Racine: Phaedra

LIFE A DREAM 257
So will he carry none where his not going
Were of itself suspicious. But of those
Within, who side with us ?
A Soldier.— Oh, one and all
To the last man, persuaded or compell'd.
Captain.—Enough : whatever be to be retrieved.
No moment to be lost. For though Clotaldo
Have no revolt to tell of in the tower,
The capital will soon awake to ours,
And the King's force come blazing after us.
Where is the Prince ?
A Soldier.— Within ; so fast asleep
We woke him not ev'n striking off the chain
We had so cursedly helped bind him with,
Not knowing what we did ; but too ashamed
Not to undo ourselves what we had done.
Captain.—No matter, nor by whosesoever hands,
Provided done. Come ; we will bring him forth
Out of that stony darkness here abroad,
Where air and sunshine sooner shall disperse
The sleepy fume which they have drugg'd him with.
[They enter the tower, and thence bring out Segismund asleep
on a pallet, and set him in the middle of the stage.
Captain.— Still, still so dead asleep, the very noise
And motion that we make in carrying him
Stirs not a leaf in all the living tree.
A Soldier.—If living—But if by some inward blow
Forever and irrevocably fell'd
By what strikes deeper to the root than sleep?
First Soldier.—He's dead ! He's dead ! They've killed him
Second Soldier.— No—he breathes
And the heart beats—and now he breathes again
Deeply, as one about to shake away
The load of sleep.
Captain.— Come, let us all kneel round.
And with a blast of warlike instruments,
And acclamation of all loyal hearts,
Rouse and restore him to his royal right,
From which no royal wrong shall drive him more,
[They all kneel round his bed: trumpets, drums.