!

_Reiss._ Poh! no matter, (Calls after Wellenberg.) Mr. Wellenberg!

_Well._ (turns round, without however coming back.) Well? _P[oe]nitet
me?_

_Reiss._ What ails Dr. Kannenfeld?

_Well._ A burning fever.

_Reiss._ So? Ho ho! A burning fever!--ha, ha, ha! old gentleman!--and
his intellects? When a man lies in a raging fever, and denounces honest
people, what credit ought to be attached to it?

_Well._ _In lucidis intervallis?_

_Reiss._ Burning fever is only another word for madness; the
denunciations of a madman is valid only with madmen.

_Well._ Shall I take them in the presence of witnesses? Shall the
faculty make an affidavit of the state of his mind?

_Reiss._ Do as you please.

_Well._ And should he die and leave such a deposition?

_Reiss._ Then it is the deposition of a madman.

_Well._ Hem! (musing.) And if, aided by all the courts, I were to put
you to an oath concerning the foul means you employed to get that will
made in your favour--

_Reiss._ What then?

_Well._ Then you will--

_P. Coun._ It is a disagreeable affair I see; and Mr. Reissman has
already declared that at all events he was disposed, through mere
benevolence, to give up part of the legacy.

_Reiss._ What?

_Well._ What he means to do, let him do in full, and not by halves.

_Reiss._ Nothing; not a single penny! as you want to compel me, not a
single penny! Your sick madman is a calumniator, and so--

_Well._ _Vera laus est laudari a viro laudato._

_Reiss._ Now, do not rouze my passion, but get you gone. In writing, do
as you think proper; I shall know what to do on my side.

_Well._ _Fiat!_--Then I will set to work, that the judgment of God may
be made manifest on the unjust. [Exit.

SCENE VII.

Privy Counsellor CLARENBACH, Aulic Counsellor REISSMAN.

_P. Coun._ (confused.) Sir, you see me go perplexed--

_Reiss._ Do not you talk, you have spoiled all.

_P. Coun._ I will run after him.

_Reiss._ You shall not, Sir.

_P. Coun._ You are undone.

_Reiss._ Who says so?

_P. Coun._ God forbid you should take the oath.

_Reiss._ Instead of standing there by the side of that insect of the
law, like a scholar that has received a wrap over his knuckles, you
ought to have thundered him down with the voice of a judge, with
influence and authority.

_P. Coun._ But I knew nothing of those shocking circumstances before.

_Reiss._ Hem! A