THE PRINCE (under his breath). 
  Bah!  That’s a blackguard’s wording, not a Prince’s. 
  I’ll try to put it in some other way.

[Pause.  He clutches at the ELECTOR’S letter which the PRINCESS holds in her hand.]

  What is it, anyway, his letter says?

NATALIE (keeping it from him). 
  Nothing at all!

THE PRINCE.  Give it to me!

NATALIE.  You read it!

THE PRINCE (snatches it from her). 
  What if I did?  I only want to see
  How I’m to phrase my answer.

NATALIE (to herself).  God of earth! 
  Now all is done with him!

THE PRINCE (surprised).  Why, look at this! 
  As I’m alive, most curious!  You must
  Have overlooked the passage.

NATALIE.  Why!  Which one?

THE PRINCE.  He calls on me to judge the case myself!

NATALIE.  Well, what of that?

THE PRINCE.  Gallant, i’ faith, and fine! 
  Exactly what a noble soul would say!

NATALIE.  His magnanimity is limitless! 
  But you, too, friend, do your part now, and write,
  As he desires.  All that is needed now
  Is but the pretext, but the outer form. 
  As soon as those two words are in his hands,
  Presto, the quarrel’s at an end.

THE PRINCE (putting the letter away).  No, dear! 
  I want to think it over till tomorrow.

NATALIE.  Incomprehensible!  Oh, what a change! 
  But why, but why?

THE PRINCE (rising in passionate excitement). 
                    I beg you, ask me not! 
  You did not ponder what the letter said. 
  That he did me a wrong—­and that’s the crux—­
  I cannot tell him that.  And if you force me
  To give him answer in my present mood,
  By God, it’s this I’ll tell him—­“You did right!”

[He sinks down beside the table, again with folded arms, and stares at the letter.]

NATALIE (pale). 
  You imbecile, you!  What a thing to say!

[She bends over him, deeply stirred.]

THE PRINCE (pressing her hand). 
  Come, just a second now!  I think—­

[He ponders.]

NATALIE.  What is it?

THE PRINCE.  I’ll know soon now what I shall write to him.

NATALIE (painfully). 
  Homburg!

THE PRINCE (taking up his pen)
           Yes, dear.  What is it?

NATALIE.  Sweetest friend! 
  I prize the impulse that upstirred your heart;
  But this I swear to you:  the regiment
  Has been detailed, whose muskets are to sound
  At dawn the reconciling burial rite
  Above the grave where your dead body lies. 
  If you cannot resist the law’s decree,
  Nor, noble as you are, do what he asks
  Here in this letter to repeal it, then
  I do assure you he will loftily
  Accept the situation, and fulfil
  The sentence on the morrow ruthlessly.