Demetrius: A Play Part 2

There is nothing here For us to weigh; all has been fully weighed.

The proofs demonstrate incontestably.

This is not Moscow, sirs! No despot here Keeps our free souls in manacles. Here truth May walk by day or night with brow erect.

I will not think, my lords, in Cracow here, Here in the very Diet of the Poles, That Moscow's Czar should have obsequious slaves.

DEMETRIUS.

Oh, take my thanks, ye reverend senators!

That ye have lent your credence to these proofs; And if I be indeed the man whom I Protest myself, oh, then, endure not this Audacious robber should usurp my seat, Or longer desecrate that sceptre which To me, as the true Czarowitsch, belongs.

Yes, justice lies with me,--you have the power.

'Tis the most dear concern of every state And throne, that right should everywhere prevail, And all men in the world possess their own.

For there, where justice holds unc.u.mbered sway, There each enjoys his heritage secure, And over every house and every throne Law, truth, and order keep their angel watch.

It is the key-stone of the world's wide arch, The one sustaining and sustained by all, Which, if it fail, brings all in ruin down.

(Answers of SENATORS giving a.s.sent to DEMETRIUS.)

DEMETRIUS.

Oh, look on me, renowned Sigismund!

Great king, on thine own bosom turn thine eyes.

And in my destiny behold thine own.

Thou, too, hast known the rude a.s.saults of fate; Within a prison camest thou to the world; Thy earliest glances fell on dungeon walls.

Thou, too, hadst need of friends to set thee free, And raise thee from a prison to a throne.

These didst thou find. That n.o.ble kindness thou Didst reap from them, oh, testify to me.

And you, ye grave and honored councillors, Most reverend bishops, pillars of the church, Ye palatines and castellans of fame, The moment has arrived, by one high deed, To reconcile two nations long estranged.

Yours be the glorious boast, that Poland's power Hath given the Muscovites their Czar, and in The neighbor who oppressed you as a foe Secure an ever-grateful friend. And you, The deputies of the august republic, Saddle your steeds of fire! Leap to your seats!

To you expand high fortune's golden gates; I will divide the foeman's spoil with you.

Moscow is rich in plunder; measureless In gold and gems, the treasures of the Czar; I can give royal guerdons to my friends, And I will give them, too. When I, as Czar, Set foot within the Kremlin, then, I swear, The poorest of you all, that follows me, Shall robe himself in velvet and in sables; With costly pearls his housings shall he deck, And silver be the metal of least worth, That he shall shoe his horses' hoofs withal.

[Great commotion among the DEPUTIES. KORELA, Hetman of the Cossacks, declares himself ready to put himself at the head of an army.

ODOWALSKY.

How! shall we leave the Cossack to despoil us At once of glory and of booty both?

We've made a truce with Tartar and with Turk, And from the Swedish power have naught to fear.

Our martial spirit has been wasting long In slothful peace; our swords are red with rust.

Up! and invade the kingdom of the Czar, And win a grateful and true-hearted friend, Whilst we augment our country's might and glory.

MANY DEPUTIES.

War! War with Moscow!

OTHERS.

Be it so resolved!

On to the votes at once!

SAPIEHA (rises).

Grand marshal, please To order silence! I desire to speak.

A CROWD OF VOICES.

War! War with Moscow!

SAPIEHA.

Nay, I will be heard.

Ho, marshal, do your duty!

[Great tumult within and outside the hall.

GRAND MARSHAL.

'Tis, you see, Quite fruitless.

SAPIEHA.

What? The marshal's self suborned?

Is this our Diet, then, no longer free?

Throw down your staff, and bid this brawling cease; I charge you, on your office, to obey!

[The GRAND MARSHAL casts his baton into the centre of the hall; the tumult abates.

What whirling thoughts, what mad resolves are these?

Stand we not now at peace with Moscow's Czar?

Myself, as your imperial envoy, made A treaty to endure for twenty years; I raised this right hand, that you see, aloft In solemn pledge, within the Kremlin's walls; And fairly hath the Czar maintained his word.

What is sworn faith? what compacts, treaties, when A solemn Diet tramples on them all?

DEMETRIUS.

Prince Leo Sapieha! You concluded A bond of peace, you say, with Moscow's Czar?

That did you not; for I, I am that Czar.

In me is Moscow's majesty; I am The son of Ivan, and his rightful heir.

Would the Poles treat with Russia for a peace, Then must they treat with me! Your compact's null, As being made with one whose's t.i.tle's null.

ODOWALSKY.

What reck we of your treaty? So we willed When it was made--our wills are changed to-day.

SAPIEHA.

Is it, then, come to this? If none beside Will stand for justice, then, at least, will I.

I'll rend the woof of cunning into shreds, And lay its falsehoods open to the day.

Most reverend primate! art thou, canst thou be So simple-souled, or canst thou so dissemble?

Are ye so credulous, my lords? My liege, Art thou so weak? Ye know not--will not know, Ye are the puppets of the wily Waywode Of Sendomir, who reared this spurious Czar, Whose measureless ambition, while we speak, Clutches in thought the spoils of Moscow's wealth.

Is't left for me to tell you that even now The league is made and sworn betwixt the twain,-- The pledge the Waywode's youngest daughter's hand?

And shall our great republic blindly rush Into the perils of an unjust war, To aggrandize the Waywode, and to crown His daughter as the empress of the Czar?

There's not a man he has not bribed and bought.

He means to rule the Diet, well I know; I see his faction rampant in this hall, And, as 'twere not enough that he controlled The Seym Walmy by a majority, He's girt the Diet with three thousand horse, And all Cracow is swarming like a hive With his sworn feudal va.s.sals. Even now They throng the halls and chambers where we sit, To hold our liberty of speech in awe.

Yet stirs no fear in my undaunted heart; And while the blood keeps current in my veins, I will maintain the freedom of my voice!

Let those who think like men come stand by me Whilst I have life shall no resolve be pa.s.sed That is at war with justice and with reason.

'Twas I that ratified the peace with Moscow, And I will hazard life to see it kept.

ODOWALSKY.

Give him no further hearing! Take the votes!

[The BISHOP OF CRACOW and WILNA rise, and descend each to his own side, to collect the votes.

MANY.

War, war with Moscow!

ARCHBISHOP OF GNESEN (to SAPIEHA).