CLO. 
     But not resent—­
     Purged by the trial of that sorrow past
     For full fruition of their present bliss.

     Seg. 
     But leaving with the Judge what, till this earth
     Be cancell’d in the burning heavens, He leaves
     His earthly delegates to execute,
     Of retribution in reward to them
     And woe to those who wrong’d them—­Not as you,
     Not you, Clotaldo, knowing not—­And yet
     Ev’n to the guiltiest wretch in all the realm,
     Of any treason guilty short of that,
     Stern usage—­but assuredly not knowing,
     Not knowing ’twas your sovereign lord, Clotaldo,
     You used so sternly.

     CLO. 
     Ay, sir; with the same
     Devotion and fidelity that now
     Does homage to him for my sovereign.

     Seg. 
     Fidelity that held his Prince in chains!

     CLO. 
     Fidelity more fast than had it loosed him—­

     Seg. 
     Ev’n from the very dawn of consciousness
     Down at the bottom of the barren rocks,
     Where scarce a ray of sunshine found him out,
     In which the poorest beggar of my realm
     At least to human-full proportion grows—­
     Me!  Me—­whose station was the kingdom’s top
     To flourish in, reaching my head to heaven,
     And with my branches overshadowing
     The meaner growth below!

     CLO. 
     Still with the same
     Fidelity—­

     Seg. 
     To me!—­

     CLO. 
     Ay, sir, to you,
     Through that divine allegiance upon which
     All Order and Authority is based;
     Which to revolt against—­

     Seg. 
     Were to revolt
     Against the stars, belike!

     CLO. 
     And him who reads them;
     And by that right, and by the sovereignty
     He wears as you shall wear it after him;
     Ay, one to whom yourself—­
     Yourself, ev’n more than any subject here,
     Are bound by yet another and more strong
     Allegiance—­King Basilio—­your Father—­

     Seg. 
     Basilio—­King—­my father!—­

     CLO. 
     Oh, my Lord,
     Let me beseech you on my bended knee,
     For your own sake—­for Poland’s—­and for his,
     Who, looking up for counsel to the skies,
     Did what he did under authority
     To which the kings of earth themselves are subject,
     And whose behest not only he that suffers,
     But he that executes, not comprehends,
     But only He that orders it—­

     Seg. 
     The King—­
     My father!—­Either I am mad already,
     Or that way driving fast—­or I should know
     That fathers do not use their children so,
     Or men were loosed from all allegiance
     To fathers, kings, and heaven that order’d all.