o
This tower. [_Opens a turret-door_.

_Gab._ (_hesitatingly_). This is the second _safe_ asylum
You have offered me.

_Sieg._ And was not the first so?

_Gab._ I know not that even now--but will approve
The second. I have still a further shield.--
I did not enter Prague alone; and should I 390
Be put to rest with Stralenheim, there are
Some tongues without will wag in my behalf.
Be brief in your decision![200]

_Sieg._ I will be so.--
My word is sacred and irrevocable
Within _these_ walls, but it extends no further.

_Gab._ I'll take it for so much.

_Sieg._ (_points to_ ULRIC'S _sabre, still upon the ground_).
Take also _that_--
I saw you eye it eagerly, and him
Distrustfully.

_Gab._ (_takes up the sabre_). I will; and so provide
To sell my life--not cheaply.
[GABOR _goes into the turret, which_ SIEGENDORF _closes_.

_Sieg._ (_advances to_ ULRIC). Now, Count Ulric!
For son I dare not call thee--What say'st thou? 400

_Ulr._ His tale is true.

_Sieg._ True, monster!

_Ulr._ Most true, father!
And you did well to listen to it: what
We know, we can provide against. He must
Be silenced.

_Sieg._ Aye, with half of my domains;
And with the other half, could he and thou
Unsay this villany.

_Ulr._ It is no time
For trifling or dissembling. I have said
His story's true; and he too must be silenced.

_Sieg._ How so?

_Ulr._ As Stralenheim is. Are you so dull
As never to have hit on this before? 410
When we met in the garden, what except
Discovery in the act could make me know
His death? Or had the Prince's household been
Then summoned, would the cry for the police
Been left to such a stranger? Or should I
Have loitered on the way? Or could _you, Werner_,
The object of the Baron's hate and fears,
Have fled, unless by many an hour before
Suspicion woke? I sought and fathomed you,
Doubting if you were false or feeble: I 420
Perceived you were the latter: and yet so
Confiding have I found you, that I doubted
At times your