(Enter D'Ormea and Victor, with Guards.)

Vic. At last I speak; but once—that once, to you!

'T is you I ask, not these your varletry,

Who 's King of us?

Cha. [From his seat.] Count Tende ...

Vic. What your spies

Assert I ponder in my soul, I say—

Here to your face, amid your guards! I choose

To take again the crown whose shadow I gave—

For still its potency surrounds the weak