Down where that honour'd head I was to lay
By this more just submission of my own,
The treason Fate has forced on me atone?

KING.
Oh, Segismund, in whom I see indeed,
Out of the ashes of my self-extinction
A better self revive; if not beneath
Your feet, beneath your better wisdom bow'd,
The Sovereignty of Poland I resign,
With this its golden symbol; which if thus
Saved with its silver head inviolate,
Shall nevermore be subject to decline;
But when the head that it alights on now
Falls honour'd by the very foe that must,
As all things mortal, lay it in the dust,
Shall star-like shift to his successor's brow.

(Shouts, trumpets, etc. God save King Segismund!)

SEG.
For what remains--
As for my own, so for my people's peace,
Astolfo's and Estrella's plighted hands
I disunite, and taking hers to mine,
His to one yet more dearly his resign.

(Shouts, etc. God save Estrella, Queen of Poland!)

SEG (to Clotaldo).