The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Iv Part 86

THE PRINCE (_tearing himself free_).

You tyrants, would you drag me In fetters to my execution-place?

Go! I have closed my reckoning with this world.

[_He goes out under guard._]

NATALIE (_on the_ ELECTRESS' _breast_).

Open, O earth, receive me in your deeps.

Why should I look upon the sunlight more?

SCENE IX

_The persons, as in the preceding scene, with the exception of the_ PRINCE OF HOMBURG.

MARSHAL. G.o.d of earth! Did it have to come to that?

[_The_ ELECTOR _speaks in a low voice to an officer._]

KOTTWITZ (_frigidly_).

My sovereign, after all that has occurred Are we dismissed?

ELECTOR. Not for the present, no!

I'll give you notice when you are dismissed!

[_He regards him a moment straightly and steadily; then takes the papers which the page has brought him from the table and turns to the_ FIELD-MARSHAL.]

This pa.s.sport, take it, for Count Horn the Swede.

Tell him it is my cousin's wish, the Prince's, Which I have pledged myself to carry out.

The war begins again in three days' time!

[_Pause. He casts a glance at the death warrant._]

Judge for yourselves, my lords. The Prince of Homburg Through disobedience and recklessness Of two of my best victories this year Deprived me, and indeed impaired the third.

Now that he's had his schooling these last days Come, will you risk it with him for a fourth?

KOTTWITZ _and_ TRUCHSZ (_helter-skelter_).

What, my adored--my wors.h.i.+pped--What, my liege?--

ELECTOR. Will you? Will you?

KOTTWITZ. Now, by the living G.o.d, He'd watch you standing on destruction's brink And never twitch his sword in your behalf, Or rescue you unless you gave command.

ELECTOR (_tearing up the death warrant_).

So, to the garden! Follow me, my friends!

SCENE X

_The Castle with the terrace leading down into the garden, as in ACT I.

It is night, as then.--The_ PRINCE OF HOMBURG, _with bandaged eyes, is led in through the lower garden-wicket, by_ CAPTAIN STRANZ. _Officers with the guard. In the distance one can hear the drumming of the death-march._

[Ill.u.s.tration: #STATUE OF THE GREAT ELECTOR# Sculptor, Andreas Schluter]

THE PRINCE. All art thou mine now, immortality!

Thou glistenest through the veil that blinds mine eyes With that sun's glow that is a thousand suns.

I feel bright pinions from my shoulders start; Through mute, ethereal s.p.a.ces wings my soul; And as the s.h.i.+p, borne outward by the wind, Sees the bright harbor sink below the marge, Thus all my being fades and is submerged.

Now I distinguish colors yet and forms, And now--all life is fog beneath my feet.

[_The_ PRINCE _seats himself on the bench which stands about the oak in the middle of the open s.p.a.ce. The_ CAPTAIN _draws away from him and looks up toward the terrace._]

How sweet the flowers fill the air with odor!

D'you smell them?

STRANZ (_returning to him_). They are gillyflowers and pinks.

THE PRINCE. How come the gillyflowers here?

STRANZ. I know not.

It must have been some girl that planted them.

Come, will you have a bachelor's b.u.t.ton?

THE PRINCE. Thanks!

When I get home I'll have it put in water.

SCENE XI

_The_ ELECTOR _with the laurel-wreath, about which the golden chain is twined, the_ ELECTRESS, PRINCESS NATALIE, FIELD-MARSHAL DoRFLING, COLONEL KOTTWITZ, HOHENZOLLERN, GOLZ, _and others. Ladies-in-waiting, officers and boys bearing torches appear on the castle terrace_.

HOHENZOLLERN _steps to the bal.u.s.trade and with a handkerchief signals to_ CAPTAIN STRANZ, _whereupon the latter leaves the_ PRINCE OF HOMBURG _and speaks a few words with the guards in the background_.

THE PRINCE. What is the brightness breaking round me, say!

STRANZ (_returning to him_).

My Prince, will you be good enough to rise?

THE PRINCE. What's coming?

STRANZ. Nothing that need wake your fear.

I only wish to free your eyes again.

THE PRINCE. Has my ordeal's final hour struck?

STRANZ (_as he draws the bandage from the_ PRINCE's _eyes_).

Indeed! Be blest, for well you merit it!