Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/445

 ���COUNTESS OF WINCHILSEA 307 �Fortune be witnesse, and the Crown I part with, �If Lauredan grows giddy with successe. 110 �Hear Madam ! what your subjects have decreed, �And what is too, confirm'd by the Venetians, �Whose pow'rs expell'd and keep you from the throne, �First, that Cornara, whom att last they find �Too weak to hold itt, quitt the Sov'rain sway, �Then that the Crown shall be confirm'd on me, �And all my race, to wear itt by succession, �Some lessening offers to your self they make, �Not fitt for you to hear, or me to mention. �Queen. D'you come my Lord, for my consent to this ? 120 �Laur. Oh ! hear me out, another frown like that Wou'd strike me speechlesse, Hear 'ere it kills, what Love and I decree, What Heaven decrees, Who has inspired my army with one soul, And made that plyant, only to my wishes. You are their Queen, and mine. Again we will replace you on the throne, And bound the uttmost height of our ambition, To be the guard, still of your crown, and Person. 130 �Queen. 'Tis highly gen'rous this, I must acknowledge ; Yett let me ask, why with this fair dessign, You here have made such rough, such harsh demands, As aimed more to confine then reinthrone me. �Laur. Indeed th' occasion forc'd me to be secret, And keep my real purpose unreveal'd, The power of Venice is att sea so mighty, That I cou'd ne'er have seen you safe att Cyprus, Had I not won them with a fein'd pretence, That 'twould more firmly fix me in the throne, 140 �If in my pow'r, I held the true pretender. And so, procur'd them, 'ere I was declar'd, ��� �