Emerick. Right, Casimir!
Receive my pledge, lord general. It shall stand
In her own will to appear and voice her claims;
Or (which in truth I hold the wiser course)
With all the past passed by, as family quarrels, [285]
Let the Queen Dowager, with unblenched honours,
Resume her state, our first Illyrian matron.

Raab Kiuprili. Prince Emerick! you speak fairly, and your pledge too
Is such, as well would suit an honest meaning.

Casimir. My lord! you scarce know half his grace's goodness. 290
The wealthy heiress, high-born fair Sarolta,
Bred in the convent of our noble ladies,
Her relative, the venerable abbess,
Hath, at his grace's urgence, wooed and won for me.

Emerick. Long may the race, and long may that name flourish, [295]
Which your heroic deeds, brave chief, have rendered
Dear and illustrious to all true Illyrians.

Raab Kiuprili. The longest line that ever tracing herald
Or found or feigned, placed by a beggar's soul
Hath but a mushroom's date in the comparison: 300
And with the soul, the conscience is coeval,
Yea, the soul's essence.

Emerick. Conscience, good my lord,
Is but the pulse of reason. Is it conscience,
That a free nation should be handed down,
Like the dull clods beneath our feet, by chance 305
And the blind law of lineage? That whether infant,
Or man matured, a wise man or an idiot,
Hero or natural coward, shall have guidance
Of a free people's destiny, should fall out
In the mere lottery of a reckless nature, 310
Where few the prizes and the blanks are countless?
Or haply that a nation's fate should hang
On the bald accident of a midwife's handling
The unclosed sutures of an infant's skull?

Casimir. What better claim can sovereign wish or need 315
Than the free voice of men who love their country?
Those chiefly who have fought for't? Who by right,
Claim for their monarch one, who having obeyed,
[[894]] So hath best learnt to govern; who, having suffered,
Can feel for each brave sufferer and reward him? 320
Whence sprang the name of Emperor? Was it not
By Nature's fiat? In the storm of triumph,
'Mid warriors' shouts, did her oracular voice
Make itself heard: Let the commanding spirit
Possess the station of command!

Raab Kiuprili. Prince Emerick, 325
Your cause will prosper best in your own pleading.

Emerick (aside to Casimir). Ragozzi was thy school-mate—a bold spirit!
Bind him to us!—Thy father thaws apace! [Then aloud.
Leave us awhile, my lord!—Your friend, Ragozzi,
Whom you have not yet seen since his return, 330
Commands the guard to-day.

[Casimir retires to the Guard-house; and after a time appears before it with Chef Ragozzi.