your doom.[19] He gave you all
your lives once. Give him a little time--a week, a month, a few days;
but not now!--O God,[20] not now!

CONSPS. (_brandishing daggers_). To-night! to-night! to-night!

VERA. Peace, you gorged adders; peace!

MICH. What, are we not here to annihilate? shall we not keep our oath?

VERA. Your oath! your oath! [21]Greedy that you are of gain, every man's
hand lusting for his neighbour's pelf, every heart set on pillage and
rapine;[21] who, of ye all, if the crown were set on his head, would
give an empire up for the mob to scramble for? The people are not yet
fit for a Republic in Russia.

PRES. Every nation is fit for a Republic.

MICH. The man is a tyrant.

VERA. A tyrant! Hath he not dismissed his evil counsellors. That
ill-omened raven of his father's life hath had his wings clipped and his
claws pared, and comes to us croaking for revenge. Oh, have mercy on
him![22] Give him a week to live!

PRES. Vera pleading for a king!

VERA (_proudly_). I plead not for a king, but for a brother.

MICH. For a traitor to his oath, for a coward who should have flung the
purple back to the fools that gave it to him. No, Vera, no. The brood of
men is not dead yet, nor the dull earth grown sick of child-bearing. No
crowned man in Russia shall pollute God's air by living.

PRES. You bade us try you once; we have tried you, and you are found
wanting.

MICH. Vera, I am not blind; I know your secret. You love this boy, this
young prince with his pretty face, his curled hair, his soft white
hands. Fool that you are, dupe of a lying tongue, do you know what he
would have done to you, this boy you think loved you? He would have made
you his mistress, used your body at his pleasure, thrown you away when
he was wearied of you; you, the priestess of liberty, the flame of
Revolution, the torch of democracy.

VERA. What he would have done to me matters little. To the people, at
least, he will be true. He loves the people--at least, he loves liberty.

PRES. So he would play the citizen-king, would he, while we starve?
[23]Would flatter us with sweet speeches, would cheat us with promises
like his father, would lie to us as his whole race have lied.[23]

MICH. And you whose very name made every despot tremble for his life,
you, Vera Sabouroff, you would betray liberty for a lover and the people
for a paramour!

CONSPS. [24]Traitress! Draw the lots; draw the lots![24]

VERA. In thy throat thou lies