ELECTRESS (weeping). 
  Beloved son!  All has been done, erewhile. 
  But all my supplications were in vain.

THE PRINCE.  I give up every claim to happiness. 
  And tell him this, forget it not, that I
  Desire Natalie no more, for her
  All tenderness within my heart is quenched. 
  Free as the doe upon the meads is she,
  Her hand and lips, as though I’d never been,
  Freely let her bestow, and if it be
  The Swede Karl Gustaf, I commend her choice. 
  I will go seek my lands upon the Rhine. 
  There will I build and raze again to earth
  With sweating brow, and sow and gather in,
  As though for wife and babe, enjoy alone;
  And when the harvest’s gathered, sow again,
  And round and round the treadmill chase my days
  Until at evening they sink down, and die.

ELECTRESS.  Enough!  Now take your way home to your prison—­
  That is the first demand my favor makes.

THE PRINCE (rises and turns toward the PRINCESS). 
  Poor little girl, you weep!  The sun today
  Lights all your expectations to their grave! 
  Your heart decided from the first on me;
  Indeed, your look declares, that, true as gold,
  You ne’er shall dedicate your heart anew. 
  Oh, what can I, poor devil, say to comfort? 
  Go to the Maiden’s Chapter on the Main,
  I counsel you, go to your cousin Thurn. 
  Seek in the hills a boy, light-curled as I,
  Buy him with gold and silver, to your breast
  Press him, and teach his lips to falter:  Mother. 
  And when he grows to manhood, show him well
  How men draw shut the eyelids of the dead. 
  That is the only joy that lies your way!

NATALIE (bravely and impressively, as she rises and lays
  her hand in his). 
  Return, young hero, to your prison walls,
  And, on your passage, imperturbably
  Regard once more the grave they dug for you. 
  It is not gloomier, nor more wide at all
  Than those the battle showed a thousand times. 
  Meanwhile, since I am true to you till death,
  A saving word I’ll chance, unto my kin. 
  It may avail, perhaps, to move his heart
  And disenthrall you from all misery.

[Pause.]

THE PRINCE (folding his hands, as he stands lost in contemplation
  of her). 
  An you had pinions on your shoulders, maid,
  Truly I should be sure you were an angel! 
  Dear God, did I hear right?  You speak for me? 
  Where has the quiver of your speech till now
  Lain hid, dear child, that you should dare approach
  The sovereign in matters such as this? 
  Oh, light of hope, reviving me once more!

NATALIE.  The darts that find the marrow God will hand me! 
  But if the Elector cannot move the law’s
  Outspoken word, cannot—­so be it!  Then
  Bravely to him the brave man will submit. 
  And he, the conqueror a thousand times,
  Living, will know to conquer too in death!