orge of Sparren,
Who saw him, hale and sound, with his own eyes
At Hackelwitz amid the Truchszian corps.

THE PRINCE. Quick! Run, old man! And bring him in to me!

[_The_ SERGEANT _goes out._]

SCENE VIII

COUNT SPARREN _and the Sergeant enter. The others as before._

ELECTRESS. Oh, do not cast me twice down the abyss!

NATALIE. No, precious mother mine!

ELECTRESS. And Frederick lives?

NATALIE (_holding her up with both hands_).
The peaks of life receive you once again!

SERGEANT (_entering_).
Here is the officer!

THE PRINCE. Ah, Count von Sparren!
You saw His Highness fresh and well disposed
At Hackelwitz amid the Truchszian corps?

SPARREN. Indeed, Your Highness, in the vicarage court
Where, compassed by his staff, he gave commands
For burial of both the armies' dead.

LADIES-IN-WAITING.
Dear heaven! On thy breast--

[_They embrace._]

ELECTRESS. My daughter dear!

NATALIE. Oh, but this rapture is well-nigh too great!

[_She buries her face in her aunt's lap._]

THE PRINCE. Did I not see him, when I stood afar
Heading my cavalry, dashed down to earth,
His horse and he shivered by cannon-shot?

SPARREN. Indeed, the horse pitched with his rider down,
But he who rode him, Prince, was not our liege.

THE PRINCE. What? Not our liege?

NATALIE. Oh, wonderful!

[_She rises and remains standing beside the_ ELECTRESS.]

THE PRINCE. Speak then!
Weighty as gold each word sinks to my heart.

SPARREN. Then let me give you tidings of a deed
So moving, ear has never heard its like.
Our country's liege, who, to remonstrance deaf,
Rode his white horse again, the gleaming white
That Froben erstwhile bought for him in England,
Became once more, as ever was the case,
The target for the foe's artillery.
Scarce could the members of his retinue
Within a ring of hundred yards approach
About there and about, a stream of death,
Hurtled grenades and cannon-shot and shell.
They that had lives to save fled to its banks.
He, the strong swimmer, he alone shrank not,
But beckoning his friends, unswervingly
Made toward the high lands whence the river came.

THE PRINCE. By heaven, i' faith! A gruesome sight it was!

SPARREN. Froben, the Master of the Horse who rode
Closest to him of all, called out to me
"Curses this hour on this white stallion's hide,
I bought