King Victor and King Charles by Robert Browning

_Enter_ KING VICTOR, _bearing the regalia on a cushion, from his apartment. He calls loudly_ --

D'Ormea! -- for patience fails me, treading thus / Among the obscure trains I have laid, -- my knights / Safe in the hall here -- in that anteroom, / My son, -- D'Ormea, where? Of this, one touch -- / [_Laying down the crown._ / This fireball to these mute black cold trains -- then / Outbreak enough! / [_Contemplating it._] To lose all, after all! / This, glancing o'er my house for ages -- shaped, / Brave meteor, like the crown of Cyprus now, / Jerusalem, Spain, England, every change / The braver, -- and when I have clutched a prize / My ancestry died wan with watching for, / To lose it! -- by a slip, a fault, a trick / Learnt to advantage once and not unlearned / When past the use, -- "just this once more" (I thought) / "Use it with Spain and Austria happily, / And then away with trick! " An oversight / I'd have repaired thrice over, any time / These fifty years, must happen now! There 's peace / At length; and I, to make the most of peace, / Ventured my project on our people here, / As needing not their help: which Europe knows, / And means, cold-blooded, to dispose herself / (Apart from plausibilities of war) / To crush the new-made King -- who ne'er till now / Feared her. As Duke, I lost each foot of earth / And laughed at her: my name was left, my sword / Left, all was left! But she can take, she knows, / This crown, herself conceded. / That's to try, / Kind Europe! -- My career's not closed as yet, / This boy was ever subject to my will, / Timid and tame -- the fitter! -- D'Ormea, too / What if the sovereign also rid himself / Of thee, his prime of parasites? I delay! / D'Ormea!