The message which you bring, and presently

Will send a fitting answer.

[Exit Ambassador.

Nay, my liege,

I beg your patience. That these fellows make

14

Their friendship difficult is true; but think

How great the value of it, and remember

How easy 'tis to promise and break faith

With insolent dogs like these. This Lamachus

Is older than your grace, and feebler far.

He will not live for ever, and, he gone,

Will not the Prince Asander be as great,

The husband of his daughter and his heir,

As he is now, and sway the power of Cherson

For our own ends, and cast to all the winds

This foul enforcèd compact, and o'erturn

This commonwealth of curs? I will stake my life

That three years shall not pass ere he is King

Of Cherson in possession, and at once

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