yourselves--in spite of me I say it, You force me, you, to doubt-- _Com._ What do you say? {_The prisoners, among them young Pergola, enter._ _Count (To the prisoners)._ O brave in vain! Unfortunate! To you, Fortune is cruelest, then? And you alone Are to a sad captivity reserved? _A prisoner._ Such, mighty lord, was never our belief. When we were called into your presence, we Did seem to hear a messenger that gave Our freedom to us. Already, all of those That yielded them to captains less than you Have been released, and only we-- _Count._ Who was it, That made you prisoners? _Prisoner._ We were the last To give our arms up. All the rest were taken Or put to flight, and for a few brief moments The evil fortune of the battle weighed On us alone. At last you made a sign That we should draw nigh to your banner,--we Alone not conquered, relics of the lost. _Count._ You are those? I am very glad, my friends, To see you again, and I can testify That you fought bravely; and if so much valor Were not betrayed, and if a captain equal Unto yourselves had led you, it had been No pleasant thing to stand before you. _Prisoner._ And now Shall it be our misfortune to have yielded Only to you, my lord? And they that found A conqueror less glorious, shall they find More courtesy in him? In vain, we asked Our freedom of your soldiers--no one durst Dispose of us without your own assent, But all did promise it. “O, if you can, Show yourselves to the Count,” they said. “Be sure, He'll not embitter fortune to the vanquished; An ancient courtesy of war will never Be ta'en away by him; he would have been Rather the first to have invented it.”