I understand you! It is true, I am the king's prisoner, and it rests with him how he will have me treated. But listen: if you are the man whose features you bear,--if you are an old and honest warrior, have pity on me, and beg the king to have me treated as a soldier, not as a woman.
STRATO.
He will be with you directly; I come to announce his approach.
PHILOTAS.
The king with me? And you come to announce him? I do not wish that he should spare me one of the humiliations to which a prisoner must submit. Come, lead me to him! After the disgrace of having been disarmed, nothing is disgraceful to me now.
STRATO.
Prince! Your countenance, so full of youthful graces, bespeaks a softer heart!
PHILOTAS.
Mock not my countenance! Your visage, full of scars, is assuredly a more handsome face.