GABRIEL P. They have come to beg for sword

And service with your Grace.

PRETENDER. Welcome, my lads.

You are friends to me. But tell me, Pushkin, who

Is this fine fellow?

PUSHKIN. Prince Kurbsky.

PRETENDER. (To KURBSKY.) A famous name!

Art kinsman to the hero of Kazan?

KURBSKY. His son.

PRETENDER. Liveth he still?

KURBSKY. Nay, he is dead.

PRETENDER. A noble soul! A man of war and counsel.

But from the time when he appeared beneath

The ancient town Olgin with the Lithuanians,

Hardy avenger of his injuries,

Rumour hath held her tongue concerning him.

KURBSKY. My father led the remnant of his life

On lands bestowed upon him by Batory;

There, in Volhynia, solitary and quiet,

Sought consolation for himself in studies;

But peaceful labour did not comfort him;

He ne'er forgot the home of his young days,

And to the end pined for it.

PRETENDER. Hapless chieftain!

How brightly shone the dawn of his resounding

And stormy life! Glad am I, noble knight,

That now his blood is reconciled in thee

To his fatherland. The faults of fathers must not

Be called to mind. Peace to their grave. Approach;

Give me thy hand! Is it not strange? - the son

Of Kurbsky to the throne is leading - whom?

Whom but Ivan's own son? - All favours me;

People and fate alike. - Say, who art thou?

A POLE. Sobansky, a free noble.

PRETENDER. Praise and honour

Attend thee, child of liberty. Give him

A third of his full pay beforehand. - Who