-

ELECTOR. Will you? Will you?

KOTTWITZ. Now, by the living God,
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._

[Illustration: #STATUE OF THE GREAT ELECTOR# Sculptor, Andreas Schlueter]

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 spaces wings my soul;
And as the ship, 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 space. 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 button?

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 DOeRFLING,
COLONEL KOTTWITZ, HOHENZOLLERN, GOLZ, _and others. Ladies-in-waiting,
officers and boys bearing torches appear on the castle terrace_.
HOHENZOLLERN _steps to the balustrade 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.