dom by day, and dream of it by night, will be at last
the victory!

They pass on out of sight.

CHORUS OF PHILOSOPHERS. We have wakened the human race, and torn them
away from the days of childhood! We have found truth, and brought it to
light from the womb of darkness! Combat, murder, and die for it,
brethren!

THE SON OF THE PHILOSOPHER (_to the Man_). Brother and friend, I drink
your health out of the skull of an old saint! May we soon meet again!

A MAIDEN (_dancing_). Kill Prince John for me!

SECOND MAIDEN. Count Henry for me!

CHILDREN. Bring us back the head of a noble for a ball.

OTHER VOICES. Good fortune guide your daggers home!

CHORUS OF ARTISTS. On these sublime old ruins we build no temples more;
we paint no pictures, mould no statues for forgotten shrines; our arches
shall be formed of pointed pikes and naked blades; our pillars built of
ghastly piles of human skulls; the capitals of human hair dyed in
gushing streams of crimson blood; our altar shall be white as snow, our
god will rest upon it, the cap of liberty: Hurrah! hurrah!

OTHER VOICES. On! on! the morning dawn already breaks!

THE BAPTIZED. They will soon catch and hang us; we are but one step from
the gallows.

THE MAN. Fear nothing, Jew, they follow Leonard, and observe us no
longer. I see with my own eyes, I understand with my own mind, and for
the last time before it engulfs me, the chaos now generating in the
abyss of Time, in the womb of Darkness, for my own destruction, for the
annihilation of my brethren!

Driven on by madness, stung by despair, my thoughts awake in all their
strength....

O God! give me again the power which Thou didst not of old deny me, and
I will condense this new and fearful world, which does not understand
itself, into _one_ burning word, but which one word will be the Poetry
of the entire Past!

VOICE IN THE AIR. Poet, thou chant'st a drama!

THE MAN. Thanks for thy good counsel!

Revenge for the desecrated ashes of my fathers--malediction upon the new
races! their whirlpool is around me, but it shall not draw me into the
giddying and increasing circles of its abyss! Keep but thy promise,
Eagle; Eagle of glory!

Jew, I am ready now for the vault of St. Ignatius!

THE BAPTIZED. The day dawns; I can go no farther.

THE MAN. Lead me on until we strike the right path; I will then release
you!

THE BAPTIZED. Why do you drag me on through mist, through thorns and
briers, through ashes a