The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Iv Part 68

GENTLEMAN-IN-WAITING.

G.o.d greet you, honest folk! Can you make room To shelter guests beneath your roof?

PEASANT. Indeed!

Gladly, indeed!

THE WIFE. And may one question, whom?

GENTLEMAN-IN-WAITING.

The highest lady in the land, no less.

Her coach broke down outside the village gates, And since we hear the victory is won There'll be no need for farther journeying.

BOTH (_rising_).

The victory won? Heaven!

GENTLEMAN-IN-WAITING. What! You haven't heard?

The Swedish army's beaten hip and thigh; If not forever, for the year at least The Mark need fear no more their fire and sword!-- Here comes the mother of our people now.

SCENE IV

_The_ ELECTRESS, _pale and distressed, enters with the_ PRINCESS NATALIE, _followed by various ladies-in-waiting. The others as before._

ELECTRESS (_on the threshold_).

Bork! Winterfeld! Come! Let me have your arm.

NATALIE (_going to her_).

Oh, mother mine!

LADIES-IN-WAITING. Heavens, how pale! She is faint.

[_They support her._]

ELECTRESS. Here, lead me to a chair, I must sit down.

Dead, said he--dead?

NATALIE. Mother, my precious mother!

ELECTRESS. I'll see this bearer of dread news myself.

SCENE V

CAPTAIN VON MoRNER _enters, wounded, supported by two troopers. The others._

ELECTRESS. Oh, herald of dismay, what do you bring?

MoRNER. Oh, precious Madam, what these eyes of mine To their eternal grief themselves have seen!

ELECTRESS. So be it! Tell!

MoRNER. The Elector is no more.

NATALIE. Oh, heaven Shall such a hideous blow descend on us?

[_She hides her face in her hands._]

ELECTRESS. Give me report of how he came to fall-- And, as the bolt that strikes the wanderer, In one last flash lights scarlet-bright the world, So be your tale. When you are done, may night Close down upon my head.

MoRNER (_approaching her, led by the two troopers_).

The Prince of Homburg, Soon as the enemy, hard pressed by Truchsz, Reeling broke cover, had brought up his troops To the attack of Wrangel on the plain; Two lines he'd pierced and, as they broke, destroyed, When a strong earthwork hemmed his way; and thence So murderous a fire on him beat That, like a field of grain, his cavalry, Mowed to the earth, went down; twixt bush and hill He needs must halt to ma.s.s his scattered corps.

NATALIE (_to the_ ELECTRESS).

Dearest, be strong!

ELECTRESS. Stop, dear. Leave me alone.

MoRNER. That moment, watching, clear above the dust, We see our liege beneath the battle-flags Of Truchsz's regiments ride on the foe.

On his white horse, oh, gloriously he rode, Sunlit, and lighting the triumphant plain.

Heart-sick with trepidation at the sight Of him, our liege, bold in the battle's midst, We gather on a hillock's beetling brow; When of a sudden the Elector falls, Horseman and horse, in dust before our eyes.

Two standard-bearers fell across his breast And overspread his body with their flags.

NATALIE. Oh, mother mine!

FIRST LADY-IN-WAITING. Oh, heaven!

ELECTRESS. Go on, go on!

MoRNER. At this disastrous spectacle, a pang Unfathomable seized the Prince's heart; Like a wild beast, spurred on of hate and vengeance, Forward he lunged with us at the redoubt.

Flying, we cleared the trench and, at a bound, The shelt'ring breastwork, bore the garrison down, Scattered them out across the field, destroyed; Capturing the Swede's whole panoply of war-- Cannon and standards, kettle-drums and flags.

And had the group of bridges at the Rhyn Hemmed not our murderous course, not one had lived Who might have boasted at his father's hearth At Fehrbellin I saw the hero fall!

ELECTRESS. Triumph too dearly bought! I like it not.

Give me again the purchase-price it cost.

[_She falls in a faint._]

FIRST LADY-IN-WAITING.

Help, G.o.d in heaven! Her senses flee from her.

[NATALIE _is weeping._]

SCENE VI

_The_ PRINCE OF HOMBURG _enters. The others._