ELECTRESS.  Oh, herald of dismay, what do you bring?

MOeRNER.  Oh, precious Madam, what these eyes of mine
  To their eternal grief themselves have seen!

ELECTRESS.  So be it!  Tell!

MOeRNER.  The Elector is no more.

NATALIE.  Oh, heaven
  Shall such a hideous blow descend on us?

[She hides her face in her hands.]

ELECTRESS.  Give me report of how he came to fall—­
  And, as the bolt that strikes the wanderer,
  In one last flash lights scarlet-bright the world,
  So be your tale.  When you are done, may night
  Close down upon my head.

MOeRNER (approaching her, led by the two troopers). 
  The Prince of Homburg,
  Soon as the enemy, hard pressed by Truchsz,
  Reeling broke cover, had brought up his troops
  To the attack of Wrangel on the plain;
  Two lines he’d pierced and, as they broke, destroyed,
  When a strong earthwork hemmed his way; and thence
  So murderous a fire on him beat
  That, like a field of grain, his cavalry,
  Mowed to the earth, went down; twixt bush and hill
  He needs must halt to mass his scattered corps.

NATALIE (to the ELECTRESS). 
  Dearest, be strong!

ELECTRESS.  Stop, dear.  Leave me alone.

MOeRNER.  That moment, watching, clear above the dust,
  We see our liege beneath the battle-flags
  Of Truchsz’s regiments ride on the foe. 
  On his white horse, oh, gloriously he rode,
  Sunlit, and lighting the triumphant plain. 
  Heart-sick with trepidation at the sight
  Of him, our liege, bold in the battle’s midst,
  We gather on a hillock’s beetling brow;
  When of a sudden the Elector falls,
  Horseman and horse, in dust before our eyes. 
  Two standard-bearers fell across his breast
  And overspread his body with their flags.

NATALIE.  Oh, mother mine!

FIRST LADY-IN-WAITING.  Oh, heaven!

ELECTRESS.  Go on, go on!

MOeRNER.  At this disastrous spectacle, a pang
  Unfathomable seized the Prince’s heart;
  Like a wild beast, spurred on of hate and vengeance,
  Forward he lunged with us at the redoubt. 
  Flying, we cleared the trench and, at a bound,
  The shelt’ring breastwork, bore the garrison down,
  Scattered them out across the field, destroyed;
  Capturing the Swede’s whole panoply of war—­
  Cannon and standards, kettle-drums and flags. 
  And had the group of bridges at the Rhyn
  Hemmed not our murderous course, not one had lived
  Who might have boasted at his father’s hearth
  At Fehrbellin I saw the hero fall!

ELECTRESS.  Triumph too dearly bought!  I like it not. 
  Give me again the purchase-price it cost.

[She falls in a faint.]

FIRST LADY-IN-WAITING. 
  Help, God in heaven!  Her senses flee from
  her.