CAPTAIN.
This is the frontier pass, at any rate,
Where Poland ends and Muscovy begins.

SOLDIER.
We must be close upon the tower, I know,
That half way up the mountain lies ensconced.

CAPT.
How know you that?

SOL.
He told me so--the Page
Who put us on the scent.

SOL. 2.
And, as I think,
Will soon be here to run it down with us.

CAPT.
Meantime, our horses on these ugly rocks
Useless, and worse than useless with their clatter--
Leave them behind, with one or two in charge,
And softly, softly, softly.

SOLDIERS.
--There it is!
--There what?
--The tower--the fortress--
--That the tower!--
--That mouse-trap! We could pitch it down the rocks
With our own hands.
--The rocks it hangs among
Dwarf its proportions and conceal its strength;
Larger and stronger than you think.
--No matter;
No place for Poland's Prince to be shut up in.
At it at once!

CAPT.
No--no--I tell you wait--
Till those within give signal. For as yet
We know not who side with us, and the fort
Is strong in man and musket.

SOL.
Shame to wait
For odds with such a cause at stake.

CAPT.
Because
Of such a cause at stake we wait for odds--
For if not won at once, for ever lost:
For any long resistance on their part
Would bring Basilio's force to succour them
Ere we had rescued him we come to rescue.
So softly, softly, softly, still--

A SOLDIER (discovering Fife).
Hilloa!

SOLDIERS.
--Hilloa! Here's some one skulking--
--Seize and gag him!
--Stab him at once, say I: the only way
To make all sure.
--Hold, every man of you!
And down upon your knees!--Why, 'tis the Prince!
--The Prince!--
--Oh, I should know him anywhere,
And anyhow disguised.
--But the Prince is chain'd.
--And of a loftier presence--
--'Tis he, I tell you;
Only bewilder'd as he was before.
God save your Royal Highness! On our knees
Beseech you answer us!

FIFE.
Just as you please.
Well--'tis this country's custom, I suppose,
To take a poor man every now and then
And set him ON the throne; just for the fun
Of tumbling him again into the dirt.
And now my turn is come. 'Tis very pretty.