Yet one whom these white locks, if nothing else,
to patient acquiescence consecrate,
I now demand and even supplicate.

AST.
Such news, and from such lips, may well suspend
The tongue to loyal answer most attuned;
But if to me as spokesman of my faction
Your Highness looks for answer; I reply
For one and all--Let Segismund, whom now
We first hear tell of as your living heir,
Appear, and but in your sufficient eye
Approve himself worthy to be your son,
Then we will hail him Poland's rightful heir.
What says my cousin?

EST.
Ay, with all my heart.
But if my youth and sex upbraid me not
That I should dare ask of so wise a king--

KING.
Ask, ask, fair cousin! Nothing, I am sure,
Not well consider'd; nay, if 'twere, yet nothing
But pardonable from such lips as those.

EST.
Then, with your pardon, Sir--if Segismund,
My cousin, whom I shall rejoice to hail
As Prince of Poland too, as you propose,