SCENE IX

_The same_: MoLLER, _then_ BASTIAN.

MoLLER (_comes in, beside himself_).

Horrible! Horrible!

STEIN.

But what is the matter?

MoLLER.

A murder!--A dreadful murder!

STEIN.

But, man alive, speak--

MoLLER.

Mr. Robert--

STEIN. My son!

[_Falls into a chair_.]

PASTOR.

Has Robert been murdered?

[_Goes anxiously up to_ STEIN.]

_Enter_ BASTIAN.

MoLLER.

Not yet. Not yet, I hope. But--I am quite beside myself. Ulrich's Andrew has already shot and killed G.o.dfrey. Those from the forester's house have inst.i.tuted a regular hunt for their enemies. I had G.o.dfrey carried home. He looks horrible. The bullet entered at the left side of the spine. He died in Mr. Robert's arms. I asked him: Was it Andrew, G.o.dfrey? It was Andrew, he said--it was Andrew--and lay down a dead man.

I implored Mr. Robert to come home for G.o.d's sake; he was quite beside himself, and would not come. And I had not gone two hundred steps with my men, when two more shots were fired behind us.

STEIN (_rises, beside himself_).

Mount your horse at once--ride till it drops dead--only be quick--get soldiers from the town--surround the whole forest--catch that murderer's band from the forester's house! You, Bastian, get quickly my Luttich rifle, the one that's loaded--then call the workingmen--have them armed--to--where was it, Moller?

MoLLER.

At the first bridge--in the Dell, scarcely ten minutes beyond the forester's house.

PASTOR.

G.o.d grant that the worst may still be prevented!

STEIN (_stamps his foot_).

Bastian! Bastian! Why are you still standing there! Make haste!

[_Exit_ MoLLER.]

And I--while--Bastian!

[BASTIAN _brings the rifle_. STEIN _tears it from him_.]

I am coming!

Robert, hold your own! I am coming!

[_Exeunt omnes_.]

ACT IV

_Twilight. The_ FORESTER'S _House._

SCENE I

WILKENS; SOPHY.

WILKENS.

Your husband has been dismissed. There is no doubt about that. And if he desires to remain here he is going just the wrong way about it. Stein certainly cannot afford to allow Ulrich to gain his point by defiance and revolt. G.o.dfrey now is forester. Well, G.o.dfrey is a brutal fellow; but here he is in the right. If now they should come together, your husband and G.o.dfrey? And each is going to treat the other as a poacher?

Or if G.o.dfrey should come across Andrew once more? And if he does what his father commanded him? Or if Andrew and young Stein come together?

Well? And viewed in the most charitable light, Ulrich is a dismissed man, whom n.o.body will wish to employ after this open rebellion of which he has been guilty. And what is then to become of you and your children?

SOPHY.

I am sure you will not withdraw your aid from us. If you would only talk to him once more!

WILKENS.

After the trump that he has played? Even if it were not for that, I value my breath too much to preach to deaf ears. You and your children must leave him. That I said to myself a little while ago, while on my way, and made a solemn resolution to bring this about; and I came back to tell you. Before you have a corpse or a murderer in the house--

SOPHY (_throws up her hands in terror_).

Matters surely cannot come to that pa.s.s!

WILKENS.